Introduction: Listening to Talk Radio

Abstract

On a dull Sunday afternoon last Fall I tuned in to a talk radio program on one of Eastern Maine’s few remaining locally owned radio stations. Talk radio generally pains me, not so much because of the content, as the tone. Tone and content are not fully separable, but talk radio often conveys less a consistent position than diffuse anger and dogmatic certainty, and contempt for those of differing views and ways of living. Nonetheless, I was curious about what topics and issues were disturbing my neighbors.