It is undeniable that Donald Trump has dominated the news/talk radio world since 2016. Some could argue even going back as far as 2015 during the Presidential primaries. But the effect the 45th President has had on the business and the industry cannot be overstated.
What can be questioned, however, is whether or not there is a “Trump Fatigue” from news/talk listeners. Has constant talk about one person for the better part of a decade worn listeners out? Are they still yearning for more content about the divisive political figure?
A recent report claimed news/talk had lost roughly 3% of its audience in the past three years. Could “Trump Fatigue” be a contributing factor to that loss? We asked that question to some of news/talk radio’s most prominent figures in recent weeks.
“People who say that there’s a Trump fatigue really don’t get it,” said Salem Radio Network host Mike Gallagher. “You could say there’s a political talk fatigue. You can say there’s a talk radio fatigue. That just debating issues, there’s a fatigue to that.
“This guy is a gift from the talk radio gods…Very, very few individuals come along in our lifetime that can command the kind of attention that he has. It’s what they say about great talk show hosts — you love them or hate them. He’s the perennial love him or hate him. You can’t get enough of it. I haven’t witnessed any kind of Trump fatigue from my audience,” stated Gallagher. “I haven’t witnessed any kind of pushback. I don’t really know if my audience is different from others. I’ve had a great deal of success in the last few years. And frankly, all of my revenue and ratings numbers increased exponentially over the last seven or eight years.”
Gallagher did admit that — regardless of the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election — talk radio will need to create an “Act Two” that doesn’t include Donald Trump.
Nationally syndicated host Mark Kaye is in a similar camp to Gallagher, but went a step further to claim perception isn’t necessarily reality on how often the former President is a topic of conversation on conservative radio.
“The only Trump fatigue I hear is coming from the consultants,” Kaye said with a chuckle. “I think people may think we talk about Trump more than we do. Because Trump is everywhere, not just on talk radio, but he’s also on the news, he’s on social media, and comedians are making jokes about him.
“We do talk a lot about Joe Biden. If Joe Biden makes gaffes — which is more often than not — we will point those out. We would do hours on John Fetterman…I think that’s a misconception that it’s just Trump 24/7,” continued Kaye. “We may have only mentioned Trump once during today’s show. So I think that fatigue is more of a general concept of Trump being omnipresent, but because we’re conservative talk radio, they just blame us.”
Not everyone in the format agrees with Kaye and Gallagher, however.
When asked about whether or not their audience had grown weary of hearing about the former President, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty said the topic has certainly come up.
“There absolutely is a fatigue,” Joe Getty admitted. “We try to be aware of that. We’ll have a Trump-free Tuesday or whatever, where we deliberately don’t get sucked into the controversy du jour around Trump. He’s just such a magnet for all the media because it’s easy. And you’ve either got his fans or detractors who get fired up and will probably not tune out. But I think it leads to kind of a laziness.”
“I think we should expand that to just the election. We had an Election-free Thursday last week,” added Jack Armstrong. “I think there’s going to be a lot of that people just can’t hear another word about the longest presidential election in our nation’s history.”
Brandon Tatum is a relative newcomer to the news/talk radio world. He launched The Officer Tatum Show with Salem Radio Network in 2022. But even in his short time in the industry, he shared he’s felt a fatigue both in discussing and hearing from listeners about Donald Trump.
“There’s a fatigue across the country, and even in social media representation and talking about Trump. People get sick of it. Earlier this year, I was tired of it,” Tatum told Barrett News Media. “Even on radio now, I don’t just talk about politics. I changed it up a little bit because it does get redundant. There’s only so much you can say about Donald Trump, if you’re not just kissing his butt.
“In talk radio, people probably feel the pressure of saying, ‘I need to either always be supportive of Donald Trump or I can’t say anything.’ And, therefore, if you want to say anything about Trump, it always has to be this positive messaging. And that’s not that’s not how I operate,” Tatum continued. “So there is a level of fatigue because you kind of get sick of arguing with people about things when they just want you to only say positive things about Donald Trump.”
77 WABC host Bo Snerdley admitted that a portion of the audience likely has reached a sour point in hearing about Donald Trump, but added there is certainly a subset of conservative talk radio listeners who can’t get enough content about the former President.
However, Snerdley believed the slight drop in news/talk listenership since 2021 could be attributed to a different reason rather than Trump fatigue.
“I think that might be that Rush (Limbaugh) is gone,” Snerdley, who worked with Limbaugh for 30 years, posited. “To be totally frank with you, that’s what I think. And the fact that’s only one percent is a good thing. It tells you how strong this industry is. I’ve talked to people that say, ‘You know, since Rush (died), I can’t listen to radio anymore.’
“He was more than a broadcaster. To them, he was their friend. He was part of their lives. And people on the outside don’t really understand that. But that was the case. He was part of their lives. He was more than a guy on the radio,” Snerdley concluded. “He was a source of comfort. And he was a source of wisdom. He was a source of trust. And there are people that just say, ‘You know what? Rush isn’t on the radio, so I’m going to do something else with my time.'”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
