If progressive radio really wants to get on the map, its hosts would do well to remember that one of the reasons the liberal talk radio network Air America flopped was that they “forgot they were in the radio business, not in the get my candidate elected business,” said Al Peterson, publisher and editor of talk radio trade NTS MediaOnline Today.

“They failed because they failed to understand they were in the radio business – not the politics business,” he added.

SiriusXM’s Mark Thompson said, “We have an opportunity and a responsibility to even challenge our progressive leadership and our progressive politicians. That’s how our credibility, I think, overshadows what the right does.”

While it’s easy to parrot the party line, it’s also bad radio.

“It seems that the hosts who have tried to make it in the progressive arena have been so driven by a particular agenda first that they have forgotten the entertainment aspect,” said Radio Ink publisher Eric Rhoads. “For instance, I don’t think any of the conservative talk show hosts would be as successful as they are today if they didn’t put entertainment above and beyond whatever is their personal mission.”