Republican Talk Radio is good radio...its' politics are not

For decades now there has been a format that is radio friendly. The talk radio format that has worked is Republican Talk Radio (Rush Limbaugh pictured left). The format is in every major market, including those that have few Republicans. Radio Wars are in markets that are pro-Republican, with many stations using the format.

Today there are many Republican syndicated shows in every time shot available, including weekends. Most of the successful Republican syndicated hosts are invited to discuss political issues on all of the Cable TV news channels. And the "graduate level" syndicated talk show host whom broadcast to over 300 radio stations -- yes the Repulican radio format is that large in the United States alone -- will probably get an opportunity to host their own show on the epitamy of Republican broadcast, Fox Cable News channel.

The Republican Radio format is good radio. What is good radio? Good radio involves its' listeners. The format has it antagonist (Democrats) and protaganists (Republicans). And with this nation being divided evenly amongst Democrats and Republicans, it does not matter which party dominates.

The format's model and longest lasting talk show host is Rush Limbaugh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh). Nearly all Republican talk show hosts follow the Rush Limbaugh stick of making Democrats look dumb and stupid with tons of research to prove their points.

One recent example that baffles me was when Rush Limbaugh said that Obama was weak and could not handle the Somalian Pirate situation a fews weeks ago, while the captain of that captured ship was kidnapped by four Somalian pirates off the coast of Somalia. While the captain was held captive for several days at gunpoint by these four pirates, Rush Limbaugh -- and his copycat radio talk show hosts -- talked about our Democratic President like a dog continuously for the entire five or so days.

According to Rush and Republican Radio, President Obama was too weak on security; not ready to lead; did not know what he was doing; could not handle any foreign affairs matters; and overall un-fit to be America's President during a crisis. But when our Commander-in-Chief gave the order to take the pirates out at the right moment and successfully free the Captain -- which is what happened -- then Rush Limbaugh cried out, "Why did President Obama have to kill these three defenseless teenage African boys...our President hates Africans."

Rush Limbaughs' antics in this example sounds ridiculous, and is horrible politics... but it is good radio. The many Republican voters that live on Rush's every word still have the opportunity to antagonize the Democratic President, whether news is good or bad. This, in essense, is what the format is all about. The Democrat is always the evil antagonist every moment of the talk show. Batman versus the Joker always.

The only compliment that you will ever hear about our Democratic President from Republican talk show hosts is that President Obama speaks well. They will immediately follow this slight in-substanative compliment up with: "But the President does not know what he is talking about." Again, good radio. Republican Radio succeeds in that the format rarely goes off its' anti-Democrat message.

I attended, as a panelist, this years Radio and Records magazine Talk Radio Seminar. I stumbled upon a "Fairness Doctrine" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine) panel, that came right after my panel. It was a spirited panel that had an equal amount of syndicated Democrat and Republican talk show hosts. The Republican talk show hosts swore up and down that the "Fairness Doctrine" was a ploy, by the "drive-by" Democratic media that they are plotting Republican Talk Radio to force them to hire Democrats, and God-forbid, the Democratic point of view. The Democrats were explaining that this was not the case, however the Republicans would not let up off their anti-Democratic message, even outside of their radio shows in a forum setting. Again, this is good radio, even though this was not on radio. I can assure you that the syndicated Republican talk show hosts on the panel, spoke about this event on their very next radio show though. But what was funny to me was that the less-successful syndicated Democratic talk show hosts were touting their rating numbers to the more established Republican talk show hosts. As if the Republican Talk Show hosts would think about considering to push radio owners with Republican formats to hire the Democratic hosts on its' Republican radio stations. If you know anything about talk radio you would know that hiring a Democrat on a Republican radio station is like hiring a Hip-Hop DJ on a Classical radio station.

I will stop here as there is no concluding paragraph because I do not feel one is always needed...journalistic freedom. The point is that Republican Talk Radio is good radio, which is why it has lasted so long. Many Democrats listen to and even participate on Republican talk shows by calling in and fighting those disagreeable points of the hosts and previous callers.