Two weeks ago in Madison, hundreds turned out to protest the cancellation of liberal talk radio, and the protests worked. Clear Channel reversed its plans to switch 92.1-FM from progressive talk (which includes Air America programming) to sports talk.

Here’s something, however, the news media missed. In Monroe County, conservative talk radio disappeared without a peep.

Does this challenge the conventional wisdom that conservative talk radio sells and liberal talk radio doesn’t? Or does the fact that liberal talk almost died in Madison and conservative talk disappeared unnoticed in Monroe County reveal something about political talk radio in general?

Madison liberals may be clinging to a corpse. Air America continues to drown in bankruptcy, low ratings, scandal and disappearing affiliates, which may soon leave 92.1 FM scrambling for liberal content (the Tom Daschle Show, perhaps?).

But try finding conservative talk in Tomah. It’s not easy, now that WKLJ in Sparta switched from conservative talk to sports talk. While driving in Tomah, the scan button on my car radio stops at only three AM stations:

* WTMB, oldies in Tomah. (Mandatory disclosure: I broadcast Tomah High School sporting events on WTMB.)

* WKLJ, now ESPN radio in Sparta. It used to host conservative talkers Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage and G. Gordon Liddy.

* WKTY, sports talk in La Crosse.

If my scan button doesn’t stop for an AM station, there’s usually too much static for a pleasant listening experience. I guess if someone absolutely must get their daily dose of Rush, O’Reilly or Sean Hannity, he or she can endure static reception from stations in La Crosse or Wisconsin Rapids. The bottom line: Commercial talk radio, conservative or otherwise, is a fuzzy and feeble presence in Tomah.

Is the Tomah market unusual or the forerunner of a trend? I suspect that most people -- conservative, moderate and liberal -- have concluded commercial political talk radio is as enjoyable as hearing a distant relative complain about his gout.

Therein was Air America’s mistake. Air America attempted to be a liberal version of Rush Limbaugh at a time when Limbaugh’s popularity was on the decline. Remember Limbaugh’s recent dustup with Michael J. Fox? Shortly thereafter, Gallup conducted an approval poll of Limbaugh, and the big guy’s positive rating registered 26 percent, compared to 56 percent negative. This hardly reflects the ideological makeup America, but it does reflect America’s non-ideological attitude toward braggarts and bluster.

So, how did Air America jump into talk radio? With Limbaughesque bluster.

Take, for instance, Randi Rhodes, a typical Air America host. If you’ve never listened to her, consider yourself fortunate. Like Limbaugh and his clones, Rhodes does a long “teaser,” a hectoring monologue designed to gin up anger and outrage. Callers are carefully screened, and anyone who can effectively challenge the host is quickly jettisoned.

Then there are the commercials. lots of them. Once, I tried to give my wife, Bobbe, a taste of Air America, but the commercials just kept coming. We switched back to Public Radio before hearing any non-commercial content. When sampling Rush Limbaugh in the days after his ill-fated ESPN gig (the poor guy floundered when he couldn’t control every single facet of the show), I was struck by how much of Rush’s program is consumed by commercials. It takes lots of patience for dittoheads to wait through all those hair restoration ads.

To the extent that liberals get their talk (and I suspect liberals, like most conservatives, would rather listen to music while cruising the highway), they get a much more intelligent version from Public Radio, which is not a liberal version of commercial conservative talk (the formats, if nothing else, are substantially different). But liberals have also claimed the Internet, where loads of content can be consumed at a much faster pace. I don’t recall Air America getting any credit for the “thumpin’” the Democrats administered last month.

This is just speculation, but political talk radio may have hit a generational fault line. Most talk-radio callers sound like males in their 30s and 40s. Might the typical 20-year-old be amused by 40-year-olds who need a charismatic radio host to feed them their daily talking points? Dittoheads are so 1990s.

Talk radio was never the best thing that happened to political discourse, and progressives shouldn’t lose any sleep if Air America disappears. Take it from a listener in Tomah: things are tough all over in the world of commercial political talk.

Steve Rundio is the Perspective Page editor of Tomah Newspapers.