Talk Radio Flexes it's Black Power

With over 90% of the political talk stations spewing right-wing opinions, it is not surprising that the talkers on these stations often have an impact on influencing public policy and news events.

In 1994 when the Republicans won a landslide victory in the U.S. Congress, taking over both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in over 40 years, much of the credit for this feat was attributed to conservative talk radio. In fact, at a victory dinner after the historic election, the new Speaker of the House, Newt Ginrich, made Rush Limbaugh an honorary member of the House of Representatives in recognition of Limbaugh’s contribution to the Republican victory.

Over the past decade there have been several other examples of how conservative talk radio influenced political events. Like in 2003 when local right wing talkers in California led a successful campaign to recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis and more recently when non-stop immigrant bashing resulted in the defeat of bi-partisan immigration reform legislation.

Even Republican politicians were outraged by this move. Usually conservative Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) complained that "talk radio is running America and we have to deal with that.
problem."

Well, it happened again last week, but this time it wasn’t conservative talk radio, but rather black (AKA Urban) talk radio that influenced a political event.

It is generally agreed that talk radio and internet blogs were responsible for the huge turnout in Jena, La to support the so-called Jena 6. More than 10,000 people showed up in Jena to protest the alleged double standard employed by a District Attorney who charged six black students with attempted murder for school yard fight that sent a white student to the hospital. On the other hand law enforcement and school officials were lenient when white students hung nooses from a tree at the high school and when another white student confronted a group of black students with rifle.

Black talk radio hosts such as Tom Joyner, Steve Harvey, and Michael Baisden played a key role in the cause of Jena 6 and in generating the turn-out at the associated protest action.

The Washington Post attributed the success of the Jena protest to these hosts.


Yesterday morning, as the throng descended on Jena, both the Joyner and Harvey shows featured live updates from the scene. Baisden and Sharpton were in Jena, helping lead the demonstrations. It's fair to say that without black radio, the case of the Jena 6 probably never would have become a significant national story -- and certainly never would have sparked one of the biggest civil rights protests in decades.

The Orlando Sentinel credited talk radio and the internet not black leaders and the mainstream media.

Those standing in line Wednesday to board a bus from Orlando to Jena, La., heard about the racially charged arrests of six black high-school students called the "Jena 6" from the Internet and talk radio -- not civil-rights leaders or the mass media.

We are not surprised by the powerful role of urban radio in general and black talk radio in particular. While general market radio has shown no growth over the past ten years, urban radio has grown by 23% over this period.

Some black leaders have got the message. Jesse Jackson has hosted a weekly talk show syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks for the past three years. Jackson's show is carried on over three dozen stations. Also, about a year ago Al Sharpton threw his hat in the talk radio ring, with a daily show syndicated by Syndication One, which is now carried on over two dozen stations.