The Evolution of the Angertainment Industry

Angertainment 1.0: Rush Limbaugh and Friends

The answer to the proto-angertainers’ dreams early arrived in 1987, with a perfect confluence of events.

First, the radio broadcasting marketplace was changing. The owners of AM radio stations were suffering. Music listeners had deserted AM for the superior quality of FM broadcasts. Program directors at AM radio stations had a huge programming hole that needed to be filled.

Then, Ronald Reagan was elected president. Reagan appointed members of the Federal Communications Commission who were swayed by arguments from conservative-leaning media that fairness wasn’t fair. Specifically, the conservative media supporters were opposed to the FCCs Fairness Doctrine.

Since its introduction in 1949, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters who had licenses to present a balanced view of controversial issues. Broadcast license holders were required to provide people with opposing views with equal time to present their position. In 1987, the FCC under the leadership of a Reagan-appointed chairman, abolished the doctrine with a unanimous vote. In defending the decision in a later challenge in court, the FCC said the doctrine was unconstitutional.

“The intrusion by government into the content of programming occasioned by the enforcement (of the Fairness Doctrine) restricts the journalistic freedom of broadcasters.” In defending their decision, the FCC said that the Fairness Doctrine inhibited the presentation of controversial issues and infringed on the “editorial prerogative” of broadcast journalists.

With the Fairness Doctrine eliminated, the stage was set for a new kind of media—one that would not be constrained by requirements for balance or fairness. The angertainment industry was about to be born.

The FCC abolished the fairness Doctrine on August 4, 1987.

On July 4, 1988, a regionally successful radio entertainer from Sacramento, California named Rush Limbaugh went on the air in New York City on WABC.

On August 1, 1988, the Rush Limbaugh radio show went into national syndication. Within two years Limbaugh was attracting 5 million listeners to his daily, three-hour program. At the peak of his popularity, the program was heard on approximately 650 radio stations every weekday.

In 2008, Limbaugh signed an eight-year contract that paid him $400 million and by 2018, according to a report from Fox Business News, Limbaugh had become the second highest-paid radio host (after Howard Stern) earning $84.5 million annually.

Limbaugh was the prototype for the development of the angertainment industry. He was the pioneer who paved the way for everything that followed. His success, however, was due in large measure to the state of the radio industry, the ending of the Fairness Doctrine, and his ability to package a mixture of opinion and entertainment in a package that appealed to his listeners and kept them tuned in. He was, above all, an entertainer.

The Making of the Great Angertainer

Limbaugh spent years toiling in the backwater of radio as a DJ and sometime program host. In 1971, he had a bumpy ride as a radio DJ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the persona of “Bachelor Jeff” Christie. Later, he hosted a public affairs program in Kansas City, Missouri from 1975 to 1977. In 1979 he took a job in sales working with the Kansas City Royals baseball team. In November 1983, he went back on the air with a radio station in Kansas City—now working under his real name. He was fired less than a year later, then found a new job in Sacramento, California replacing the controversial, abrasive provocateur Morton Downey Jr.

On October 14, 1984, the most successful show in angertainment radio history began. The changes in the radio industry created the opportunity that Limbaugh needed. While he was honing his opinionated angertainment show in Sacramento, radio listeners who wanted to listen to music were fleeing AM stations to listen to the better quality sound of FM radio. AM radio stations had a huge problem. Declining ratings meant less money for programming. Weak programming meant fewer listeners. A death spiral.

The McLaughlin Connection

In 1986, Edward F. McLaughlin, the president of ABC Radio Networks, lost his job. Following his successful time as a station manager at KSFO in San Francisco, McLaughlin had been recruited to ABC in 1972. During his tenure at the ABC network, the radio operation grew and thrived. But in March 1985, Capital Cities Communications Inc. purchased the American Broadcasting Companies Inc. for $3.5 billion. By 1986, Capital Cities wanted to cut costs and put its own executives in place.

McLaughlin was out of a job. However, he did receive a severance package. And his severance package included one very special asset.

In 1979, National Public Radio pioneered a new way for radio stations to distribute and share programming: the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS). Properly equipped stations could beam programs up to commercial communication satellites. Then NPR stations anywhere in America could use a relatively inexpensive receiver to capture the broadcast signal as it was relayed from the satellite.

Where NPR pioneered, commercial radio, including the ABC Radio Network, followed. In the mid-1980s, a few radio programs were syndicated and shared nationally but primarily during the evening hours. During the daytime, there were very few “coast-to-coast” commercial radio programs.

So, as part of his severance package, McLaughlin received two hours of “satellite time” from ABC from noon until 2 PM daily.

McLaughlin was already involved with the syndication of a medical call-in show. But he was looking for something that would build a bigger audience. McLaughlin searched for a radio host for what he envisioned would be a nationally broadcast, daytime talk show. After communicating with friends from his San Francisco radio days, McLaughlin made a trip to Sacramento, California. He drove around the city listening to Rush Limbaugh. He didn’t like what he heard at first, but Limbaugh’s persona began to grow on him. Eventually, after meeting Limbaugh in person and listening to the show while driving, he decided that he had found the talent he wanted.

McLaughlin was able to arrange for Limbaugh to do a two-hour show on WABC from 10 until noon, a condition that allowed Limbaugh to break his contract in Sacramento—getting an opportunity to be on the air at a top-10 radio station.

The compensation for the new national program was paid in “availabilities.” McLaughlin was allowed to sell five minutes of advertising time during each hour while the Limbaugh show was on the air. McLaughlin took that same approach to his national distribution of the program. While larger stations may have p# Evolution aid a fee for the Limbaugh show, many of the small, struggling AM stations received it free in exchange for the availability of national advertising airtime. For the small AM stations the price for carrying the Limbaugh show was perfect: free.

National Success

Limbaugh went on the air in New York City on July 4, 1988. The show went live in syndication on August 1, 1988. Within two years the program was heard on more than 500 stations by millions of listeners daily. According to a New York Times interview, Limbaugh was earning more than $550,000 annually simply from personal appearance fees and merchandise sales.

While Limbaugh became the face of the angertainment industry, he paved the way for dozens of followers. There were still many hours of airtime to fill. Rush Limbaugh provided a role model for other people who wanted to fill them.

By 1995, there were a host of nationally syndicated shows hosted by people like Gordon Liddy, Bob Grant, Michael Reagan, Barry Farber, Alan Keyes, and Oliver North. Additionally, there were hundreds of local conservative hosts on AM radio stations.

By the mid-1990s Rush Limbaugh was by far the biggest name in angertainment. He averaged 20 million listeners on 500 stations daily, earning millions of dollars. In 1992, Limbaugh took a logical next step in his media career and launched a half-hour daily television show syndicated by Multimedia Entertainment (the syndicators for Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael). The Rush Limbaugh television show was launched on 183 stations covering 95% of the US, according to a report from the LA Times.

Television, however, provided a different sort of challenge for Limbaugh. Unlike AM radio, television stations had lots of programming to select from and a lot of entrenched competitors such as Phil Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael. The Limbaugh TV show was relegated to late-night time slots in many markets. In 1996, Limbaugh stopped producing the show. Limbaugh said he was disappointed with the direction traditional TV syndication was heading, complaining about his show getting later and later time slots. As a syndicated show, Limbaugh was dependent on the whims of program directors. His angertainment content didn’t have a natural home on late-night TV. The Rush Limbaugh TV show would’ve been nothing more than a minor footnote—a minor blemish in Limbaugh’s career except for one important detail.

The executive producer for the Rush Limbaugh TV show was Roger Ailes.

Angertainment 2.0: The Fox News Revolution

On September 6, 1996, Rush Limbaugh’s last late-night TV show aired. On October 7, 1996, Rupert Murdoch hired Roger Ailes to be the chairman and CEO of the Fox News Channel.

Roger Ailes and Rupert were a perfect match.

Ailes had years of experience as a TV producer. He had recently helped set up CNBC—the cable channel. His background also included years as a political media advisor, notably working with Ronald Reagan. He combined the contacts of a political operative with the skill set of a polished TV producer.

Rupert Murdoch had created a publishing empire. From a base in Australia, he first moved to England. He purchased newspapers and allied himself with the conservative Tory party. He then looked at the world’s biggest media market: the United States. He started small, buying newspapers in Texas. He quickly gained national stature with the purchase of the New York Post, where he turned a staid, left-of-center publication into a controversial, rabidly conservative flagship.

Murdoch, in addition to spreading political views, succeeded in making lots and lots of money. And so, in the fall of 1996, two men with similar political views joined forces. Ailes had spent the previous four years working with the most successful person in the angertainment industry: Rush Limbaugh, Ed McLaughlin, his producers, and everyone in his orbit. Murdoch had the money to back him up.

The Launch and Evolution of Fox News

Fox News launched on October 7, 1996. In its original incarnation, it used the tried and true tactics of earlier conservative media. It labeled competing media channels as “biased” and advertised itself as “fair and balanced.” From its inception it incorporated elements of Limbaugh-like programming in its prime-time lineup. Indeed, Ailes tried to recruit Limbaugh for the new network.

Over the following two decades, Fox News truly brought angertainment to a massive television audience. In 2023, Fox News was the most-watched Cable News Network with 2.2 million primetime viewers. It created angertainment stars: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and others. Most significantly it supplied a role model for other angertainment businesses to follow. It perfected the art of creating addictive, news-like content.

At its launch, it did have real reporters and there was some effort to provide serious news. Over time, especially over the last decade, the actual news people were sidelined, replaced, or in many cases, resigned. The opinion-oriented, angertainment-oriented prime-time shows dominated. The greatest show in angertainment took over.

It looked just like real television journalism. It sounded like television journalism. It was angertainment 2.0.

Angertainment 3.0: The Digital Revolution

While angertainment 1.0 and 2.0 began with specific launch dates, the era of angertainment 3.0 is preceded by a slow build.

In 1994, worried about his sons aimlessness, Matt Drudges father bought the young man a Packard Bell computer. The Drudge Report began as email messages sent to friends. In 1995, the Drudge Report had a thousand subscribers. By 1997 it had more than 80,000 readers. And through this time, the content evolved from entertainment gossip and general opinion to a focus on politics and political news. In the late 1990s he began working with Andrew Breitbart. By 2004, Drudge said he was earning more than $1 million annually.

Andrew Breitbart began working with Drudge in the late 1990s; Drudge served as his mentor. Later they met Arianna Huffington and helped the then-conservative Huffington launch the Huffington Post.

Breitbart News was founded in 2007. It was described as a Huffington Post for the right. At about the same time Breitbart was starting his operation, Alex Jones was appearing on a public access cable TV channel in Austin, Texas. By 1996, Jones had made his way to radio and by 2001, was syndicated on over 100 stations. As part of his effort to share his views he established the Infowars website in 1999, primarily as a storefront for the distribution of videos.

In a 2022 trial, the plaintiffs gave evidence that Jones had made $64 million in sales of supplements in 2021. Other evidence from Jones’s trial showed that he was earning as much as $800,000 daily.

The Digital Convergence

The exact beginning of angertainment 3.0 is hard to pinpoint—a confluence of people taking advantage of new communications technology. First via email then on the World Wide Web, a new form of angertainment emerged. Owners and presenters learned from the masters of angertainment radio and Fox News. They appeared as guests, gained recognition and followers, developed, and fine-tuned cyber-angertainment.

With roots in the late 1990s and proof of concept established in the early 2000s, a vast new worldwide stage was set. We now live in the era of angertainment 3.0, an industry constructed on a solid, three-legged “tripod” foundation.

Conservative talk radio dominates the AM radio spectrum. It reaches nearly every corner of America, available 24/7.

Fox News dominates the cable news media, number one in the ratings for television “news.” Fox News is now, however, being pressed by competition from Internet news sites.

Cyber-angertainment sites like Drudge and Breitbart and Infowars. Newcomers such as One American News Network and others.

Together, they from a powerful engine that sucks in news, opinion, and anything else that can be identified as “content” and processes it. The content is sorted, organized around hot buttons, edited for maximum impact, and heated with rhetoric. It is then blasted out to its audiences—the truth!

The angertainment industry functions like a turbojet engine gulping in content as fuel, pressurizing it, and then igniting it to produce a powerful force.  

The Impact of Social Media

Military aircraft, powered by turbojet engines, are equipped with an additional capability that increases and engine’s power. An “afterburner” uses the engine’s hot exhaust gasses to create nearly twice as much power. An afterburner injects additional fuel into the hot exhaust gasses of the turbojet, making the engine burn hotter and creating a massive increase in thrust.

Every element of angertainment radio, television, or content provided online is made available on the Internet. You can think of that content as a hot exhaust/thrust of a turbojet.

Everything has a link and can be shared. And the rise of social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, facilitated that sharing. Social media algorithms are designed to self-select engaging content. The algorithms are not looking for anything in particular—just content that is hot and getting lots of attention.

Angertainment content is the perfect fuel for social media. The algorithms increase its visibility, spread it further, and produce a secondary combustion that vastly increases the impact of angertainment content.

Hot, angry content get spread further, faster, creating even more hot, angry content.

Angertainment 1.0 was a powerful voice, a strong influence. Angertainment 2.0 increased the power, reach, and effectiveness of angertainment with visuals. People who had become dependent on television over time as a news source “tuned in” and believed.

But angertainment 3.0—this is angertainment on steroids. Angertainment has grown in power to a whole new level. It is available in every media channel. It is slick, well-produced, and persuasive. And it is shared, re-shared, tweeted, and retweeted endlessly. Social media are a catalyst that amplifies the negative impacts and the profitability of social media.

More Than a Silo

Pundits like to talk about silos and echo chambers when describing audiences that are immune to outside input or influence. These analogies are inadequate. They suggest some sort of container and the idea that the audience is trapped in some way. That isn’t the case. The angertainment audience chooses its location. It is not trapped, unless you want to delve into realms of psychology.

“Fog” might be a better metaphor. But it is not. Fog suggests that people cannot see clearly. It creates an image of people stumbling, trying to find their way. Thats not the case. The angertainment audience sees everything quite clearly: the conspiracies, the threat of socialism, the threat any Democrat poses, the plans that liberals have to disarm them, the threats posed by feminists, LGBTQ people, pointy-headed professors, and George Soros. There are clear and present dangers and the angertainment audience sees them all.

The reality—you don’t need a metaphor—is that the angertainment industry has forged its audience into a group that meets every element in the definition of a community.

When you look at the people who enjoy angertainment, that’s what you find. It is the same group critics might call the MAGA crowd or the Republican base. These are people with common bonds, fears, and common purpose. Additionally, there is one additional, powerful layer that separates them from the rest of the body politic.

The Addictive Power of Angertainment

While it lacks the chemical potency of a drug, angertainment contains many of the other elements required to create an addiction. Angertainment is filled with affirmations for its consumers. It provides a “high”—a sense of being in the know and having facts that other people don’t have. Angertainment provides a sense of community. Angertainers function as cheerleaders, encouraging their followers to cheer for their heroes and boo their villains. Angertainment always keeps the entertainment function in the forefront.

Angertainment delivers certainty. The angertainment presenters present their content in stark terms; no gray areas, no room for nuance. Angertainment consumers can rest assured that they are in possession of the TRUTH.

If their presentations were dull, dreary, depressing, and filled with facts, deep analysis, and boring details, consumers wouldn’t stay tuned in or keep clicking. Angertainment is first and foremost a form of entertainment. It puts consumers first and makes every effort to keep them fully engaged.

The industry is even working to develop its own style of angertainment comedy—an answer to the political jokes of late-night television and the more political humor of people like Jon Stewart. The angertainment industry sees a niche to be filled and is trying to fill it.

When the drug addict is feeling bad there is an answer. Take a pill. Smoke something. Get a fix. The addict knows they will feel better; they can be sure of at least that one thing.

Angertainment operates in a similar way. Angertainment consumers look at the world and see pain. They see threats; some real, some imagined, and some fabricated by the media they consume. The real world is, in fact, a complicated place. Immigration and border security: big and complicated. Global warming: big and complicated. War, poverty, the suppression of democracy: big and complicated.

Yet, when you enter the angertainment universe everything changes. The essence of angertainment is the knowledge that there is a simple answer to every problem.