May 08, 2014 02:43 PM UTC

Colorado progressive talk radio hits bottom with cancellation of Gloria Neal show

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• by: Jason Salzman

There’s endless speculation about why progressive talk shows repeatedly fail on commercial radio, and the latest to go down is Gloria Neal’s morning show on KKZN AM-760, Colorado’s Progressive Talk.

Greg Foster, vice president/programming for Clear Channel, which owns the station, told The Denver Post’s Joanne Ostrow yesterday:

“I can confirm that Gloria Neal’s show is no longer on KKZN and she is no longer with our company. We will be announcing new programming for KKZN in the near future.”

I didn’t listen to Neal much, but I liked her. And more than her, I liked the fact that her show existed, in the conservative-infested radio air waves of Colorado. (A few public stations around the state, like Boulder’s KGNU, air left-leaning talkers.)

Neal took over the show a couple years ago from David Sirota, who tweeted today that he had solid ratings when he was there.

But progressive talk radio has been headed down hill since the hopeful days of Air America and Al Franken, and here in Colorado, it’s hit the bottom now, where it will probably remain.

Why do conservatives dominate the political talk-radio medium? Its base audience is old white men who are turned off by professional journalism and find an affirming, like-minded community on the airwaves. Conservative corporations, like Clear Channel and Salem, have a cheap (increasingly syndicated) formula for delivering conservative content. Bingo (at least for now).