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"Some of the people who call in get a certain exhibitionistic satisfaction from the byplay," Levine says. "Others, more neurotic, have a masochistic tendency to be attacked, to feel self-righteous and ignored." Chicago Psychiatrist Jeffrey Hammer suggests that some callers may see in the talk-show host a surrogate father. The host, says Hammer, "takes the position that he knows better. And what do children do? Try to knock father over."
Many hardball hosts maintain that they alone touch the real concerns of their audience. Warren Freiberg, a conservative who conducts a call-in show on WLNR in Lansing, 111., says that his straight talk is welcomed by people who are unmoved by "the educated media, the Walter Cronkites and Dan Rathers of the world." But other broadcasters disagree.
Says Larry King, a Washington-based radio host whose nightly network call-in show reaches 3.5 million people nation wide: "Their purpose is simply to enrage." Miami's Sandy Payton, whose WIOD show is less acerbic than those of competitors like Kane, believes that their appeal is strictly a matter of sensationalism: "Listening to these hosts is no different from slowing down to watch an auto accident."
— By Richard Lacayo.
— Reported by Marilyn Alva/Miami and Elaine Dutka/New York