shock radio

noun

1. broadcasting by a commercial radio station whose humor includes tasteless jokes, sexual innuendo, and ethnic insults.

Word History and Origins

Origin of shock radio¹

1990–95

Example Sentences

And he’s carrying enough verbal baggage from 30 years of shock radio rhetoric to arm Newsom with ample ammunition to scare Democrats into voting against the recall.

From Los Angeles Times

Unlike Howard Stern, Don Imus and other big names in shock radio, Mr. Limbaugh had no on-the-air sidekicks, though he had conversations with the unheard voice of someone he called “Bo Snerdly.”

From New York Times

We had yellow journalism in the nineteenth century, and today endure shock radio, the National Enquirer, and Fox News.

From Salon

Don Imus, who tested the limits of shock radio with his irreverent attacks on celebrities, politicians, racial and ethnic groups, women, gay people and practically anyone whose head stuck up out of the foxhole, died on Friday in College Station, Texas.

From New York Times

We had yellow journalism in the 19th century and today endure shock radio, the National Enquirer and Fox News.

From Salon