Experts don’t expect “change on the talk radio airwaves
January 25, 2009
We all know that the combination of President Regan vetoing the Fairness Doctrine in the ’80s and the Democratic leadership in the ’90s helped to build the barage of conservative talk programming with hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity and others. WPGB program director Jay Bohannon thinks the new Obama Administration might keep things cooking for the talk format in 2009. He tells the Post-Gazette, “These guys are pretty much salivating over the whole state of politics at this point.” He continues, “I do see the conservative genre of talk radio being extraordinarily popular over the next four years. When Bill Clinton was in office, Rush Limbaugh exploded.”
Meanwhile Mike Pintek and Fred Honsberger of KDKA-AM (1020) don’t see their jobs changing. Pintek, who recently returned to the station, calls himself a “political mutt”. “If Obama does something right, I’m going to say good for him,” he said, “and if he does something I think is wrong, I’m going to say that, too.” He also maintains that not being entertaining and just pushing a “conservative Republican line” will probably doom a host as listeners are sick and tired of it.
Honsberger thinks it’s not about who is in power because there is always something to talk about.
