Talking About Talk Radio

TALK-RADIO bashing is popular right now. Real popular.

In the House, members of Congress denounced the nation's radio talk-show hosts, who, along with consumer advocate Ralph Nader, helped foil the legislators' attempt at raising their own salaries. High-powered Washington journalist David S. Broder ridiculed radio jocks, accusing them of "knownothing demagoguery" in a recent column. And the film Talk Radio, loosely based on Denver host Alan Berg's life and death at the hands of neo-nazis, portrayed talk-show callers and the hosts as lunatics babbling bizarre opinions to moronic listeners.

At first glance, it seems that many of the barbs that have been hurled at the medium are warranted. Serial callers espousing offbeat or racist theories can often get on the air before producers catch on to their voices and their schtick. Radio personalities like New York's Howard Stern do indeed thrive on verbal violence, personal attacks and explosive behavior.

But these blustery mike-men and the looney callers are exceptions rather than the rule on the air-waves. In an age where politicians and the exorbitantly paid television anchors who cover them seem to have more in common with each other than with the public, talk radio provides an open forum, a marketplace of ideas, where citizens of all political backgrounds can voice their opinions.

THE first thing that Broder and the other high-brow members of the Washington elite overlook when they condemn talk radio is the fact that there really are many informative programs out there. Just last week, Yale professor Paul Kennedy could be heard pushing his book, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, on three different talk-radio programs.

Appearances by guests like Kennedy accomplish two things, which Broder and the other talk-radio bashers neglect. The common man, who normally has no access to a expert like Kennedy, gets the opportunity to engage in dialogue with the Yale prof. And the Yale prof, usually surrounded by Ivy-League academics, is able to hear what the general public thinks of his book.

The critics also fail to mention that they themselves often make the rounds on the talk show circuit. Broder, who supported the legislators in their attempt to get a raise, is frequently heard on The Larry King Show. While the pay-raise controversy raged, legislators could also be heard on the shows they later condemned.

The pay raise incident brings up a very important fact about talk radio: critics don't take into account the fact that the opinions voiced on talk radio actually reflect popular opinion. They seem to think that the talk show hosts generate the issues themselves.

The truth is that talk-show hosts only succeed in their efforts when the crusades they support are in line with popular opinion. The role that talk radio played in stuffing Congress' raise and in repealing the state seat belt law through a referendum are good examples of this. But when a host simply belabors some quirky point or another, the callers do not respond, and the issue is quickly dropped.

THIS summer, during the presidential campaign, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis belittled the critical voices that were just beginning to speak out, saying, "Those are Jerry Williams' people." While Williams, who hosts a show on WRKOAM, is indeed one of the governor's most vocal critics, Dukakis' comments made it seem as if his foes included only a small lunatic fringe.

But this criticism really represented the early venting of public opinion against the Democratic nominee. Had the governor and his slick advisors been more astute and listened to what the citizens of the Commonwealth had to say, they might have been able to mitigate many of the problems that later plagued his campaign. It seems foolish that politicians would spend so much money on elaborate polling procedures, when they can get an instantaneous update on popular opinion by just flipping on the radio.

At a time when many Americans are frustrated and out of touch with the Washington elite--which many feel includes legislators and lobbyists, video news jockeys and journalists, talk radio has become the most vigorous medium for free speech, providing a podium and an audience to anyone who has a dime for a phone call. The nation needs muckrakers like Williams and his colleagues across the country to keep asking questions about where the country is headed and how it's getting there.