> In the United States, talk radio is largely made up of conservative
> political commentators; according to A.C. Nielsen, the top five programs
> are those of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Neal Boortz, and
> Glenn Beck. Others include Mark Levin, Bill O'Reilly, Jim Quinn, Bill
> Cunningham, Melanie Morgan, Mike Gallagher and Laura Ingraham. Other
> top-rated, conservative, less-political commentators include Laura
> Schlessinger (whose show, Dr. Laura, features personal & interpersonal
> advice), and Bruce Williams, (whose show focuses on banking, business, and
> personal finances). Notably, Bruce Williams started broadcasting in 1975
> and has had the longest lasting, regularly broadcasted program in the
> world[citation needed].
>
>
> [edit] Politically oriented talk radio
> The United States saw dramatic growth in the popularity of talk radio
> during the 1990s. The repeal of the FCC "fairness doctrine" in 1987-which
> had required that stations provide free air time for responses to any
> controversial opinions that were broadcast-provided an opportunity for a
> kind of partisan programming that had not previously existed. Pew
> researchers found in 2004 that 17%% of the public regularly listens to talk
> radio. This audience is mostly male, middle-aged and conservative. Among
> those who regularly listen to talk radio, 41%% are Republican and 28%% are
> Democrats. Furthermore, 45%% describe themselves as conservatives, compared
> with 18%% who say they are liberal.[1]
>
> The most successful pioneer in the 1990s talk radio movement was the
> politically conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh's success
> demonstrated that there was a nation-wide market for
> passionately-delivered conservative (and in many cases, Republican)
> commentary on contemporary news, events, and social trends. Other radio
> talk show hosts (who describe themselves as either conservative or
> libertarian) have also had success as nationally-syndicated hosts,
> including Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz, Michael
> Savage, Bill O'Reilly, and Glenn Beck. The Salem Radio Network syndicates
> a group of religiously-oriented Republican activists, including
> evangelical Christian Hugh Hewitt and Jewish conservatives Dennis Prager
> and Michael Medved; these are mostly distributed in a 24-hour network
> format among Salem's own stations, and they generally earn ratings much
> less than their syndicated counterparts.
>
> In the Summer of 2007, conservative talk show hosts mobilized public
> opposition to the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill, which eventually
> failed.[2] Conservative hosts Limbaugh, Ingraham, Bennett, Prager,
> Hannity, Beck, Levin and Hewitt coalesced around endorsing former
> Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for president at the end of January
> 2008 (after Fred Thompson, the described favorite of some of the hosts,
> dropped out), in an effort to oppose the nomination of Sen. John McCain
> [3] ; however, Romney suspended his campaign in February of the same year,
> and endorsed McCain. Since that time, Limbaugh in particular has endorsed
> a plan to do whatever it takes to prolong the Democrats' nomination by
> crossing over to the Democrats and voting for the trailing candidate, a
> plan he calls "Operation Chaos."
>
> Libertarians such as Jon Arthur, Host Of Jon Arthur Live! (based in
> Florida), Free Talk Live (based in New Hampshire), Penn Jillette (based in
> Las Vegas), Jay Severin (based in Boston, Massachusetts), and Mark Davis
> (based in Ft. Worth and Dallas, Texas) have also achieved some success.
> Many of these hosts also publish books, write newspaper columns, appear on
> television, and give public lectures (Limbaugh, again, was a pioneer of
> this model of multi-media punditry).
>
> There had been some precursors for talk radio, such as the Los
> Angeles-area controversialist Joe Pyne, who would attack callers on his
> program in the early 1960s - one of his famous insults was "gargle with
> razor blades!"; the similar Bob Grant in New York City; and Wally George
> in Southern California.[4] Grant remains on the air to this day.
>
> Politically liberal talk radio aimed at a national audience has also
> emerged, although its ratings remain a fraction of conservative talk
> radio. Air America Radio, a network featuring The Al Franken Show, was
> founded in 2004; it billed itself as a "progressive alternative" to the
> conservative talk radio shows. Some prominent examples of liberal talk
> radio shows currently in national syndication include: Jones Radio
> Networks talk show hosts Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Bill Press; Fox
> News host Alan Colmes, Air America Radio hosts Lionel, Thom Hartmann, and
> Rachel Maddow, and Nova M Radio's Mike Malloy and Randi Rhodes. In some
> markets, local liberal hosts have existed for years, such as the British
> talk host Michael Jackson (who was on the air at KABC in Los Angeles
> beginning in 1968 and is currently at KGIL); Bernie Ward in San Francisco;
> Jack Ellery in New Jersey and Tampa; Dave Ross in Seattle, and Marc
> Germain in Los Angeles. A few earlier syndicated programs were hosted by
> prominent Democrats who were not experienced broadcasters, such as Jim
> Hightower, Jerry Brown, Mario Cuomo and Alan Dershowitz; these met with
> limited success, and Air America has been faced with various legal and
> financial problems.
>
> Air America was sold to a new owner in March of 2007, hired well known
> programmer David Bernstein, and began its 're-birth'. Bernstein
> subsequently left in early 2008, but the struggling network remained on
> the air with a revamped line-up.
>
> Liberal opinion radio has long existed on the Pacifica network, though
> only available in a small number of cities, and in formats that more often
> act as a volunteer-run community forum than as a platform for charismatic
> hosts who would be likely to attract a large audience. Conservative
> critics have long complained that the long-format news programming on
> National Public Radio (NPR) shows a liberal bias, although the network
> denies any partisan agenda.
>
> Clear Channel Communications, with nearly 1,300 radio stations under its
> ownership - along with other owners - has in recent years added more
> liberal talk stations to their portfolio. These have primarily come from
> the conversion of AM facilities, most of which formerly had adult
> standards formats. Many complaints (all radio stations are required by the
> FCC to maintain, in their public files, copies of all correspondence from
> the public relating to station operations - for a period of three years
> from receipt) have been received from fans of this musical genre (Tony
> Bennett, Frank Sinatra, big band music," etc.) - but the left-leaning talk
> programming leans toward a much younger demographic, a group that
> advertisers covet.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_radio
>