Why did Father Coughlin thrive on radio, according to Eric Levitz?

Eric Levitz describes Father Charles Coughlin, a Michigan Catholic priest turned broadcaster, as one of America's first great radio demagogues and a blueprint for later talkers like Rush Limbaugh. Radio was intimate and reached Americans who did not read much, and because it had many independent stations, Coughlin could buy airtime directly after CBS dropped him in 1931, bypassing the gatekeepers.

• On the left, Franklin D. Roosevelt used his fireside chats to cast himself as the ordinary man's champion against economic royalists.
• Levitz contrasts radio with mid-century television, whose high costs left only ABC, CBS and NBC.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Today, Explained (2026-11-03). Read the whole episode summary →

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