I think the future of AM (or at least news/talk radio) is local, local, local. Otherwise, why bother listening to a syndicated national show when you can catch a national podcast, satellite channel, or livestream  or watch talking heads on cable? Local radio that's actually local can offer something that national podcasts can't and with the decline of local newspapers people are hungry for news about their communities. The only question is are stations willing to invest the money in local talent when it's cheaper (or even free) to carry a syndicated show? 

Last edited by Hansa (March 31, 2021 4:52 pm)

WBEN may be a conservative outlet, but it was also, strangely, the media source where I first learned of the extent of the original coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. I happened to be in New York State during January 2020 and one of the days I was there I listened to WBEN while driving, and one of their local talk shows spent a whole hour about what was going on in China and how it could impact the United States during 2020 if it became a global outbreak. To that point Canadian media had barely even mentioned the Wuhan outbreak, and there had yet to be a single case in Canada.