Talk Radio: Better than Taylor Swift, but not much else. Thursday, May 20, 2010 By Bryan Graveline Limbaugh - Riverfront Times Advertising     Every weekday morning, I climb out of bed at 7 o'clock. I shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and get ready to go to another potentially boring day of school. When I get in my car, I turn on the radio, hoping for something, anything, to break the monotony. Who knows, maybe they'll play a good song and put me in a good mood for the day. Unfortunately, when I turn on the radio, instead of hearing music (which, as far as I know, is what the radio is for,) I almost almost always hear the dreary sound of talk radio.     Yes, almost every morning when I drive to school, I'm forced to either listen to Elvis Duran, Ken and Colleen, etc. talk about random topics that hardly anyone could possibly care about, or nothing. On a normal morning, Ken and Colleen talk about something like this:      "So how old were your kids when they got a cell phone? Call in and tell us!"     Or maybe "Ladies, what are your skin care secrets?"     Or my personal favorite: "What songs do you like to listen to on the radio?"     Well, Ken, I like to listen to a lot of songs on the radio, but your show is making that hard for me!     When I hear songs that I don't like on the radio, I'm usually Ok with it. I realize that there are people out there that honestly like Taylor Swift, or Katy Perry. So, when I hear "Love Story" come onto the radio, I just change the station and find something new. But while there will always be people who have different music tastes then me, I have honestly never met someone who enjoys, or can even stand to listen to, talk radio.     So why do stations have it? No one likes it, no one wants it, and as far as I can tell, everyone would rather listen to music. Well, Talkers Magazine (yes, a talk radio magazine) reports that the top 15 talk radio shows are at least to a certain degree political. Which leads me to another point. Regular boring talk radio is one thing, but if possible, political talk radio is even worse. Ever listened to Rush Limbaugh? Yikes. By the way, his show is the number one most listened to show in the nation. Wow.     A typical Limbaugh dialogue? Here's his take on Michael J. Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease: "He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. ... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting." Cool Rush.     Now, I suppose I can see that there are certain hardcore political followers that truly like listening to Rush, or Glenn Beck, or Bill Cunningham. Also, I guess that, though I have never met a person like this, there are people who enjoy listening empty conversations filled with seemingly pointless chitchat such as is typically heard on most talk radio shows. And since these people, whoever they are out there, seem to be paying the bills for these talk radio shows' commercials, I doubt that the radio lineup is going to change anytime soon. Until that happens, I'm gettin' some CDs.

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