Talk Radio: One Side Fits All
Yesterday, the Center for American Progress and Free Press released a new study on political talk radio, which found a striking imbalance between conservative and progressive programming.
The study found:
- On the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, while just 9 percent is progressive.
- Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk — 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.
- A separate analysis of all of the news/talk stations in the top 10 radio markets reveals that 76 percent of the programming in these markets is conservative and 24 percent is progressive, although programming is more balanced in markets such as New York and Chicago.
As the new report shows, this gap can’t be explained by consumer demand or the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. And trying to reinstate the latter or regulate content isn’t the answer. The real issue is media ownership.
The disparity between progressive and conservative talk is a result of the disappearance of local media owners caused by the unrelenting media consolidation of recent decades. Economies of scale reward the big chains for piping in syndicated content – which is overwhelmingly conservative – at the expense of serving local needs and covering local communities.
What’s the solution? CAP and Free Press suggest three sensible steps:
- Restore local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations
- Ensure greater local accountability over radio licensing
- Require commercial owners who don’t abide by public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting.
