TALK RADIO

After reading the heartfelt concerns expressed by leading liberals over the current wave of conservative radio talk shows (“The Right Rush-es Onward,” by Judith Michaelson, Jan. 28), I couldn’t help but wonder where these voices for “balance” were when it became painfully obvious a number of years ago that a majority of mainstream media, academe and the entertainment industry--key factors in forming public opinion--are all largely controlled and financially supported by the left.

If the presence of a few, albeit well-modulated, conservative talk show hosts are now the cause of uneasiness in some circles, then maybe it’s time for liberals to consider an old adage many on the right have been passionately repeating for years: What goes around comes around.

FRED ROMERO

Simi Valley

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In a society where corporate money controls all major broadcasting and publishing companies, the term “liberal media” is a ludicrous oxymoron. When compared to every other industrialized democracy in the world, the public debate in this country is between the right and the far right.

MARVIN A. GLUCK

Topanga

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Talk radio used to be a bold frontier where programmers took chances and created diverse personalities whose insights inspired audiences to think. Today’s hosts are imitative right-wing kooks who pummel listeners with half-baked opinions, leaving little room for discussion. This is particularly shameful in an election year, when so much is at stake politically.

Los Angeles is too important a market to simply follow trends; it must set a higher standard of presenting lively, informed debate.

DAWNA KAUFMANN

Los Angeles

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The right-wing turn in talk radio, in addition to the lack of female hosts, caused me to find more creative use for my three hours of driving time per day. Thanks to the programmers at KFI and KABC, as well as the makers of foreign-language tapes, I am now almost completely fluent in Italian and Spanish, and am considering German next.

CAROLYN HOWELL

Los Angeles

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The reason that liberal-oriented talk shows don’t make it is that liberals aren’t sheep. They think for themselves.

A liberal “dittohead” is self-contradictory. The consequence of this is that a truly liberal talk show host would never gain the fanatical following of the robots who take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh.

WILLIAM McCALL

Arcadia

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Until there’s a better balance in hosts and programming, we left-leaning listeners will continue to set our dials to public radio.

MARK SANTOS

Commerce

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There is a gritty progressive voice who can be heard in L.A. He is Bernie Ward of KGO, San Francisco (810 AM), who’s on between 8 and 10 weeknights. He is a liberal with guts who skewers right-wing dingbats who call to trash him, and he usually gets the better of thoughtful conservatives who try to debate him. I find him more stimulating than anything on L.A. stations in that time period.

JAY HOFERR

Los Angeles