Democrats, liberals and progressives can breathe a little easier because in the last couple of weeks the radio companies that distributed “The Rush Limbaugh Show” have announced a diverse group of replacements.
Having a diverse group of hosts to replace Rush means that conservative talk radio will be fragmented and have many voices rather than one master bloviator.
By far the largest distributor of conservative talk radio is the Premiere Network, owned by the number-one radio company in revenue and number of stations (880), iHeart Media. AXIOS MEDIA reports that Premiere Network announced last week “that the late Rush Limbaugh’s radio show will be taken over by sports journalist Clay Travis and radio host and political commentator Buck Sexton.”
Travis, 42, had a college football show on Fox Sports, and before that a similar show on a local Nashville radio station. In 2010, The Nashville Scene named Travis “Best Sports Radio Host We Love To Hate.” According to Wikipedia:
Travis has attracted harsh criticism for disputing government backed information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Travis has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the disease, calling it “overrated,” claiming that it is less severe than the seasonal flu that fewer than several hundred would die of the disease in the US, that victims of the disease probably have been “killed a month or two earlier” than they would have been otherwise and inaccurately stated that the mortality rate for those under 80 and without pre-existing conditions is “virtually zero”. He suggested that some advocates for mitigation measures to slow the spread were “rooting for the virus to triumph.”
From the Wall Street Journal on May 27:
Mr. Sexton, 39, is a radio host and political commentator who has served as an officer with the Central Intelligence Agency and a New York Police Department counterterrorism expert. His three-hour weekday evening talk show, “The Buck Sexton Show”—formerly “America Now”—is syndicated to over 180 stations by Premiere, and he has served as a guest host for Mr. Limbaugh’s show. Mr. Sexton is a regular on Fox News as a national security analyst and was previously national security editor for The Blaze.
Mr. Sexton pointed to their different backgrounds and younger ages as a boon for the show.
“The most dominant talk radio hosts have been from one generation; Clay and I represent the next phase. We’re going to bring the perspective of two guys who see a country they’re deeply worried about, and a massive audience that needs people who will speak for them,” he said.
The name of the program will be “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.” Note it’s a “show.” In other words entertainment.
The second-largest radio company in terms of the number of stations it owns, Cumulus Media, announced that its network, Westwood One, would carry conservative radio host and popular podcaster Dan Bongino (47) to fill Rush’s time slot (12:00-3:00 pm) on its stations in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Bongino is a far-right political commentator, radio show host, and author. He served as a New York City policeman from 1995 to 1999, and as a Secret Service agent from 1999 to 2011. He ran for Congress unsuccessfully as a Republican in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The program is called “The Don Bongino Show.”
The third-largest radio company in terms of number of stations, but second to iHeart in revenue, Audacy (formerly Entercom, which bought the CBS Radio stations in 2017), made the most interesting decision to replace Rush. Audacy named a woman, Dana Loesch, to take over the Rush time slot. She will be the first woman conservative talk show host on a major, nationwide hook-up.
Dana Loesch (42) is a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA) and a former writer and editor for Breitbart News. She currently hosts “The Dana Show,” which is produced by the conservative radio network Radio America. In a March press release, Radio America announced:
Today, award-winning, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Dana Loesch signed a new multi-year deal with Radio America as she continues to dominate talk radio during the 12-3 p.m. ET hours, a time slot she has successfully occupied with The Dana Show since 2014. Dana’s radio program is currently broadcast on nearly 200 stations (and growing) and her audience is currently in the top 10 of syndicated programs nationwide, according to TALKERS Magazine. As the most listened to female talk show host in the country, she has attracted a large and loyal following in syndication, expanding the news/talk audience to include more men and women in their 30s and 40s, something the aging format desperately needs.
I think the key to Audcy’s decision to distribute “The Dana Show” in its markets is based to a large degree as expressed in the last sentence in the quote above – trying to appeal to younger demos and to women.
Even though Dana Loesch is the most popular female conservative radio talk show host. She is not the only one. More and more women are joining the conservative radio and podcast ecosystem. AXIOS MEDIA reports:
A growing number of the digital disrupters in conservative audio are women.
“The Liz Wheeler Show,” hosted by former OANN host Liz Wheeler, and The Daily Wire’s podcast “Candace,” hosted by Candace Owens, both list in Apple’s top 100 political podcast chart. Laura Ingraham, a longtime leader in conservative talk radio, shifted into podcasting a few years ago.
“I don’t know if ‘historic’ is the word I would use, but it’s true that the sisterhood of talk radio broadcasting is a small club,” says Loesch.
“I don’t attribute this to outdated attitudes about women in this sphere, but rather the simple reality of vocal tonality in this specific medium. Men’s voices hit the lower registers better, so I’m grateful to be an alto.”
The AXIOS MEDIA newsletter quoted above also reported that there is a trend in local radio for talk shows to be more entertaining and appeal to a younger audience that includes more women.
The concept that the way to make conservative talk radio (or any podcast or radio or TV program) more popular, especially with women, is to be entertaining is not news.
Rush Limbaugh was popular because we was an entertainer, not an expert in politics or government. People who listened to Rush tell me he had a great sense of humor and was funny (to them).
Radio talk shows, local television station news broadcasts and cable news networks are entertainment. The more visual, gossipy and outrageous, the more entertaining.
So being entertaining is not new, and the conservative talk shows that are most entertaining and fun and gossipy and celebrity oriented will succeed.
To me the more interesting concept is that more and more podcasts and talk radio is being delivered by women. Is this because women are more informal, chatty, gossipy, soothing, less strident or are easier to listen to? In terms of being informal, note that Dana Loesch’s show doesn’t use her last name, but Dan Bongino and Clay Travis and Buck Sexton’s shows use their full names.
In a survey done for the podcasting industry and reported in AdExchanger.com: “Selecting the right voice actors sets the tone. For example, Nielsen research agrees with our own independent NYT Custom Study on our podcast users, which found that listeners are four times more likely to prefer a female voice.”
So be it. Go Dana.
