Say you're in charge of a local radio station. Why would you pay a million dollars a year for Rush Limbaugh when you could have Mike Huckabee for free? Well, not for free, but for a couple minutes an hour of airtime? For that matter, why not put me on the air, or some kid from the local college?
Do any of you remember Fred Thompson's radio show? The actor and former Tennessee senator was syndicated by Westwood One, a rival to the company that offers Limbaugh's show, with Thompson the amiable Southern gentleman talking politics and chatting with guests and callers. It sounded much as I expect Huckabee's show will sound, and it failed. Thompson was fired by Westwood One and replaced by an actor and film producer named Urbanski, whose show was equally unsuccessful.
What sets Rush Limbaugh apart from the parade of politicians and celebrities who have tried their hand at talk radio is that Limbaugh is a career radio professional with proven talent. He is an entertainer who knows how to appeal to a radio audience. Moreover, as the inventor and perfector of modern right-wing rant radio, he is necessarily a tough act to follow. I can't see him sidelined other than by someone with a new approach that is more appealing to Limbaugh's listeners. That probably isn't Huckabee, whose performance as successor to the late Paul Harvey has been lackluster. Station managers won't dump Limbaugh for Huckabee unless they think they will gain audience share by the switch. The name of the game in radio is not to minimize expenses, but to maximize the number of ears one can sell one's advertisers, and Limbaugh is a master at that.
Eventually, of course, the Limbaugh formula will lose its appeal, either when his audience of mostly older white men begins to tire of it or when they begin dying off. But I cannot see him being forced off the air by boycotts, protests, and the like; on the contrary, they only serve to keep him and his message in the public spotlight. As long as he has the ears of his audience, advertisers who want to reach those ears will buy his show. That is how commercial radio works.
I continue to question the wisdom of both the Clinton and Obama administrations' decisions not to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, the longstanding FCC requirement that broadcasters, as trustees of the public airwaves, make them equally available to contrasting points of view. The Fairness Doctrine was abolished by Reagan's FCC late in his second term, and that move cleared the way for conservative talk stations presenting a single point of view chosen for its greatest appeal to their target audience, which is (mostly white and blue-collar) men over 35. That format, and Limbaugh's mastery of it, played a large role in the Republican electoral victories of 1994 and 2010, I think. The Fairness Doctrine would not have kept Limbaugh off the air, but it would have forced broadcasters to make room for opposing points of view.
If there is a billboard on top of City Hall, the city should not be allowed to offer that billboard only to advertisers with one point of view, nor to argue that those who disagree with it are free to advertise elsewhere. The airwaves, like City Hall, belong to the public, and the existence of other media, new or old, does not detract from the broadcaster's obligation, as a trustee of the public airwaves, to offer access to them fairly to a broad spectrum of viewpoints. I would reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in a heartbeat, if the choice were mine.
Given that restoration of the Fairness Doctrine any time soon seems improbable, the best way to counter the Right on the air is for the Left to raise an equally credible voice. I do not mean NPR or something akin to the late Air America; nor do I mean a voice to support and defend President Obama against attacks from the right. No, what I have in mind is as far to the left of all of these as Limbaugh is to the right of them, to reveal them as the centrists they truly are rather than the "far left" "socialists" that the Right makes them out to be. I mean a real socialist voice, one to advocate for Marx and even Lenin in this era when the triumph of global capital and its effects on the average working American are largely ignored amidst divisive arguments over sex, religion, and race.
There is a clear need for a voice of the Left, packaged commercially to appeal to an audience demographic advertisers will buy, and presented by someone who knows how to reach out and grab listeners, someone with the talent and experience to become the next great star of American radio.
I await your suggestions.