What is the appeal of talk radio?

[Easy Mac]

I'm not particularly talking about sports talk radio (necesarily), but talk radio in general. I was on my way home from work today, and I couldn't find anything on, so I stopped on one of the talk radio stations. There was some guy on, the host, Schnitt or Shit or something like that.

Either way, a guy called in and started to talk about something that the host obviously didn't agree with, so the host just starts yelling at the top of his lungs. He starts to call the guy an idiot, a moron. To my surprise, the guy on the phone is perfectly civil, waits until the host stops yelling and asks if he may speak. This goes on for a few minutes until finally the host seems to realize he can't possibly be right, so he yells even louder and proceeds to call him an idiot, moron, ignorant, and putz. He finishes by hanging up on the guy and calling him a jackass.

First, I didn't know you could call anyone a jackass on radio.

Second, how does shit like this get on the air? Is there some whole subset of people who like nothing more than for a guy to yell at the top of his lungs and call people names?

Third, this was on the station that says its only News, Weather, and Traffic. Surely devoting three hours to a guy who yells and curses can't pass for news.

Am I alone in thinking that talk radio just needs to die a quick, excruciatingly violent death?

[Axxon]

I'm not particularly talking about sports talk radio (necesarily), but talk radio in general. I was on my way home from work today, and I couldn't find anything on, so I stopped on one of the talk radio stations. There was some guy on, the host, Schnitt or Shit or something like that.

Either way, a guy called in and started to talk about something that the host obviously didn't agree with, so the host just starts yelling at the top of his lungs. He starts to call the guy an idiot, a moron. To my surprise, the guy on the phone is perfectly civil, waits until the host stops yelling and asks if he may speak. This goes on for a few minutes until finally the host seems to realize he can't possibly be right, so he yells even louder and proceeds to call him an idiot, moron, ignorant, and putz. He finishes by hanging up on the guy and calling him a jackass.

First, I didn't know you could call anyone a jackass on radio.

Second, how does shit like this get on the air? Is there some whole subset of people who like nothing more than for a guy to yell at the top of his lungs and call people names?

Third, this was on the station that says its only News, Weather, and Traffic. Surely devoting three hours to a guy who yells and curses can't pass for news.

Am I alone in thinking that talk radio just needs to die a quick, excruciatingly violent death?

Because some people don't like to read. There's not much difference between talk radio and message boards really. Here we even have our own talk show host.

[cthomer5000]

You've got a couple categories, in my opinion:

1. Topic radio (sports, movies, whatver). People listen becauase they want to hear about something they are into. Sports stations exist in every market for this purpose. Political and/or news stations fall partly under this as well.

2. Love to love/love to hate radio. All politcally driven stations definitely fall under this. Either people are listening to sort of hear a yes-man on the other end, re-affiring their beliefs, or they listen purely to get outraged at the shit they're hearing.

3. Personality-driven radio. The best form of talk-radio in my opinion, though the least likely to succeed. People tune in daily because they genuinely like the hosts, their take on things (which will have a very broad range vs. other shows) and generally the more you listen the more you feel like you're a part of the show or in on the joke. I've only truly considered myself a fan of one talk show ever, and it certainly falls under this category.

[Mustang]

I listed to talk radio a bit mostly because I can't stand hearing the same 10 songs played on music stations in a continous loops..

I think Art Bell should be on 24/7...

:D

[bulletsponge]

i dont listen to the radio

[-apoc-]

You've got a couple categories, in my opinion:

1. Topic radio (sports, movies, whatver). People listen becauase they want to hear about something they are into. Sports stations exist in every market for this purpose. Political and/or news stations fall partly under this as well.

2. Love to love/love to hate radio. All politcally driven stations definitely fall under this. Either people are listening to sort of hear a yes-man on the other end, re-affiring their beliefs, or they listen purely to get outraged at the shit they're hearing.

3. Personality-driven radio. The best form of talk-radio in my opinion, though the least likely to succeed. People tune in daily because they genuinely like the hosts, their take on things (which will have a very broad range vs. other shows) and generally the more you listen the more you feel like you're a part of the show or in on the joke. I've only truly considered myself a fan of one talk show ever, and it certainly falls under this category.

I pretty much only listen to talk radio but here in central florida we are very lucky to have an entire personality driven talk radio station. I definitly couldnt listen to purely political or sports type programs I would lose intrest far too quickly.

[Craptacular]

I listen to a talk radio station for traffic and news, and that's about it. At least the station is the conservative one in Madison, so while I wait for traffic, I don't puke listening to the hosts.

[JonInMiddleGA]

There was some guy on, the host, Schnitt or Shit or something like that.

That'd be Todd Schnitt (although the other ain't far off sometimes). He's also known as "MJ" of the MJ Morning Show. Yep that's right, he actually does two full shifts a day of all talk, with two totally different shows. The morning version is on Pop/CHR stations & features a bunch of characters (mostly Schnitt doing voices) & second/third/fourth bananas. The afternoon version is usually topical political, although he does tend to stray outside of pure politics at times.

He's based out of Tampa, and has three affiliates for the morning (Tampa, St.Louis, & Jacksonville) and three affiliates in the afternoon (Tampa, Miami, and Charleston) as well as being on XM. The afternoon version that you heard aired briefly in Atlanta on two separate occasions (which is why I knew who you meant).

Is there some whole subset of people who like nothing more than for a guy to yell at the top of his lungs and call people names?

Yep. In addition to WSC where you heard him today, he's on one of the top stations in the Tampa market in both the AM (WFLZ-FM) and PM (WFLA-AM), a decent CHR in St.Louis in the morning, a top 10 station in Jacksonville (WFKS) in the morning and one of the top 10 English language stations in Miami (WIOD-AM) in the afternoons.

Am I alone in thinking that talk radio just needs to die a quick, excruciatingly violent death?

Alone? Nah, most liberals think so too ;)
But it's the top format for white males over the age of 30 in many markets around the country & in the top 3-4 formats in those demos in pretty much every market in the country.

[andy m]

the way it "works" in the UK is:

pick a reactionary topic. get someone reactionary to represent a viewpoint and another to react against it. reactionary people then react to the reactionary talking about the reactionary topic by phoning in. boom - 3 hour show of people shouting and spouting their bullshit opinions right there.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

i dont listen to the radio

My attitude with radio is "I gave at the office."

I have to hear seven hours of talk radio a day. If I'm not operating a show, I generally have to listen to several programs at once. I couldn't tell you right now a single thing that wasn't said today compared to yesterday. It all runs together. I can, however recall the little fuck-ups that happen... why are we off the air??? :D