Nationally syndicated talk radio is entering an era of explosive growth. This development will deliver great benefits — not just for conservatives but for the journalism profession, for the government, for Barack Obama, and for the country. Ratings for political talk are surging, partly because my colleagues and I are attracting new listeners and partly because the old ones are being counted more accurately. One reason for the latter is Arbitron’s move to a much more precise audience-measurement system. “Peoplemeters” — passive electronic sensors that capture every radio signal the participant encounters during his or her day — are replacing the old diary system, which many conservative broadcasters thought underreported our audience of higher-educated, higher-income listeners who did not have the time to write down everything they listened to.
In an age of fractured media, the new Peoplemeter-driven data tell advertisers who need to reach business owners, professionals, married couples with children, and “influencers” generally, where they can find them. These folks are listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the titans of the industry; to my colleagues and me at the Salem Radio Network — Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, Albert Mohler, and Janet Parshall; and to Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, and Dennis Miller.
As a result, the revenue picture for syndicated talk is better than that of any other radio format, with the possible exception of sports talk. And broadcast journalists on radio have loyal audiences that they can bring to other media. Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck have been tremendous successes on cable television, and we can expect more of the established hosts, as well as new ones from the rising generation — watch Guy Benson on Chicago’s WIND — to expand their reach by crossing over. More books like Michael Medved’s The Ten Big Lies About America will sell in huge numbers, and more talk hosts will write for print and online publications.
And even though we work with a technology that’s nearly a century old, the advent of new media is helping us, not hurting. The explosion in listening on demand via podcasts has made talk hosts available to entirely new audiences who could not be in their cars when the shows were broadcast. With nearly a million downloads of my shows every month, the reach of my programming is much vaster than I had ever imagined it could get. As use of devices like the iPhone spreads through the population, so will the demand for quality, informed, and entertaining programming.
The cliché is true: It’s all about the content. And good talk radio is the best broadcast content available today, providing a viewpoint and a depth of analysis that are increasingly hard to find elsewhere. Nearly half of the country voted for John McCain, but where are they supposed to go for news, and especially for informed criticism of the path the dominant D.C. Democrats are taking? To the
New York Times, PBS, NPR, or
Newsweek? Talk radio provides a solution, which is why instead of just complaining about the mainstream media, we are starting to replace them.
Early evidence of the rising tide of listeners began appearing last fall. Salem’s new talk station in New York City, AM 970 WNYM, debuted in August and has burst out of the blocks with a quarter million listeners. Audience growth in more conservative parts of the country is even stronger. The first complete “book” of ratings since Obama’s inauguration won’t be in for a few more weeks, but some early data points suggest that program directors at talk stations will be very happy indeed:
Michael Medved’s Sarasota audience grew by 83 percent over the previous survey. It was up 75 percent in Tampa Bay.
Across the country in San Diego, the Salem Radio Network’s 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. line-up on KCBQ reached its highest level in the five years we have been programmed there.
Dennis Prager’s audience on Denver’s KNUS soared 47 percent. In our “money demo” (the people our advertisers most want to reach, aged 35 to 64), my KNUS audience rose by 70 percent. In Minneapolis, the same demo shot up 113 percent for me. In Honolulu, Michael’s audience for the same key age group listening to KHNR was up a spectacular 150 percent.
Salem’s owned-and-operated talk stations have seen year-to-year growth in total audience of more than 20 percent. Some stations in key markets, like Chicago’s WIND, are up more than 60 percent.
We are optimistic that these trends have accelerated in the first quarter of 2009, the data for which will begin to be available in late April. In the most important measure for the bottom line, ad revenue, our sales are strong, and we expect them to get stronger still as the advertising world recognizes that the best value in major-market advertising is talk radio, which delivers the best audience for the least cost.
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