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The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio
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The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio is a 2007 report by the Center for American Progress The report states: "out of 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive." The report did not include analysis of the content of other radio providers, such as universities and public radio. The report suggests three steps to increase progressive radio voices in talk radio: localism (restoring local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations); ensuring greater local accountability over radio licensing; and require commercial owners who fail to abide by enforceable public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting. Its authors included then Senior Fellow Mark Lloyd who has since been appointed chairman of diversity at the FCC
In response to the report, conservatives Rich Lowry, Alan Sears, and Paul Weyrich wrote opinion pieces for townhall.com contending that there are and have been many outlets for liberal voices in talk radio, including National Public Radio and, until recently, Air America Radio. They wrote that previous attempts to create "balance" on talk radio, such as The Fairness Doctrine, violate the First Amendment by restricting free speech(despite the fact that the report specifically recommends that the Fairness Doctrine not be renewed).
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