Mike Huckabee takes aim at Rush Limbaugh

[kpete]

Rush Limbaugh, the longstanding undisputed king of conservative talk radio who’s been dogged by controversy recently, is about to face some more heat. Not from the left, but this time from the right.
On Monday, former Arkansas governor and one-time Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will launch a three-hour radio program on almost 200 stations across the country, going voice-to-voice with Limbaugh in the noon-to-3 p.m. time slot, Monday through Friday.


Cumulus Media, which owns and operates the new program, is already pitching Huckabee to listeners and advertisers as the “safe alternative” to a man who has recently found himself under weeks of intense fire - not for the first time - and who some believe could be vulnerable to a challenge from someone offering a kinder, gentler conservative voice.

“Our tagline is, ‘More conversation, less confrontation’,” Huckabee told POLITICO. “I’m going to treat every guest with respect and civility. Nobody is going to come on and get into a shouting match with me. That’s just not my style.”

Making a direct comparison with Limbaugh, John Dickey, the co-COO of Cumulus Media, adds, “This is going to be safer from a commercial standpoint, and more respectful from a listener’s perspective. I think that environment has been sorely lacking in talk radio.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74907.html#ixzz1rMSUH62w

[Bluzmann57]

1. I suppose airing Ed's show was never considered

Ed Schultz goes head to head with limbaugh as well but I suppose that cumulus could never consider putting someone who actually has progressive views.

[mowsepotato]

2. Wow

I've never thought much of Huckabee but he just got to rung one of the ladder.

[Bjorn Against]

3. I predict a large number of radio station drop Limbaugh on Monday

I have been saying for a while that once Huckabee takes the air Limbaugh's real trouble will begin. Many radio stations don't announce schedule changes until they actually take place and I predict many dittoheads will tune in expecting to hear Limbaugh on Monday only to get Huckabee's voice instead.

[JNelson6563]

4. That will be quite a shock to them!

Oh the times, they are a'changin'!

Julie

[Schema Thing]

5. hah!

[KG]

6. piss on Mike Huckabee

[BlueToTheBone]

7. agreed n/t

[bullwinkle428]

8. RW sharks smell blood in the water!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. What will happen to poor Rush

if he can't sufficiently blow out his anal passage every day by excreting his crap across America? We wouldn't want him to explode like that thin little mint guy in Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life.

[alp227]

10. So far TuneIn.com lists only about 20 stations

http://tunein.com/radio/options/The-Mike-Huckabee-Show-p400955/

[pinboy3niner]

11. Mike Huckabee Starts New Radio Call-In Show, First Caller Revealed To Be ‘Staged’

Source: Mediaite

by Jon Bershad | 4:16 pm, April 10th, 2012

.... To make matters worse, Lord is now reporting that Huckabee’s first caller, who spoke effusively about how great it was to have someone like Huckabee on the radio, was actually just Cumulus executive Mike McVay.
Here’s how the caller, Mike from San Francisco, began his conversation with Huckabee:

“Well Governor, let me start by saying it’s great to have a different opinion and a different person on the radio and I’m very, very happy that you’re doing this radio show. One of the reasons why I want to listen to your program every day is because you ran for office and you’ve been a politician, you have a different perspective I think.”

As Lord explains in his Spectator piece, he first became suspicious when the caller managed to call in only seconds after the show’s phone number was said on air. The fact that his compliments seemed to directly parallel the promotional pitches for the show didn’t help

.

Mediaite reports that Lord later received full confirmation from the executives in charge of Cumulus Media, Lew and John Dickey:

“Jeff:

Thanks for listening to the show. To your question a colleague in the company was excited about the new show and arranged to call in with the first question without Governor Huckabee’s knowledge. When I learned of this I began the process of reminding my colleagues in the company that we should reserve air-time for our listeners and refrain from calling in to our own shows.

John”

http://www.mediaite.com/online/mike-huckabee-starts-new-radio-call-in-show-first-caller-revealed-to-be-staged/

[Blue_Tires]

12. This can't end well...

like a two-bit hood setting up shop right next door to the world mafia headquarters...