California Losing Conservative Radio Talkers

The LA Times has a story about the fading prospects for conservative talk radio in California:

Tune in to conservative talk radio in California, and the insults quickly fly. Capturing the angry mood of listeners the other day, a popular host in Los Angeles called Republican lawmakers who voted to raise state taxes "a bunch of weak slobs."

With their trademark ferocity, radio stars who helped engineer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's rise in the 2003 recall have turned on him over the new tax increases. On stations up and down the state, they are chattering away in hopes of igniting a taxpayers' revolt to kill his budget measures on the May 19 ballot.

But for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI's John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane. The economy's downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters.

For that and other reasons, stations have dropped the shows of at least half a dozen radio personalities and scaled back others, in some cases replacing them with cheaper nationally syndicated programs.

Casualties include Mark Larson in San Diego, Larry Elder and John Ziegler in Los Angeles, Melanie Morgan in San Francisco, and Phil Cowen and Mark Williams in Sacramento.

Two of the biggest in the business, Roger Hedgecock in San Diego and Tom Sullivan in Sacramento, have switched to national shows, elevating President Obama above Schwarzenegger on their target lists.

I have from time to time listened to Mark Larson and Larry Elder. Larson is a very funny guy along with being a strong conservative Christian, and Elder was known as the "Sage from South Central", a rare black conservative talk host. Both had good shows, but neither could hold my attention like Rush can.

I can see where local conservative shows might have more and more trouble maintaining an audience. The state has gone pretty liberal, especially in the large cities, and that's where the best hope for a radio audience is.

The national shows, such as Roger Hedgecock's or (not mentioned in the story) Hugh Hewitt's reach into many more areas where there are larger conservative audiences. They have better prospects for longevity than some local guy ranting about Schwarzenegger all day. I can take only so much of that and rarely listen to local shows myself.