Dying Is Easy, Talk Radio is Hard

It was 1968, and the great British actor Sir Donald Wolfit was gravely ill. As the story goes, a young colleague approached, and asked him whether it was difficult to die, given how much fame and success he had enjoyed during his life. Sir Donald is supposed to have replied, "Dying is easy; comedy is hard." Whether that conversation really occurred, we may never know, but if it did, Sir Donald had a point. And it could just as easily be applied to talk radio, because doing a good talk show is much harder than it looks.

When I was a kid, there were great local talk show hosts like Jerry Williams and Paul Benzaquin. Every market had one or two such hosts. They knew a lot about a wide range of subjects, and they understood how to keep the conversation interesting. They could be passionate and excitable, but they didn't say nasty things to their guests and they didn't mock their callers. Yes I know, there were talk show hosts like Joe Pyne who were famous for mocking and insulting, but talk radio as a genre was mainly about exchanging ideas and learning something from the guests. And then, it all changed.

The change started in 1987 when the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated. Now, don't get me wrong-- the Fairness Doctrine wasn't magical and even years ago, some stations ignored it. But for the most part, knowing you had to give responsible spokespeople a chance to respond if you verbally attacked them made a lot of stations think twice before launching into a partisan screed. When the industry was deregulated, it became a lot easier to run your talk show in a totally one-sided manner. The result was a large number of hosts who were free to malign whomever they wanted to, and even if what they said was inaccurate, there was no mechanism to provide the other side of the issue. People who had come to trust radio were now hearing a very slanted version of the facts, and it was totally permissible to do it that way.

I've been a radio consultant for many years, and I've heard talk radio in markets of all sizes. Some markets still have a few literate and educated hosts, but they are going the way of the dinosaur. If comedy has become more reliant on grossing people out, modern talk radio has become more reliant on rudeness and nastiness. What I hear in market after market follows a very predictable pattern. The host, more often than not a man, chooses the outrage of the day and proceeds to rant. Sometimes, callers will join in and rant along with him. In the process, there will be name-calling, criticizing, and blaming. For example, if the station's host is a right-wing conservative, the subject of the criticism will usually be Democrats, who are demonized as weak, cowardly, and unpatriotic. Or it might be immigrants, or Muslims, or some other minority. The host will cherry-pick news items to discuss, and the items will usually "prove" how liberals and the ACLU, two other groups that right wing talkers use as villains, hate religion or hate our troops. I've also heard hosts call Democrats "communists" and accuse liberals of being immoral. And while the hosts are certainly entitled to their opinion, the problem is this: in nearly all cases, no members of the group being insulted were permitted to defend themselves, and no opposing views were presented. It really was "either you're with us or against us."

And sometimes, whether it's intentional or not, the host can stir up the audience to a fever pitch. I know of one show where the host hinted that the town's Muslims were planning terrorist attacks in their mosques. He offered no proof of this, but that was good enough for a group of listeners to go to the local mosque and try to vandalize it. And then there was the Jewish family who objected to being subjected to a constant barrage of fundamentalist Christian proselytizing in the public school their kids attended. When they protested, one local talk show suggested that if they didn't want to accept Jesus, they should move out of town. Ultimately, the family endured so much invective that they did in fact move away. The hosts who stirred up the listeners probably thought they were just doing good radio. I disagree.

Perhaps some of you are thinking I'm just some liberal who hates right wing talk. (Actually, I'm a moderate-- liberal on some issues, conservative on others.) But for me, this isn't so much about ideology as it is about style. Call me old fashioned, but whether the host is right wing or left wing, I miss the days when there were actual exchanges of ideas, when hosts didn't rely on extended monologues or accusing the other side of treason, when people on both sides of the issue could actually debate and still be friends at the end of the show.

Why does any of this matter? Well, in a democracy, we need an informed public, and I am not sure talk radio is helping. I'd like to challenge the partisans on both sides to do more than just rant. I'd like to encourage the hosts to tone down the angry rhetoric and stop demonizing the other side -- attack their policies, but stop framing the conversation as if everyone who disagrees with your side is the spawn of satan. Yes, doing good talk radio takes some effort; it means show prep, reading a variety of sources, knowing your facts, and finding good guests. It's much easier to just insult the other side and get the listeners to join in, but that doesn't make it good radio, nor does it mean it's good for America.

I realize that society is far different today from when I was a kid, but I still believe in the power of talk radio. I've seen first-hand how much influence it can have. But we need to re-evaluate where the genre is going. Talk radio should be entertaining yet thought-provoking. It doesn't have to be educational, but it ought to be informative. I get the impression that not many stations are training the next generation of talk hosts; some of the ones I hear seem to think all they need to do is imitate the famous people who are already on the air. That's a shame, since we don't need another Rush Limbaugh or another Al Franken. We need new voices, people who care about creating interesting discussions, who aren't afraid to let dissenting views be heard. Doing talk radio the right way may be hard, but in the end, it's worth the effort, because talk radio is the one format that can change the world we live in, for the better or for worse.