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And though he pays lip service to Judeo-Christian values, he is not a holy roller. I assume he knows that would turn off a huge percentage of his listeners.
Americans are religiously pluralistic, it makes a lot of sense not to open that can of worms on a politically based program.
There are certainly enough shows out there with a religious bent to them.
The New Sound of 13Q was whipping KQV in the ratings pretty badly. If KQV had maintained its dominance in Top 40, would they have still switched format?
Had KQV dominate the ratings in the mid 70's they would probably had followed the same path New York's 77 WABC had taken meaning that they would continue doing the top 40 sounds through the end of the 70s then becoming more "adult contemporary" in the very early 80s as more and more top 40 listeners would move to FM and then finally pulling the plug on the music all together to become talk which WABC would end up doing on May 10, 1982. Pittsburgh's big top 40 FM station for many years WBZZ "B-94" was launched in 1981 and I think it would be a safe bet to say that they would had killed KQV early on.
Last edited by tantan1968; 04-29-2015 at 12:30 AM..
Rush ended up getting fired and headed back to Missouri.
That's true. I live in Kansas City and I remember listening to Rush's early talk shows on an AM station here, 81 KCMO. Rush honed and perfected his rightwing persona at that station during the 1980's.
Little did I know at the time, that I am "kind of/sort of" related to Rush Limbaugh. Rush is originally from Cape Girardeau, MO, on the other side of the state. My mother's family is from that area too. When I was doing genealogy on my mother's family years alter, I discovered that one of my second cousins married Rush's uncle, William Columbus Limbaugh. I share a whole line of Limbaugh cousins with the Master Dittohead. God help me.
But it all evens out because another distant cousin in that tree is uber-liberal Sen. Bill Bradley, who lost the Democratic nomination to Al Gore in 2000.
Most of what I remember of talk radio before I knew of Limbaugh radio show was NPR on the FM band. The local talk radio stations were mostly on the AM band. The topics ran the gamut from what I recall and seemed much more slow paced since the shows were local and not syndicated. I am not sure when I first heard of Limbaugh, but probably was by the mid-90s.
I used to listen to more political talk radio in the late 90s when I worked at night. Art Bell on Coast to Coast was among my favorites at that time. I lost interest in most of any talk radio and haven't listened to it regularly in several years. Now using the internet can usually fill that void with podcasts and so on.
And though he pays lip service to Judeo-Christian values, he is not a holy roller. I assume he knows that would turn off a huge percentage of his listeners.
Rush Limbaugh has stated, many times on the air and in his first book, "The Way Things Ought To Be", that he avoids getting theological, because such matters are personal rather than political, and would quickly degenerate into sectarian "narrowcasting".
One national political talk show host I can think of who does get theological is Dennis Prager, but he keeps it very broadly ecumenical, probably for the same "narrowcasting" reason.
What was talk radio like in the days before Rush Limbaugh ??
A lot less politics and much more variety. There were a number of local talk shows that were very good, too. Unfortunately, hate radio seems to have taken over with the exception of some sports talk.
The local talk radio station is all flaming angry right wingers spewing spittle all day every day. Limbaugh, Beck, Levin, Hannity, etc. It was much better when it was an oldies station.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Here's a YouTube video of the local AM station in my market from 1974, which was before Rush Limbaugh. I listened to this station a lot starting around 2000 and I couldn't believe how much different it sounds. For those of you older than me was mixing hit music and news talk common?
More local topic chitchat, and none of the nationally syndicated celebrity hosts that we have nowadays. 30 years ago, more people listened the radio. They followed the local radio programming more closely, and tuned into the talk shows pretty regularly. That's all changed now. I guess the talk shows need to do whatever they can to attract listeners, so it's more about gimmicks, showbiz, controversy, and publicity. A far cry from local hosts being local big shots, as they were back in the day. Funny how it's all changed.
Here's a YouTube video of the local AM station in my market from 1974, which was before Rush Limbaugh. I listened to this station a lot starting around 2000 and I couldn't believe how much different it sounds. For those of you older than me was mixing hit music and news talk common?
Back in the 70s and well into the 80s stations that did talk/news full time ( no music at all ) were more/less found only in the very big markets like New York, LA, Philadelphia, Chicago and a handful of others such as WTOP in Washington for example. Stations like WHAS at the time of that aircheck and actually well into the 1980s were considered for years to be "full service" radio stations who not only would air pop music but also sported a talk show or two as well as a full time news department and covered live sporting events. WLW in Cincinnati was another one as I can remember back in the 80s that did this....they aired the Reds, had local talk shows and a killer news department..and they had Dusty Rhodes playing oldies rock and roll on the weekends. Denver's KHOW was similar to WLW back in the 80s but they would play music during the Hal & Charlie morning show ( that was in Steven King's movie The Shining btw ) and KHOW would switch to talk during the day and night but weekends was pretty much all music. Pittsburgh's KDKA would air music on the weekends and I believe overnights but was news/talk more/less during the weekdays..it was all considered "full service". Radio stations that were Full Service pretty much would end that format going into full time talkers during the 1991 Gulf War in many markets but one may be able to find such a station even today in one of the more rural areas. The last AM radio station I had listened to that was still doing Full Serivce ( though the music was strictly old middle of the road tunes like Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen" ) was WJEJ in Hagerstown, Maryland and that was ten years ago.
Last edited by tantan1968; 01-17-2016 at 06:31 PM..
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