OCTOER 8, 2024 – Among the books on the floor-to-ceiling shelves in the den of our house when I was growing up was the No. 1 best seller in 1958, Only in America by Harry Golden. I never read it, but I’m sure my parents had: they read pretty much every book that wound up on those shelves, though I doubt they read from cover to cover, the revised 14th edition of the 24-volume (plus atlas and index) edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, which occupied a bottom shelf. Only in America was a spirited book about many amusing aspects of American life; features unique to our country, our culture. For a long time after the book’s meteoric popularity, the phrase, “only in America” was often assigned to an especially odd circumstance that a person witnessed or heard about pertaining to . . . life in this crazy country. I recall the phrase—and the book that I often saw but never read—as I forge this post.
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I don’t spend a lot of time in my car, but when I do and when I opt out of total silence, I turn my sound system to one of four sound sources: ONE: Public radio news; TWO: My playlist of recorded music—currently Bartok violin concertos No. 1 and 2; THREE: When in the vicinity of Grindstone Lake, Wisconsin, “WOJB Radio,” the leftwing listener supported station broadcasting from the nearby Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation; and FOUR (drum roll; drum roll followed by a line of fife-playing Revolutionary reenactors in full parade uniforms playing Yankee Doodle on their fifes): Elsewhere and during public radio pledge week, “The Patriot,” the rightwing AM station broadcasting inside the Twin Cities.
Lately, I’ve become especially fascinated by “The Patriot,” which is 100% talk radio—plus commercials. Initially, my patience was limited, but this condition coincided with the customarily short duration of my car trips and the station’s limited broadcast range. The diatribes and other strident forms of opinion aired on the show were eminently predictable. I heard nothing that I hadn’t heard before: Biden is a “disaster” (no details given) and Harris is too (again, no details except that she “opened the Southern border to anyone who wants to walk through”). I’d long been inoculated against such claptrap, and knowing full well that I couldn’t change anyone’s mind, especially my own, I wasn’t about to elevate my blood pressure for no gain. In time I began to tune out both the tone and substance of all the talk and focused instead on the advertisements.
This shift was facilitated by the disproportionate time devoted to “sponsors” relative to “content.” At first the compressed fast-pitch ads were annoying, but after listening more carefully, I realized that as is the case with all media advertising, “The Patriot” commercials reflected the demographics of the listenership, and I found this all rather interesting. This constant feature of commercials underscored the feedback loop associated with all for-profit media. As a reminder, it works as follows . . .
A media outlet is in business to make money. Making money requires two numbers, one (revenue) being more than the other (expenses). Revenue can come from subscriptions, but in most cases it’s generated from advertisers who pay to have their products and services touted over the airwaves, cable and satellite feeds. What those advertisers will pay depends not only on how many eyes and ears are reached by the ads but whose eyes and ears are on the receiving end. For decades market research firms have been expert at revealing this information—for a price, of course—and in the digital age, methods have improved to a level of highly refined accuracy, thanks to algorithms and AI.
In short order, the feedback loop is clearly established. In the case of “The Patriot,” in the target market bullseye are older Christian rightwing consumers seeking ratification of their views; they are not truly interested in new information that challenges their opinions. Content purveyed by the media outlet is simply tailored to the appetite of the audience. Having hooked its listenership on affirming content, “The Patriot” can then pitch favorable numbers to appropriate advertisers, sign them up and rake in the advertising dollars. “Appropriate advertisers” are vendors of goods and services who share the same target market: older Christian rightwing consumers.
Judging by the commercials alone, I’m definitely not in “The Patriot’s” target market: I’m not susceptible to fear-mongering about the economy such that I’m going to sell all my stocks and bonds and buy gold, which the slick sales guy tells listeners is “the safest investment of all time”—not one of the most speculative investment options available; I’m not running from the IRS and don’t need an advocate who knows “which agents to call and which to avoid” and who has “brilliant strategies” for negotiating down what I owe in back taxes, “whether it’s $5,000, $50,000, or $500,000”; I’m not interested in a “faith-based alternative to health care insurance,” no matter how affordable; I’m not in the market for a glucose meter for diabetics or a magic weight-loss pill; I’m not going to spend “just” $19.95 a month for an “all-natural” supplement that doesn’t just hide pain temporarily but eliminates it—and works so (dubiously) well, “close to 70% of the customers who buy a month’s supply reorder”; I’m not interested in learning more about a “Christian school” (even if by my inquiry I’ll be rewarded with a free copy of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution—shipping costs waived for a limited period only); and no, I wouldn’t want to be trapped for however many days aboard a Caribbean cruise ship with popular rightwing pundit Dennis Prager.
A string of ads tells me all I need to know about “The Patriot” and its circular business model: Hand out red meat to people who love to eat red meat and advertisers targeting red meat eaters will pay you good money so that you can throw more red meat to the red meat crowd. Before long, you’ll be amazed by how many people are “full up” on red meat yet famished for more while you’re laughing with fistfuls of greenbacks all the way to the bank.
I say, “Only in America . . . where everyone’s free to make—and spend—a buck, fast or slow.”
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© 2024 by Eric Nilsson
