 Limbaugh was a great innovator, but he didn't change American media and politics all at once or on his own. In conservative talk radio's early days, hosts shared stations with liberal talkers and apolitical programs. There was not an immediate sense that conservative radio was the future, either. But gradually, its success snowballed thanks to trial and error in the radio business, regulatory changes, political events, happenstance, and most importantly, listener behavior.