day"
(McLuhan, 1964 in Fornatale, 1980, p. 17).
During its early years, talk radio carried programs in
various localities which featured innocuous "chatter
meisters," many of whom had formerly been disc jockeys and who
later came to be known as talk show hosts, "talking heads" or
"shock jocks". Radio management, fearful of violating the FCC's
"fairness doctrine" or of offending advertisers who shied away
from the controversial, strove for balance. As Bart (1995) points
out, "to the bizarre cast of characters who rule talk radio
today, 'balance' represents a weird anachronism" (p. 12). By the
early 1980's, talk radio had generated a variable modus operandi,
which was presented by playright Eric Bogosian in his 1982 play
and later film entitled Talk Radio and which he described as
follows: Barry Champion, his fictional shock jock:
"assumes a stance of indignation and enraged crusader,
a man who . . . 'tells it like it is' . . . he has to
be careful to keep his show entertaining. His job is
. . . to get people to tune in and keep them
listening . . . the show is for the listening audience,
not for the callers" (1987, pp. xvii xviii).
Since 1988, talk radio has enjoyed a period of explosive
growth which shows no signs of abating. In 1994, there were
1,168 talk radio stations, as compared with about 300 five years
before (Bart, p. 12). Talk radio programs come and go at 3
dizzying speed, but many of them have flourished. The
economics of the business are such that in the words of
national syndicator Greg Meidel: "A talk show is as cost
efficient as any syndication program on the market"
(McClellan, 1992, p. 22). Advertising for talk shows tripled
between 1987 1988 and 1991 1992 in both television ...