Media

What does this mean? I went into the radio business many years ago. I don't know where you are getting your ideas about what is happening in radio, but most of it is a misconception on your part. The programming decisions in radio are driven by profits and that means isteners and ratings. Limbaugh went national in 1988 with about 50 stations. Within a few years he had hundreds of affiliates, all of this happened when Clear Channel Communications was a company that owned 14 radio stations. That was the limit by federal law. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 changed the law so there was no limit to the number of radio stations and individual or company could own. (That was a HUGE mistake.) Clear Channel overpaid for many of their broadcast facilities and sold them off at a loss. Their stock has taken a huge hit. The reason Limbaugh is on so many stations is because he attracts listeners. There is no conspiracy, it's business. There are many people smarter than me who have tried to figure out why progressive radio has not attracted large audiences. Even m y own Senator Al Franken was unable to get a big enough audience to make Air America a success. Much of their problem was a chicken and egg sort of thing. They couldn't get stations with large coverage areas to air their programming until they got a large audience and they couldn't get a large audience with the marginal AM stations that were willing to take a chance on the progressive programming. Like it or not, Rush Limbaugh pretty much save AM radio from a slow death starting in the 80s. (I confess to listening to his program for a few weeks during Operation Desert Storm. It was all about kicking Iraq's collective ass and not about politics.)