Radio stations are the medium of the new millennium. Sure, in the past the radio started out as the mass medium of choice, and for many years families were gathered around the radio for entertainment and also for the latest news and information. A radio station held the power to inform and to sway public opinion. As a matter of fact, a radio station could be a powerful ally to any politician who had set his mind and heart on winning an election or getting his point of view across to the masses. For a while it appeared that once television entered the mainstream, local radio stations were becoming an oddity that would either be hosted by aspiring communications majors at the local college or music aficionados who would play music round the clock.

While there is without doubt room for the music only radio station, the genre has developed once again and it has now evolved into a political and opinion driven powerhouse. It is generally held that while the newsprint media and also the television media are considered to be leaning to the left of the political spectrum, the talk radio station media is leaning to the right. It is obviously not as clear-cut, but by and large there are more conservative or libertarian talk show hosts than their liberal counterparts. To this end, some who have been eyeing the presumed conservative radio station with contempt and mistrust have attempted to introduce the fairness doctrine to the free radio stations which provide their programming to anyone with a radio.

Live radio stations provide politically charged talk shows which often pride themselves on controversy and the fairness doctrine is supposed to enforce the notion that right off center content needs to be evened out with left off center commentary. While it is unclear how this would affect online radio stations, a quick look at your local radio station guide will reveal that it is talk radio only that will be affected, and that this effect may indeed translate in the demise of entire station formats, which are oftentimes personality driven. Shorten a radio personality’s hours to include a host that is more palatable to the opposition, and you will look at a new free online radio station that is not forced to conform to an impossible standard. What makes talk radio work is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and if you wish to continue to listen to free radio stations then it is important to keep them free – without restriction of political content. Let the listener decide what is worth listening to and what will soon find its way to the list of free online radio stations!