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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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Before online influencers, it was AM radio.
Which only reached middle aged and older men who drove a lot
Edit: I don't get the downvotes. In AM radio's heyday, pre-2000, women and younger people were not listening to it at all. Older men were the target demographic. Of course everyone had access to radios, but women and younger people were listening to FM, not Rush Limbaugh. And at home, AM was never on unless you were in a very rural area and an AM station was your only choice.
You know some people really show their age when they talk about the past..
Their were just as many radios as we have TVs now back in the day
Being someone from back in the day, yes, I remember. And back then the dominant demographic who tuned in to AM talk radio like Rush Limbaugh were white men driving for work. There were just as many TVs around pre-2000, too, we're not talking about the 60s...
I submit that there are more radios than cable tvs now. Radio is still going strong. The radio shows are just as dangerous as ever.
possibly more dangerous because they're what you turn to when you're really out there. out where spotify doesn't reach but you still don't want to be alone with your thoughts. it's like how it's important to pay attention to what's in the walmart discount dvd bin. for a lot of people that is what they have access to because no one else makes themselves available. having infinite connectivity has isolated us more than it connects us.
even now, i'm guilty of this. i'm outside. a honey bee polinates a sunflower. do i talk to anyone here? no they're all busy with their own conversations and i'm just waiting for a phone call. so i let these cracks in this fractured reality remain as i go online and simulate connection with all those who see this text.
in that experiment with the baby monkey, the wire momma with the milk, and the terry cloth momma with the heater, we are all the baby monkey clinging to the falsified social experience while missing out on the nutrients we need.
the powers that be know this and manipulate it
Yeah, but the target audience for those was people (mostly men) who had long commutes or drove for a living. I don’t think I ever knew someone to leave it on in their house, it was always something to listen to in the car. I’m sure some people did but I don’t think it was typical. If you’re in the house after 2000, Fox News is your steady drip of brain rot.
Thank you for agreeing with my point. No one ever listened to AM radio at home. I don't get why this perspective seems so controversial here after having living through it and observing this
They didn't say back in the day, though, they said before online influencers. Which would be, at most, the mid-nineties. Realistically late aughts to early 10s.
How many people, realistically, got their news from AM radio after the advent of television but before the advent of online influencers?
Tens of millions of people did.
There was a time when Rush Limbaugh was one of the most politically influential voices in the country.
Not to mention the huge number of evangelical propaganda AM stations.
I think it's safe to say that telecom deregulation and the subsequent AM radio boom is one of the core reasons why American adults above 50 are rightwing/fascist.
General "centrist" unbiased news coverage tends not to affirm right-wing beliefs so they have to retreat into fringe independent media.
"Centrist" media tends to affirm things like the results of good science and vague inclusion, so liberals are happy to listen to it. It's only self-described socialists or other "far left" euphemisms that recognize the deference to capitalism as problematic.