Okay, the question I get asked all the time as a former, well, how can I say it? A washed up former member of the National Broadcast Media. That's me. I'm Michael Croce.
And the question is, is talk radio in general over with? Let's talk about that a little bit. Is it still part of your life? You still, you know, when you get in the car, you turn on the radio.
I don't. Haven't a long time. As a matter of fact, they were, there was talk and I don't know if it's been done because I haven't bought a new car. But there was a, there was talk of them getting rid of AM radios and cars all around and people said, Oh, no, you needed for safety and blah, blah, blah.
So I hope they didn't do that. But I don't listen to radio in the car anymore. You don't listen to I listen to podcast. And what about you?
Do you listen to podcast? I would hope that you do. But I just listen to, you know, I listen to podcast and that is, that is it. But talk radio is surprisingly resilient.
Despite its predictions by people like me, by the way, talk radio reaches approximately 57 million Americans weekly while younger audiences have shifted to podcast. Usoul Fars, we're still listening to it. Demographics, particularly among the listeners, 45 and older who have built long term relationships with radio, some of them have stuck with it. And a lot of talk radio host are now doing podcasts.
Oh, look at me. A talk radio host. I have to tell you, I used to love doing radio. I used to love to walk into the studio at the Sun Radio Network, sit my butt down in a chair, look on the other side of the glass and there was my producer and I had several producers.
I had Robert John Joseph, Billy Goldmike Thomas, Sweet Daddy, Henry, Jay Corley, the third, one of my favorites, Scotty, one of my favorites. I mean, you know, a bunch of them, John Patch, who to this day does talking pets on the radio. He was one of my, one of my board operators. But you know, I used to love sitting in there and making magic happen.
And I could do that. I could, I could just go in there and sit in front of that microphone and make magic happen. It was kind of amazing. It was truly kind of, I could do that.
And it worked very, very well. But I don't know, national talk radio faces more challenges than local stations. And that's the truth. Since Rush Limbaugh left, I mean, and when I say left, he died, but he was done well before that.
Rush, you know, at one time had over 600 stations and he was in his 30s and had a big audience of people who spent a lot of money on refrigerators and high end things. And then as he got older, his audience got older with him and they weren't near as valuable in his station count, went down and down and down and his ratings took a giant dive. They just sort of disappeared off the face of the earth. So that's something to think about.
But local talk shows, local talk shows here locally, we have the Ryan Gorman show on WFLA radio and they don't even refer to it as a radio show. They say it's the Ryan Gorman show because they release it as a podcast. It's on a couple of radio stations. It's just everywhere.
And it's local and it's, you know, but they tend to, you know, and I don't listen to it that much because I just don't like it that much, but they tend to go more on national topics, which seems to be the way to go or it seems what they think is the way to go. It seems what I heart thinks is the way to go. The advertising model still works. Talk radio advertising.
I got to tell you, we had a talk show host in this marketplace. His name was Mark Larson and he's no longer doing talk radio. We'll probably never do talk radio again, but I'm going to tell you something. When he did a commercial, I remember he did a commercial for a company called Dry Systems where they would dry clean your carpets.
That company just grew big, big, big, you know, I knew Robbie, the guy who owned dry systems and he could not do without that advertising. And other people that Mark did the radio advertising for it that did the reads for did very well, very, very well on a national level. I used to do the reads for some national companies and they were very happy. They said, you know, sales were very, very good, but I would do that when I say do the reads means I would go on the air live and talk about the product.
I would, you know, today we're talking about Dr. Shaddaliers, fertile, you know, whatever it was. I would, you know, talk about it and do it. And it was very, very effective, still effective to this day.
A political talk radio has evolved but remains influential. It no longer dominates the discourse anymore like it did in the nineties and the early two thousands. And most of it is most of it today is very conservative, but there are some liberals who do quite well, Randy Rhodes out of West Palm Beach, Florida does a national show, does very, very well with it and has good ratings. But you know, most of them are right wing shows.
Technology is adapting but not replacing radio stations. I have a friend, young Paul, I call him. He was 12 years old. You still listen to my radio show.
I wanted to be in radio like you wouldn't believe. He's still in radio. He's in Alaska right now. He's getting ready to leave Alaska.
He's been the program director for a national public radio station up there. And when they lost their funding, thanks to our president, indulge and whatever, he's now got a job down in the lower 48 and he'll be going to work in the next couple of weeks ago or so at a local station somewhere because he believes in local talk radio. They like that. People in the audience are grateful to hear a voice of a person that they can relate to.
It just seems to work for them. It seems to work very, very well for them. Maybe I have to turn the radio on, start listening to it again. Although I've got to say, like these podcasts, I want you to keep listening to this podcast, but maybe you'll go back and listen to some radio as well.
Anyway, have a great one. We'll see you tomorrow. Fun, be believable.