Talk Radio's America: How an industry took over a political party that took over the United States
A history of how US conservatism was reinvented over the airwaveshttps://www.ft.com/content/2f71892c-e5d3-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc
What brought Donald Trump victory in the 2016 US presidential election? Plenty of ink has been spilled trying to answer that question. Among the proposed factors are Russian interference, third-party candidates, and the conservative media supporting him. From Fox News, to The Daily Wire, to The Gateway Pundit, cross-pollinating news sources defended Mr Trump from what they considered liberal bias.
Brian Rosenwald, an academic and journalist, argues that central to that media ecosystem was talk radio. Rejecting claims that the medium acted as a Republican puppet, he describes a curious relationship between the Grand Old Party and talk radio hosts, one that has had seriously deleterious consequences for American political life.
The book begins in 1987, with the abolition of the US Federal Communications Commission’s “fairness doctrine” that had obliged radio stations to present both sides of controversial issues. Ironically, the decision made in the twilight of Ronald Reagan’s administration would lead to the hollowing out of his party. Among those pioneers of talk radio in the late 1980s was Rush Limbaugh. While earlier conservative ideologues had been dogmatic and monotonous, he fused ardent rightwing politics with the interactivity of talk radio and his own brand of high-energy comedy. AM radio executives, unable to compete with FM on music sound quality, found shows like his were an good way to boost revenues.
Talk radio predated social media as a tool for younger and lower-profile politicians to hijack the news agenda. Canny individuals, such as former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, forged friendships with the hosts, giving them easy access whenever they needed to push a point. But as shows grew increasingly influential, even more established politicians had to pay attention. President George W Bush’s one-on-one meetings with Mr Limbaugh and his fellow host Sean Hannity in early 2009 illustrate the power they wielded even 10 years ago.
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How Conservative Talk Radio Paved The Road For Donald Trump (interview)
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/02/conservative-talk-radio-book
= new reply since forum marked as read
I want to slam my head into a wall. 
I see these posts about them turning on Rump. Sure as hell could have fooled me. Plus the RW stances, independent of Rump, were insane. Blowtorch level hatred and lies. Any human who listens to that over and over for years is a walking potential time bomb. I am actually shocked there is not MORE, far more violence from their side. It is the rawest of raw pure propaganda and emotional hate porn. The framing of anything not FAR FAR RW as evil and the true enemy of all things they define as 'American' is a non stop steamroller.
I do not see how the country can avoid massive violence eventually at a systemic and pervasive level if they continue to spew their shit and even up it to new levels (I include RW radio and websites in this construct too.)
One of the FIRST orders of the day we need to do when we get POTUS and both chambers of Congress control back is to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine.
with the deregulation of the broadcast industry which allowed single entities to own "bundles" of hundreds of low/lower-power radio stations (notably AM), and then marry these bundles by hijacking the narrative and imposing identical syndicated RW loon programming lineups, their messages blasted out to exburbia and rural America non-stop, 24/7, for over 30 years in some cases. As this strategy was implemented, they literally removed much of the "local talk" programming from those stations, including subjects like local politics or events, DIY home projects, car maintenance, gardening, cooking, etc. (relegated to weekends if such programming was kept), and instead drowned the nation in hate. And sadly, if any of these stations featured a few slots with more liberal local talk hosts, these individuals were eventually fired and their programs were removed.
Meanwhile liberals continued to pooh-pooh "AM radio" as a non-entity that "no one listens to" ignoring the fact that the ones who DO listen to it are in demographics with the highest percentage of voters, and in many cases, the radio was often their primary source of electronic information as they were in locations where cable and/or internet was non-existent, satellite was hit or miss (initially requiring a large dish in the front yard), and broadcast television required a large external antenna that might barely pick up a station from the nearest city. The takeaway? AM radio has a broadcast radius of hundreds of miles, whereas FM/TV is barely able to reach beyond 50 miles from the transmitter.
In essence, these folks are literally a "captive audience", pumped full of targeted propaganda, often supplemented with religious programming that runs on many of these same stations on Sundays.
But as an interesting observation (based on this story published yesterday about Penzey's spices), I am slowly confirming my thoughts on how different people might process "messaging" -
By Emily Heil
Oct. 9, 2019 at 2:31 p.m. EDT
There’s an unlikely — and improbably spicy — champion in the effort to impeach President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Axios published a list of the entities spending the most money on Facebook ads on both sides of the impeachment debate. They included the usual suspects of the political war roll call, including Trump himself (he was top of the list, of course, at $718,000), Democratic presidential candidates Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren, and both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
But one name jumped off the screen for its sheer one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other factor: Penzeys Spices, the nation’s largest spice retailer, had dropped $92,000 from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 on ads championing impeachment. That was more than self-funding millionaire Steyer, more than hard-charging Warren — more than anyone else other than Trump. Which of course had some people wondering: What’s a company known for hawking spot-on cinnamon blends doing in the political trenches?
For many Penzeys fans, it comes as no surprise. The company has a history of unabashed liberal activism. Its founder, Bill Penzey, greeted Trump’s election with an email calling the president an “openly racist candidate.” As Helen Rosner noted in a New Yorker story last year, that set him far apart from the rest of the business-leader pack. He was “quite possibly the first to publicly call Trump’s election an ‘embrace of racism,’” she wrote. “And he was definitely the first to do so while hawking a free bottle of Quebec Seasonings with any five-dollar purchase.”
Penzey writes a regular email newsletter to customers that weaves the typical stuff of corporate communications — product giveaways, recipe links — with messages about topics such as the Mueller investigation, immigration and Supreme Court nominees. And since Trump’s election, his by turns earnest-and-funny missives have targeted the commander in chief.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2019/10/09/a-spice-company-spent-more-money-on-impeachment-ads-on-facebook-than-anyone-not-named-trump/
and the fact that they are clocking in as having the second highest level of ad buys on Facebook behind Drumpf is notable -
(Source: https://www.axios.com/trump-campaign-advertising-impeachment-facebook-0268b83d-8cc3-4f4c-a710-e3fc0999ac8d.html)
I am realizing that those with a mindset of liberalism, who refuse to respond to the psychologically-draining intent of RW radio's FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) coupled with a double-dose of hate, may actually respond better to the type and context of communications offered by a Bill Penzey, as a way of getting a message out to inform and pump up our base. I.e., many of our less-politically active liberal electorate want to talk about "kitchen table issues", so where better to get to them then at the kitchen table?
Bill Penzey's email missives to those who are on his spice company's email list, are unabashedly liberal and angry at the current events, yet explain why and offer the alternatives to hate that focus on the common embrace of good will, good food well-prepared, and love of the diverse fabric of America... and that message is designed to help bridge a divide.
some folks need to make a big stink about it. 
I don't have a Facebook account and refuse to get one but the data (and Axios has apparently been tracking this weekly) seems pretty significant.
I do know quite a bit is also coming from the DNC via email and I have had to get unsubscribed from some of their lists because it was overwhelming. So it seems there is a need to spread that around to other platforms somehow.
We have a president and government that is run by and for AM radio talk show hosts.
They are the reason why our political climate is so toxic right now and why we'll never get serious change in this country. I have a strict no talk radio policy in my car. People get mad but it's music or nothing. 
