Talk radio suckers
28 Feb 2006 
in the early afternoon 
Matt Winckler
You know, I’ve been listening to talk radio off and on over the years, and if there’s one thing I’ve noticed it’s the fact that talk radio stations have a disproportionately large number of snake-oil commercials. There are tax-evasion schemes, get-rich-quick (without working or using any of your own money) schemes, “enhance your love life” schemes, speed reading schemes, vision correction schemes, enough herbs to start your own GNC, eBay marketing schemes, and so on and so forth.
Speaking in broad generalities, I would tend expect the people listening to talk radio to be somewhat more intelligent than the people listening to top 40 hits. If that’s really the case (a legitimate question), why do they buy into so many ridiculous schemes? Obviously the businesses running ads are doing it because it works. Talk radio has been this way for as long as I can remember. So the question of the day is: are talk radio listeners by and large actually morons, or is there some other explanation for why they are so much more susceptible to fly-by-night marketing?
Quite honestly, I don’t think people who listen to talk radio are, on average, smarter than those who listen to Top 40 music. Top 40 listeners are spoon fed music and bands. Talk radio listeners are spoon fed opinions. People don’t listen to the Savage Nation for insightful commentary. They’re either listening to it ironically or because they need to be told what to think.
And the same is true for most NPR listeners too. ;)
All I really know is that Rush Limbaugh has been telling me that the gold market is about to explode for most of my life.
Most of the people I’ve known who’ve truly loved AM conservative talk radio really bought into those schemes. We used to know a lot of people like that when we were homeschooled in Oregon. It’s weird how all of those things are connected together, but they are somehow.
I think people who buy into “schemes” are the same sorts of people who buy into conspiracy theories. A lot of what conservative talk radio is about is conspiracy, even if it’s of a fairly mild variety. I think these schemes are really connected to this idea of conspiracy. (e.g. “You can read much faster than you were taught by those evil government schools!”, “You can be much healthier with herbs than those synthetic FDA medicines!”, “Gold is much more secure than those wishy washy government notes! (Which are all controlled by Swiss bankers anyway)”, etc, etc)