How Public Radio May Have Created Rush Limbaugh

The late Rush Limbaugh was a man despised by the left.  Liberalism’s core is virtue signaling.  It’s Michelle Obama holding up a slogan on a dry erase board in support of kidnapped Nigerian school girls.  It does nothing to free them but draws praise from other liberals (most news media included).

Liberalism is nothing more.  It’s clearly not an action plan.  Limbaugh held it up to parody and ridicule and exposed its emptiness.

Over the weekend I came across a post where a writer also inadvertently, I think, made an argument for small government conservatism.  You can read the piece by clicking here.  The author argues creation of National Palestinian Radio, known as NPR, allowed for the rise of an alternative format on commercial radio where we aren’t subsidized by tax money.

Left-wing commercial talk radio couldn’t succeed against a well-funded government network.  Or it’s the theory.

Many, many years ago, I was driving along a country road on the Lower Shore of Maryland.  There were few pickings on my radio dial and I settled on a public station.  There was a beg-a-thon underway and one of the heavy breathing monotones was explaining it was a myth government money kept the place afloat.  “We only get 60 percent of our budget from Washington,” he explained.  So, it’s like being a little bit pregnant.  He didn’t mention there was also some state funding involved.

The station where I worked at the time got nothing from government.  Other than a strict set of rules for access to a dial position.  Revenue was collected by some serious shoe leather on pavement.  A sales staff cajoling businesses to get behind our message.  A big challenge considering controversial content but the advertisers were rewarded by our loyal audience.  Which transferred loyalty to their businesses.