Who exactly listens to political talk radio? Arbitron Inc. and some of its satellites can help measure how many are listening for how long and when, and they provide some rough age data and demographic specs. A lot of the rest is guesswork, and Program Directors don't like to talk about it.
From outside, though, one of the best clues to how a radio station understands its audience is spots. Which commercials it runs, and when, indicate how the station is pitching its listeners' tastes and receptivities to sponsors.
For instance, one has only to listen to Coast to Coast With George Noory's ads for gold as a hedge against hyperinflation, special emergency radios you can hand-crank in case of extended power failure, miracle weight-loss formulas, online dating services, etc., to understand that KFI and the syndicator regard this show's audience as basically frightened, credulous, and desperate.
Conservative talk shows seem to focus on issues, narratives and rants that assuage the fears of their listeners, who tend to tune-in either because they are frustrated or highly-susceptible to manipulation. For those who fall into the “credulous” camp, it must be the “willing suspension of disbelief” that allows otherwise thoughtful, rational people to believe the hyper-hyperbole that is the daily grist for this audio mill. The car-crash quality of much of the debate is simply too compelling to look (listen) away.
Ziegler’s misanthropic flashes invariably drew him to repeatedly work for “evil, evil” people or companies - apparently they were drawn to one another again and again. His is an unsympathetic character both in and out of work in an unsympathetic, though highly-successful, media platform.
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