In the late 1980s and the 1990s, talk radio burst into the public consciousness. Talk radio is many things: a radio programming format; a means of mass electronic communication; a business; a type of entertainment or "edutainment;" and a vehicle and a forum for the expression of cultural and political anxieties and conflicts. This article summarizes and analyzes some talk radio's most salient aspects its origins and growth, its political and cultural impact, the sources of its appeal and its implications. The proliferation of talk radio mirrors various societal trends, especially the discordant temper of the times. Its excesses are rooted in the deep sense of alienation and frustration felt by certain groups of Americans.
Talk radio had its genesis as a distinctive genre of broadcasting in 1960 when radio station KABC in Los Angeles decided to gamble with an all talk format. For nearly three decades, it led a precarious existence, which reflected the difficulties faced by radio networks and stations after the advent of commercial television. Preempted from prime time by the automated equipment and nationally syndicated program services of the major television networks, radio was threatened with extinction. It survived by living off the record business. It also cultivated niche audiences which were not served adequately by television. Liberated from the living room by various technological developments, radio "was free to diversify, . . . to begin a regional and local community service"; it "turned to the individual needs of people at different times of the day"
(Marshall McLuhan as quoted in Fornatale & Mills, 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...