Conservative talk radio is undergoing a major shift, perhaps the medium’s biggest in the last few decades.
As we ramp back up to normal life after the Christmas and New Year’s break, talk radio is also getting back to business as usual. However, this year promises to deliver a changing talk radio landscape where much is still unknown.
For the last four years, conservative talk radio, aka successful and profitable talk radio, has had proven results delivered by the Republican Trump administration to admire every day. More money in working-folks’ pockets, zero foreign wars and judges who admire and follow the constitution make up just a few of the items top talkers have had to praise over the past few years. Plus plenty of drama, some created by the President, along with even more drummed up by his Democratic opposition.
As such, the biggest shift in 2021 for conservative media is playing the role of the opposition, with their preferred party no longer holding control of the White House. In fact, as a business model this vantage point has traditionally held the biggest upside, in terms of ratings and revenue. It pays very well to vocally beat the drum of opposition and point out your opponent’s mistakes. Fear, anxiety and anger sell, and we are certain to see it from the right, as we have for the last few years on the left.
This assumes, of course, that Joe Biden is in fact the president as of late January. For a moment, we’ll go with that assumption and disregard the mountains of evidence indicating it was actually President Trump who swept most of six swing states, and with them the Electoral College.
Relating to this current political battle over the validity of the election results, some talk hosts will have to find their sweet spot. Sean Hannity, for example, spent four straight years loudly praising and lauding the accomplishments of President Trump, only to seemingly roll over and pronounce a Trump loss immediately as we woke on November 4th. While other hosts fought, as they do to this day, Hannity was much slower to come around to supporting the 75-plus million voters who believe their legal choice was subverted and corrupted. Only as the waning days of 2020 approached did Hannity seem to tap into the anger and frustration of his radio listener base. In 2021, he’ll have to stake out his territory.
Other hosts, such as Mark Levin, have been 100% behind the #StopTheSteal movement, immediately pointing out the unconstitutional nature of this election process, and becoming especially critical of most of the post-election judicial rulings. Levin has never wavered, and his posture will undoubtedly remain consistent as the new year unfolds. Rush Limbaugh has hit a similar tone, urging America not to back down and allow its will to be subverted.
Abnormal this year will be the afternoon or evening airwaves devoid of Michael Savage. After 26 years opining about politics, culture and meatballs on his syndicated radio talk show, Savage now moves to a podcast-only format, where he says his program may be a bit more edgy, due to a lack of FCC constraints.
The biggest change in 2021 – in fact the elephant in the padded radio studio – may be the world of talk radio without Limbaugh leading the charge. In an emotional sendoff to 2020, Limbaugh concluded his final broadcast of the year by admitting the day will come when he cannot host his daily radio program. The eternal optimist and “Mayor of Realville,” Limbaugh has been open about his battle with lung cancer, especially after missing shows due to the effects of treatment. Limbaugh literally resurrected the talk radio format in the 1980’s, hit a nerve with the traditional, conservative majority of America, and helped give rise to a generation of hosts and personalities following his lead. A broadcast day without Limbaugh, whenever that should come, will surely be as abnormal to the medium as one can imagine.
We don’t know exactly what the 12 months of 2021 will bring, let alone the first 12 days of this new year. Americans are hoping for health. To quote Warren Harding, who lead our nation at this time 100 years ago, they are hoping for a return to normalcy. Harding and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, led a rebirth of the nation and the rise of the roaring 20’s.
American talk radio is now experiencing a rebirth of its own. We will hear their voices roar anew in 2021.
Rick Schultz is a former Sports Director for WFUV Radio at Fordham University. He has coached and mentored hundreds of Sports Broadcasting students at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, Marist College and privately. His media career experiences include working for the Hudson Valley Renegades, Army Sports at West Point, The Norwich Navigators, 1340/1390 ESPN Radio in Poughkeepsie, NY, Time Warner Cable TV, Scorephone NY, Metro Networks, NBC Sports, ABC Sports, Cumulus Media, Pamal Broadcasting and WATR. He has also authored a number of books including “A Renegade Championship Summer” and “Untold Tales From The Bush Leagues”. To get in touch, find him on Twitter @RickSchultzNY.
