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M odern P atriot C hronicles
An Eleventh Commandment Free Zone
Vol. 6, Issue 5
May 12, 2007
By Craig Dawkins

The Economic Demise of Local Talk Radio

Copyright@2007, All Rights Reserved
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POLLS! POLLS! POLLS! POLLS!

Will the demise of local political talk radio hurt Republicans?

Yes.
No.
What demise of local talk radio?
Who cares?

Go to www.ModernPatriot.net and vote today!!!
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The Economic Demise of Local Talk Radio

In the not so distant past, local political talk radio was front and center on three AM stations in Oklahoma City. WKY AM-930, KTOK AM-1000, and KOKC AM-1520 all had some element of local political talk that was more than just rotating news segments. It was local talk with local hosts and callers weighing in on local and national issues. Local talk radio has all but disappeared in Oklahoma City. Local talk radio appears to be history. So what happened? Why is sports talk the only call-in talk radio programming format still found in Oklahoma City? The answer is simple…..Economics.

The economic model supporting local radio stations involves the selling of advertising to local advertisers. Local companies hope advertisements will cause people to buy more of their products and services. They just want the 'green.' They advertise on AM radio, not because they support a certain political perspective. They advertise in hopes of attracting customers. They don't desire to receive angry phone calls about some local talk show host's politically incorrect opinions involving controversial issues. The fact that sports talk radio exists on three Oklahoma City area AM stations (AM-640, AM-1340, and AM-1400) with local talk show hosts and local callers, shows that local talk radio programming works. But local political talk has failed to survive in any significant manner.

What is different about nationally syndicated programming? National hosts aren't talking about your local school bond issue. They aren't talking about why property taxes are so high in your county. They aren't talking about a proposed sales tax increase. And they generally aren't probing into the political issues involving your local city council. Nationally syndicated hosts are still talking on AM stations in Oklahoma City, but local advertisers are not likely to catch heat for sponsoring Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingram as opposed to Mike McCarville, Mark Shannon or Ron Black.

I mention McCarville, Shannon and Black because in the past, they all have been very aggressive in taking on politically sensitive, local issues on the radio. McCarville, in his latter years at KTOK, seemed to 'soften' his show a bit. He often turned away from hard, politically controversial issues in favor of non-political subject matter. Am I wrong? If he did 'soften' his programming, wouldn't it make sense that it was for the advertisers? Perhaps I'm wrong but it is my perspective.

When advertisers receive complaints from people who live in the community for sponsoring a political talk show host with controversial opinions, there are two possible responses. The advertiser will ignore complaints or it will respond. If an advertiser responds, the host will likely be told to shut up or back off. If the talk show host does not back off, the advertiser drops the show. If the host backs off, the programming risks losing its purpose and credibility. Sometimes those complaining to advertisers are people who are high profile community power brokers with connections and political power.

Local Talk Radio and Republican Success
Republicans use talk radio in ways that Democrats cannot. Democrats seem to be much more oriented towards the internet than Republicans. Losing local talk radio in Oklahoma City diminishes the Republican advantage and transfers a significant advantage to Democrats in terms of politicking local issues. Since local political talk radio is almost completely oriented toward the 'conservative' perspective, losing it leaves a void that is filled by 'news.'

'News' is often tilted in a liberal direction by news anchors and reporters with liberal leanings. In other words, a station is likely to be more 'conservative' during syndication and then more 'liberal' in its presentation and analyses of local news. Additionally, 'news' presentations are likely to be more belligerent towards Republicans versus Democrats. Local political talk is much more likely to be more hostile to Democrats than Republicans. As a result, losing local talk radio hurts Republicans.

Now some may argue that this is just fine. The lack of local political talk will serve to 'balance' an unbalanced broadcast venue. But when you look at the political role of talk radio in shaping Republican inter-party political opinion relative to all the other available media formats, it is clear that local political talk is an important cog in the Republican Party wheel. Now that local political talk radio is basically gone from the Oklahoma City market, only time will tell whether Republicans will adapt and embrace the internet as a the Democrats have in organizing and shaping political opinion on local issues.

An Unlikely and Unwanted Solution
Unless something radically changes in the Oklahoma City radio marketplace, local political talk is dead. Perhaps there are some who are willing to buy radio time in order place focus on local issues. Some advance the argument that the people own the airwaves and should force stations to spend more of their prime air time covering the local community. But forcing radio stations to dedicate more time to local community coverage will not likely motivate advertisers to direct advertising dollars to local political talk radio programming. There are better radio formats with better payoffs and less trouble than political talk. But there is a very large audience of people in the Oklahoma City area who want to consume local political talk programming.

When a serviceable market of buyers exists and the private sector cannot efficiently provide a product or service demanded, this is called a market failure. In this sense, the private sector's inability to bring local political talk radio to the Oklahoma City market is a market failure.

When market failures exist, the government eventually steps in to fill the void. Virtually every program on public television is programming the private sector is unwilling to provide. Masterpiece Theatre is one such program. While there are many who love to watch Masterpiece Theatre, the private sector can't sell enough advertising to warrant providing it. How ironic would it be for the government to start providing local political talk radio in solving the current market failure in the Oklahoma City market?

If the government were to provide local talk radio oriented toward political conservatism, it would present quite a dilemma. Would callers demand that the government stop wasteful spending on public radio?

That's a question worth pondering awhile.