How the beloved talk-show host remade radio.
The American Spectator "What can you say about Rush Limbaugh that he already hasn’t said about himself? The Big Voice on the Right. America’s Anchorman. The Doctor of
Democracy. A living legend. The harmless, lovable little fuzzball operating with talent on loan from God.
"His ideological opponents use slightly different language. The Daily Beast has called Limbaugh a “racist radio pioneer.” A 2012 CNN essay compared him to Josef Goebbels and asked the FCC to punish radio stations airing his program. Before his Senate days, Al Franken wrote a book titled Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. President Bill Clinton almost certainly was targeting Limbaugh when he laid part of the blame for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing on “voices on the airwaves” who spread hate and leave the impression that “violence is acceptable.”
"Through it all, for more than three decades, Limbaugh has been synonymous with talk radio. “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” broadcast weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET, remains the most-listened-to radio program in America. According to the show’s syndicator, Premiere Networks, the program airs on more than 650 stations nationwide, reaching more than twenty-five million listeners on a weekly basis.
"That kind of success and longevity in any industry would be impressive, but in the fickle world of broadcasting it merits special notice. To fully appreciate Limbaugh’s rise, it helps to understand the playing field he entered back in 1988.
"One year prior, in 1987, the Reagan administration and the FCC acted to roll back a nearly forty-year-old regulation on the holders of broadcast licenses called the Fairness Doctrine. The statute demanded that radio stations present both sides of controversial issues of the day. A corollary to the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to notify any public figure of a “personal attack” and allow him an opportunity to respond over the airwaves.
"You likely can understand how these regulations chilled the development of any program that might have an overt partisan tinge. Sure, Larry King could conduct interviews on his national program and Bruce Williams could answer questions on financial matters from listeners, but politics was essentially a no-go zone.
"Once the Fairness Doctrine was lifted, new programming possibilities emerged. And into this arena stepped the right man at the right time." . . .
The American Spectator "What can you say about Rush Limbaugh that he already hasn’t said about himself? The Big Voice on the Right. America’s Anchorman. The Doctor of
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| By Jared Kelley |
"His ideological opponents use slightly different language. The Daily Beast has called Limbaugh a “racist radio pioneer.” A 2012 CNN essay compared him to Josef Goebbels and asked the FCC to punish radio stations airing his program. Before his Senate days, Al Franken wrote a book titled Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. President Bill Clinton almost certainly was targeting Limbaugh when he laid part of the blame for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing on “voices on the airwaves” who spread hate and leave the impression that “violence is acceptable.”
"Through it all, for more than three decades, Limbaugh has been synonymous with talk radio. “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” broadcast weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET, remains the most-listened-to radio program in America. According to the show’s syndicator, Premiere Networks, the program airs on more than 650 stations nationwide, reaching more than twenty-five million listeners on a weekly basis.
"That kind of success and longevity in any industry would be impressive, but in the fickle world of broadcasting it merits special notice. To fully appreciate Limbaugh’s rise, it helps to understand the playing field he entered back in 1988.
"You likely can understand how these regulations chilled the development of any program that might have an overt partisan tinge. Sure, Larry King could conduct interviews on his national program and Bruce Williams could answer questions on financial matters from listeners, but politics was essentially a no-go zone.
"Once the Fairness Doctrine was lifted, new programming possibilities emerged. And into this arena stepped the right man at the right time." . . .
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