Rush Limbaugh, the Beethoven of American talk radio, explains his success in the NYT:

“Do you know what bought me all this?” [Limbaugh] asked, waving his hand in the general direction of his prosperity. “Not my political ideas. Conservatism didn’t buy this house. First and foremost I’m a businessman. My first goal is to attract the largest possible audience so I can charge confiscatory ad rates. I happen to have great entertainment skills, but that enables me to sell airtime.”

I hate to quote myself (or Mike even), but this is from Can You Trust The Media? (p.55):

The media is not in the information supply business. It is in the distraction business. It wants to occupy the seconds, minutes and hours of our lives that are not spent earning the money required to make us valuable to businesses as a consumer or governments as a taxpayer, and as much of our working time as it can. It is there to force itself into our consciousness and by doing so, live another day.