As I got older, that split remained, though sports gave way to mostly news and information channels. For instance, at work, driving from appointment to appointment, I listened to Rush Limbaugh, Paul Harvey, and others on AM. If I was in the mood for music, I would flip over to FM and get my music fix
Speaking of the Late, Great Rush, he dominated AM Radio, much to the chagrin of Liberal Democrats. But it wasn’t always that way.
By 1988, FM was dominating radio. More people preferred music to news, especially in their vehicles. They could watch the news on TV; during the day, they preferred music. Then, along came Rush.
Within a decade, Limbaugh's audience expanded from 250,000 to 20 million. By the time he passed away in 2021, he was attracting 15.5 million weekly listeners across nearly 600 stations. He held the title of the No. 1 radio show in the country for 30 consecutive years and played a significant role in revitalizing the format along the way.
Conservative figures such as Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and Dan Bongino entered the talk radio scene behind him. By 2020, 12 of the top 15 talk radio hosts in America were conservative.
Liberals hated this. So, in an attempt to reclaim their share of the market, they started Air America in 2004, but by 2010 it was defunct and off the air.