This demonstrates the difference between radio and TeeVee. [View all]

[PCIntern]

Those of us who grew up in the days of radio programming at its finest will recall that the genius of the broadcaster, whether the newsman, the monologuist, the actor, was able to make the individual listener actually believe that he or she was being spoken to directly. This is no longer true of most radio including morning drive-time schtick and sports programming - there is an acknowledgement of a wide audience so that the listener is under no misapprehension: there IS a larger audience - they infer that fact all the time so that you'll think you're part of the 'in' crowd.

Limbaugh's skill, as it were, is to once again make the listener think that he's addressing him or her personally. He's just utilizing techniques which have mostly gone the way of the Victrola, BUT they are quite effective. That's why he has that 'devotion' and listenership, and why they feel so betrayed when he 'apologizes' (sic).

Those of us who listened to Jean Shepherd on WOR as kids, thought we were alone in the night and he was talking to us. If I missed his program as a 9 or 10 year old, I used to think that probably almost no one else heard it. Of course it turned out that there were literally millions who listened to him nightly - but he never gave an indication of that fact. You, as an individual, were the most important person in his life, and if you think about it, many of these RWers are emotionally alone and starved for attention and affection. Limbaugh 'gives' that to them.