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Radio talk shows have been around since the very beginnings of radio broadcasting. In the early and mid-1920s, music and variety programs dominated the airwaves, making up over seventy-five percent of an average station's programming (Sterling and Kittross 75). At that time, any program which did not contain music and some sort of dramatic element was considered a "talk show." Although this designation indicated that a show lacked music or drama, most of these shows would not be considered a radio talk show by today's standards.

The remaining twenty-five percent of non-music programming included coverage of political conventions and other special news events (regular newscasts were not yet part of radio programming), religious programming, limited sports broadcasts, informational programs on a wide range of topics from cooking to farming, and some news commentary shows. While not exactly the same as today's talk shows, the informational and news commentary shows were the closest on the air at that time to the current definition of a radio talk show.

In 1930, a disc jockey by the name of John J. Anthony created what is considered the first radio call-in show. Anthony asked his listeners to call him at the station and then repeated what they said on the telephone into the microphone for the listening audience (Bick 36).

About the same time, radio panel talk shows began to become more common. For example, NBC's "The University of Chicago Roundtable" was first aired in 1931 and stayed on the air for almost 25 years (Sterling and Kittross 181). Shows such as this were popular with both the listeners and station/network management. Listeners found the show especially engaging while station managers appreciated how profitable they could be. Since these programs required very few people to put on the air, they were much less expensive to produce than musical or dramatic programming, creating a much higher profit margin for the stations and/or networks.

In 1945, while working an overnight shift, Barry Gray of WMCA New York became increasingly bored while working as a disc jockey with just playing music. Gray decided to converse, on the air, with one of the callers to his show. This particular caller happened to be big band leader Woody Herman, an extremely popular celebrity at the time. Based on the successful response to this new format, Gray's show began to have less and less music as he invited more celebrity guests to the studio to participate on his show and take calls from listeners. The development of this new show format earned Gray the distinction of being regarded as "the father of talk radio" (Munson 36).

In the early 1960s, the all-talk format of radio programming was created. KMOX St. Louis, KABC Los Angeles, and KVOR Colorado Springs, the pioneers in this format, began the transition to all-talk in 1960 (Bick 38-9).

By the 1990s, about ten-percent of all radio stations air call-in talk shows, creating one of the fastest growing radio broadcasting formats in the country (Fineman 25). Hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Larry King, Howard Stern and others are syndicated nationally and the number of local radio talk shows is dramatically increasing. As music formats split into smaller and smaller divisions, talk radio is most certainly on its way to becoming one of the most popular radio programming format in the country.

The first scholarly research into talk radio was not published until 1971, almost fifty years after radio broadcasting began. John Crittenden interviewed frequent callers to WAAC Terre Haute's "Speak Out" program and also surveyed local community leaders in order to determine the ability of this talk show to bring about local change. Crittenden's research indicated that the talk show was perceived to have an impact on the "functioning of local democracy" (200).

Bick, Jane Horowitz. "The Development of Two-Way Talk Radio in America." Diss. U of Massachusetts, 1987.

Crittenden, John. "Democratic Functions of the Open-Mike Radio Forum." Public Opinion Quarterly. 35 (Summer 1971): 200-210.

Fineman, Howard. "The Power of Talk." Newsweek. 8 Feb. 1993: 24-8.

Munson, Wayne. All Talk: The Talkshow in Media Culture. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1993.

Sterling, Christopher H. and John M. Kittross. Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting. 2nd ed . Belmont: Wadsworth, 1990.