Talk and News Radio

Talk radio and news radio are two once-distinct program formats that have morphed into a single format at many stations. Yet leading industry publications do not measure the two formats separately. As a combined entity, news/talk is measured by Inside Radio as the second most popular radio genre, with more than 2,000 stations identified as programming news/talk out of the nation's almost 14,000 radio stations. The radio rating service, Arbitron, breaks the category down into all news, sports talk, news talk, and [Page 1369]personality talk. When all of those are combined, news/talk/information stations enjoy more listeners than any other format. So-called news/talk stations generally have a far heavier emphasis on talk. On the other hand, an all-news station, as its name suggests, is often exclusively news.

A modern news/talk radio station might have a good deal of news and weather, as well as a heavy emphasis on traffic reports during the morning and afternoon “drive time.” Most of the other time slots will consist of talk programming that might be consumer oriented, political, or related to the personal, such as call-in advice programs. Many stations will run a combination of these different types of talk shows. Each type of show has a different demographic appeal and will be programmed according to who is listening at any given hour. For instances, a personal advice program aimed at stay-at-home mothers might be on during late morning after children are at school. While most talk radio skews toward an older demographic more interested in current events and ideas and more used to a slower-paced form of radio, sports talk tends to have a younger, male demographic.

All news radio is often a combination of national and local news as well as features and other information programming. There is a heavy emphasis on weather and traffic throughout the day. Much of all news radio is aimed at commuters who need to navigate city traffic, who need to know the weather forecast, and who have an interest in events local, national and international. The demographic tends to be older.

The antecedents of modern talk radio can be heard in the medium's earliest days when local and national radio had professors, preachers, book reviewers, comedians, and others talking to a passive audience. The formats of these programs did not include listener participation. As the programming became interactive, talk radio became so much a part of the American culture that expressions such as “longtime listener, first-time caller” and “ditto, Rush” tell millions of listeners that one's dial is regularly tuned to talk radio.