On a radio talk show May 18, Governor Napolitano discussed the budget deal she struck with Republicans.

“We have a caller on line 1,” said KJZZ’s Terry Ward, Host of the Here and Now program. “Oh, it’s House Speaker Jim Weiers.”

As Mr. Weiers was offering his take on budget negotiations, the governor broke in.

“Hi Jim, how are you? I miss seeing you guys,” Ms. Napolitano said.

The Democrat governor and the Republican leader exchanged views for several minutes, and then Mr. Ward called a halt to the debate, saying he had other callers waiting.

“Are you cutting me off?” Mr. Weiers asked.

“I think so,” Ms. Napolitano answered.

Talk radio itself has become a hot topic over the past 15 years.

“Talk radio is the most accurate bellwether of American public opinion in the mass media today,” says TALKERS magazine publisher Michael Harrison “Talk radio is the most listened to radio genre today and certainly the most important.”

The genre also is a favorite of political conservatives. They account for 45 percent of the audience, while moderates represent 33 percent and liberals 18 percent, the Pew Center for the People and the Press, reports.

Observers of the 2004 elections say Republicans realized the impact of talk radio to promote GOP campaigns, while Democrats failed to take advantage of the medium

“It is one of the most intimate, most effective means of communication for candidates that exists in the modern political enterprise in this country,” said Mark Racicot, chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election effort.

One Democrat who regularly uses radio call-in shows is Ms. Napolitano. Her press secretary, Jeanine L’Ecuyer was asked if Ms. Napolitano has used radio to get her message out more than preceding governors.

“Definitely, yes,” she said. “The governor is heard on radio stations statewide on a weekly basis.

Mr. Harrison says one-half of American adults listen to talk radio on a regular basis.

Six Phoenix commercial stations list themselves as “news/talk,” and together they had a 12.4 share of the audience 12 years old and older for any given 15-minute period, reports Arbitron ratings in its spring survey. That share equates to 50,360 listeners for any given 15 minutes.

While politically conservative talk hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity (who can be heard locally on KFYI 550 AM), still dominate talk radio, their liberal counterparts, such as Al Franken and Randi Rhodes (who can be heard locally on KXXT 1010 AM, formerly KXEM) have grown in popularity since they took to the airwaves last year.

What Lawmakers Listen To

With a few exceptions, talk show preferences of Arizona legislators and other elected officials appear to line up with their positions on the political spectrum, according to an informal “poll” done by Arizona Capitol Times.

Democrat Attorney General Terry Goddard says he listens to KFYI hosts Barry Young, Tom Liddy and Austin Hill, all conservatives.

“It’s a weakness, I know,” Mr. Goddard said.

“KFYI has the better personalities . . . that are more thought provoking as well as entertaining,” wrote Rep. John McComish, R-20.

“Barry Young is the most entertaining personality I have ever heard on the radio,” said Rep. Gary Pierce, R-19. “Young has the ability make you laugh and teach you at the same time. When he is on vacation, I don’t even bother to listen to talk radio that morning.”

Early morning listeners to KFYI have on more than one occasion heard Sens. Ron Gould, R-3, and Jack Harper, R-4, phone in to the conservative-friendly Bruce Jacobs show with their positions on legislation.

“When I am driving home from an evening event, I prefer to listen to Joe Crummy on KFYI between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., Mr. Harper said. “He is a real conservative, not just pretending to be one for a job. Joe is critical of bigger government, the United Nations, and Senator McCain’s voting record.”

Rep. Bob Stump, R-9, also said he likes Mr. Crummy.

“He tends to be sardonic without being demeaning and skewers evil targets with humor and common sense,” he said.

“Talk radio is usually on top of the controversial issues of the day,” says Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-17. “I listen to KFYI mostly, and KTAR (620 AM) occasionally. Once in a while I tune into NPR (National Public Radio, KJZZ 91.5 FM) for the other side of the story.”

Sen. Ken Cheuvront, D-15, says he listens only to KJZZ.

“I listen to NPR because it is the most internationally oriented and cerebral station on the radio,” he said.

District 15 Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who will he hosting her own show on KXXT (1010 AM) next month, is another KJZZ fan “because they present state, national, and world news in a thorough, unsexy way that I like — just the facts. I like Air America because it’s progressive talk radio.”

Ms. Sinema will host “The Truth to Power Hour” Saturdays, 2-4 p.m. beginning July 9.

“Do you think Rep. [Russell] Pearce, [R-18] will come on my show to debate immigration issues?” she asked. “I hope so.”

House Democrat Leader Phil Lopes said he is a faithful listener to NPR and listens to KXXT when Ms. Sinema is a guest host.

Moving left from religious programming to a “mishmash” of talk,” then to the liberal Air America was strictly a financial decision for Bob Christy, KXXT general manager. He said he took a look at voter registration figures and saw there were nearly a half-million registered Democrats and 250,000 independents in Maricopa County alone and figured that was a large enough potential audience to make the leap.

“Nobody was talking to the other people,” Mr. Christy said. “When you take Rush and Sean [Hannity] out of the picture, there’s no one left. “I felt it was a good bet.”

Air America signed on in Phoenix on Sept. 23, 2004.

“I know Arizona has changed since 1964,” says humorist and political commentator Al Franken, whose show is one of the network’s flagships. “Phoenix has a lot of conservatives, but we find a lot of liberals in every place we air, and that conservatives also tune us in.”

“This market is loaded with conservative talkers,” Mr. Franken said in a promotion for KXXT. “How many conservative talkers can one market support?”

Mr. Christy said the station received a lot of hate calls when it switched formats. “They called me a sodomite,” he said. “Talk radio is pretty visceral. It really has an effect on people.”

Mr. Christy says there isn’t much interest in state politics among his audience. “They want Iraq and the Downing Street Memo.”

State Politics

There is interest in state politics from one of KXXT’s talk hosts, Dr. Mike Newcomb. He ran against Ms. Napolitano in the 2002 Democratic primary.

While it doesn’t bill itself as a news/talk station, KJZZ spends a lot of time covering state government,” says reporter Mark Brodie.

“I think in terms of pure minutes and seconds, we probably do devote more news time to state government,” he said, “of only because our stories are longer than most of those on commercial radio.”

Mr. Brodie said the station receives complaints from people “who are upset by NPR’s liberal bias, and others say NPR is too conservative,”

(Congressional Republicans have proposed a $200 million cut in public broadcasting’s budget.)

KTAR Radio talker David Leibowitz says he has never listened to Air Ameri
ca, adding, surprisingly, “I’m not a big fan of talk radio.”

Mr. Leibowitz, who describes himself as a moderate, says most talk shows have an agenda and most hosts are looking to make themselves famous. Mr. Franken of Air America, he said, “is a pompous ass.”

Mr. Leibowitz, who interviews Ms. Napolitano weekly, says he show “is more of a fact-finding mission.”

“She’s the smartest person in the room,” he said. “She’s a hell of a lot smarter than me and has better grasp on the issues.”

Mr. Leibowitz said he used to call the Legislature the “90 dwarves.” “They rarely disappoint me as the biggest stumbling block to entering the 19th century.”

Napolitano Press Secretary Jeanine L’Ecuyer says the governor has no favorites among talk stations. “She doesn’t have much time to listen to talk radio.”

And Rep. Mark Anderson says, “I don’t listen to talk radio. I find country music more uplifting.”

Valley News/Talk Commercial Stations Audience Shares*

KFYI-AM 5.6

KTAR-AM 4.1

KKNT-AM 1,0

KXXT-AM 0.9

KFNX-AM 0.4

KPHX-AM 0.4

*Percentage of people 12 and older listening to radio in a 15-minute period.

Source: Published with permission of Arbitron, Inc.