I'm in the NYC metropolitan region.
In 1998, there were 2-3 talk radio stations: WWOR, WABC, WEVD.
WWOR was generally non-political. Shows ranged from what to see on Broadway, to cooking, to general discussion.
WABC had Rush and Bob Grant as novelty acts and for "balance". The rest of the hosts were generally liberal, e.g., Lynn Samuels, Lionel, Alan Colmes, Ron Kuby. Gradually the progressive hosts were fired and replaced with RW talk show hosts. (FYI: Sean Hannity got his foothold in NYC radio on WABC, doing the overnight hours.)
WEVD was a very small radio station, WEVD. Originally created to honor Eugene V. Debs. It broadcast in several languages for the newly immigrated: Yiddish, Polish, Slavic, etc. By 1998, it had three very strong hosts, encompassing a majority of its broadcast hours: Bill Mazer, Sam Greenfield, and Alan Colmes. Ed Koch and Lionel were later added. And the programs were very popular and had people waiting on hold to talk to them on the air. Especially seniors who were still loyal to FDR and The New Deal. The hosts had progressive writers whom they interviewed, e.g., Michael Tomasky, Lars Erik Nelson, Wayne Barrett, and democratic officeholders (local, regional, and national).
The Jewish Forward owned WEVD and the 1050 AM band. And it was persuaded to sell the station in 2001 to the ABC Network/Disney/ESPN, to the dismay of the listeners. And at midnight on August 31, 2001, the format died. And 1050 was given to ESPN to be the flagship station for its network. NYC now has TWO sports radio talk networks and not a single network for even non-conservative radio. New York City, not Steubenville, OH!
The Air America network gave a valiant attempt to return progressive talk radio. It started on WLIB and transferred to WWRL. And it couldn't survive.
WWRL tried to maintain its own progressive programs as The Morning Show (Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams), Ed Schulz, etc., but that too, couldn't survive.
At the moment, there are 2-3 stations that are talk radio and all are RW: WABC, WWOR, and WNYM. All claim to be "conservative" radio, but they aren't. Wholly right wing outlets.
And there hasn't been a station on the AM Band in the NYC area that broadcasts liberal/progressive programs since 2011. The last one was on WVNJ in New Jersey, "The Morning Show".
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