The end of the fairness doctrine was a permission slip to kind of say whatever he wanted. Rush gave voice to the grievances of a lot of people who were resistant to changes in culture and power. By 1995, about two thirds of political talk leaned right. In the 1990s, Rush inspired me to start a radio broadcast of my own.
If you’ve ever flipped through the radio dial — not satellite, not podcasts, but good old-fashioned AM and FM radio — you may have noticed something. Right wing radio talk is everywhere.
But the airwaves weren't always so dominated by such a narrow range of voices. Reporter and friend of the show Katie Thornton has the story of how talk radio has evolved (and perhaps devolved at times) over the past century, and what all of it means for the airwaves today.
The Divided Dial
Hear the rest of the the series from On the Media