doctrine or of offending advertisers who shied away from the controversial, strove for balance. As Peter Bart (1995) points out, "to the bizarre cast of characters who rule talk radio today, 'balance' represents a weird anachronism" (p. 12). In his written preface to his 1982 play and later film titled Talk Radio, Eric Bogosian described the modus operandi of his fictional talk show host, Barry Champion:
[He] 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, compared with about 300 five years before (Bart, 1995, p. 12). The economics of the business are such that, in the words of a national syndicator, "a talk show is as 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 and radio. Talk radio is largely credited with saving AM radio ("Talk Boosted", 1993, p. 36).
Leading nationally syndicated radio talk show hosts like Larry King and Rush Limbaugh have become multi millionaires and have diversified into television, books, lecture tours and other commercial enterprises. ("Editorial", 1993, p. 82). A 1993 survey by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press revealed that about one in five adult Americans listened to talk radio regularly. Thirty six percent said that it was their chief source of information on politics (Sifry & Cooper, 1995, p. 482).
Before 1988, Limbaugh failed four times in radio. He started with one talk radio program in New York City and is now carried on 636 stations (Kur...