Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is calling it quits as seemed implied by the Dennis Miller announcement yesterday, which already had Huckabee off of KLIF and KCMO. It’s now official – he’s out of syndication at the end of December, replaced by Dennis Miller.
Miller is proving that sticking to something can pay off (not necessarily in Cumulus Dollars, though). He’s now in the top 5 in my “ratings” nationally – partly because everyone else has left and/or died…. O’Reilly, Lou Dobbs, G Gordon Liddy, Dr Laura, Jerry Doyle, Rusty Humphries, Dr Dean Edell, Neal Boortz, Tammy Bruce, Brian and the Judge (now just Brian), Monica Crowley (during the week)…
Back when Dennis Miller started his late night TV show, he opened it the first night be announcing he was “going to kick Rush Limbaugh’s Ass”. Well, now he has his chance.
Miller is at least counter-programming to Rush. Ed Schultz has no hope of taking Rush listeners away, but maybe Dennis Miller can siphon a few. I don’t listen to either, because I’m a fan of the Dr. K Show (http://thedrkshow.com/), a small but entertaining show on at that time in NY/NJ, Boston, and DC (their affiliate WTNT is about the flip to Spanish there, though).
What’s your guess at what Cumulus will do with the progressive lineup? (Bill Press/Stephanie Miller/Thom Hartmann/Ed Schultz/Norm Goldman?…)
The one thing that is clear from watching Cumulus is they are almost totally driven by short term profitability metrics. I don’t think any of their stations carry those shows (they’re mostly on clear channel stations). I don’t know if Cumulus wants to hang around and hope they get political ads in 2014 on the network – 2012 turned out to be the year political consultants began to ignore radio.
I think progressive radio is done, mainly because they don’t allow an opposing point of view. You can say what you want about Rush, Savage, Hannity etc….but they at least let the other side speak, if only to bash them. After the 2012 elections, liberal talk stations began to drop like flies. I can’t see anything besides a revival of the Fairness Doctrine that’s going to keep those kinds of shows out there in the long run. Talk radio is something the left has never really been able to pull off.
Progressive radio is all about feelings – i feel everyone should be happy, have free healthcare, and of course a chicken in every pot. How do you feel about this, media?
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/duke-rape-accuser-got-160-tv-news-stories-accusation-3-murder
Art, I guess the Bryan Suits thing should have tipped us off on this one.
Salem’s WNYM in Hackensack doesn’t carry the first hour of Dennis Miller so I usually catch it online at WZGM in the Asheville, NC market. Today I was surprised to hear Dr. Joy Browne in the 10-1 slot and confirmed the change at the station’s site. They’ve also dropped the Free Wings & Hot Beer morning show in favor of six hours of Doug Stephan.
Mike Ditka is more at fault for the presidency of Barack Obama than anyone, but I still blame Huckabee for splitting the more conservative vote and allowing the lame John McCain to get the 2008 nomination. Without the Huckabee distraction, we might have had an earlier (and successful) run by the best presidential nominee since Reagan.
Who was your dream nominee for 2008, Mr Devil?
I’m not usually so annoying, but let me try to pull it out of you. You know all the presidential nominees since Reagan — who do you think was the best of that bunch? In my humble opinion, I think the answer is obvious. (Remember, we are talking NOMINEES and not candidates.)
Oh, and I don’t mean the nominee of the Losertarian Party or something like that — I’m talking nominee who could actually WIN.
I have no idea who you are thinking of. Based on your location, I would guess that you might be thinking of Rudy, but he got less votes in the primaries than Ron did.
You know the drill, the press gets behind the Republican candidate that is most like the Democrats, until the Democrats have a candidate of their own.
NOMINEE! NOMINEE! That’s the one who wins his/her party’s nomination! Who do you think is the best presidential (major party) nominee since Reagan? (If your answer isn’t the same as mine, I want to hear your case for yours!)
I dislike the Bushes, McCain and Romney. (“Romney, he suck” – Obmamphone lady)
That leaves only Bill Clinton. Gore, Obama and Dukakis are not in the same league.
If Mitt Romney isn’t the best major party presidential nominee since Reagan, who is?
Liddy Dole has roots in Salisbury NC. In 1976, I remember the secret service came on campus because they were thinking of holding a press conference there if Ford/Dole had won the election.
Well, let’s list the candidates – the nominees who didn’t win since Reagan
1988 – Mike Dukakis
1992 – George HW Bush / H Ross Perot
1996 – Bob Dole / H Ross Perot
2000 – Al Gore Jr
2004 – John F’ing Kerry
2008 – John McCain
2012 – Mitt Romney
I forgot about John F’ing… but I don’t think Israel will. I also forgot about Bob Dole.
I would not consider H Ross Perot a major party candidate.
Let me know when a Losertarian gets 19 million votes
The Reform Party’s Presidential candidates had 962 total votes in 2012, about double their total Presidential votes of 481 in 2008. Jill Stein of the Green Party got nearly 500x as many votes in 2012 as the Reform Party.
After their founding in 1995, when they got just over 8 million votes for the 1996 election, they got less than half a million running Pat Buchanan in 200 and Ralph Nader in 2004.
I listen to Dennis Miller on an occasional basis. His show seems original compared to most cookie-cutter talk radio (Hannity, anyone?).
Miller’s trademark sardonic wit makes the show tolerable, even if he lacks in the skills of a Limbaugh or the wide experience of a Liddy.
Miller has a regular (weekly?) slot on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News. Regardless of what you think of O’Reilly or Miller’s politics, it is great watching Bill play Ed McMahon and set up Dennis’ jokes and one liners – almost every time, there is something that gets me laughing out loud.
Probably the best regular feature on the O’Reilly show.
Agreed!
Miller still manages to have a good show after all these years. I like how he balances politics, comedy, current events and clever studio antics into an entertaining program.
Don’t forget the soup of the day!
The difficult I have with Miller is more me than him. Every few minutes he makes a point by referring to some scene in a movie or some episode of a TV show.
Another of the things he does is he feels a need to play “rate the caller” and let us know when he thinks a caller wasn’t worthy of his time after he hangs up.
He clearly has Hollywood as a main reference point.
I developed some deep respect for Miller when Al Franken won his Senate seat. Miller defended his friend Franken from any personal smears. He was the first to point out that Franken is misguided and wrong on major issues but continued to call him a good friend and a good person.
Miller replacing Rush on WABC would be a smart move for them. Rush should win the numbers game but I think Dennis will do better than Huck could dream of doing in New York, and elsewhere.
My comments:
Goodbye huckleberry, don’t let the door hit ya in the ass.
I just can’t listen to him, radio or tv.
Miller – he is funny, but comes off (to me) as he’s smarter by 1/2 than everyone else.
Probably why he lost the monday nite football gig.
Crowley – i like to listen to her on saturdays, if I’m around a radio or not listening to my fav college feetsball team. She is predictable but i’m just biased toward the fair sex.
I don’t get the Bryan Suits reference. I’ll listen to him saturday nights, if the art bell rerun isn’t persuasive enough to tune-in (it usually isn’t though).
That’s the risk of jumping in the middle 😉
When it was announced that Geraldo is leaving Cumulus Syndication, they announced Bryan Suits would replace him on KABC, whuch carries Geraldo on 3 hour delay in the Huckabee time slot.
I typed a letter in response to that to Tom Taylor asking if this meant Huckabee was leaving – it would have made sense to replace Geraldo with Carrying Huckabee live unless he was leaving. I clicked delete and never sent it. I think TT is getting annoyed with me – TRN is a major advertiser in his newsletter and the evnts there put him in a bind, especially with everyone involved suing each other.
At least for a time, Geraldo was doing a live show for KABC tailored to L.A.
My memory is that lasted about a week before the Dickey brothers realized it might work in Syndication
Huckabee’s last show will be December 12th, according to what I just heard.
Start watching at 5:30 mark for an unexpected treat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3EORyIoMsM
Since I play the piano, I can spot someone pretending to play the piano if the camera stays on the keyboard for more than a few seconds.
I’ve played the guitar only a little, but watching this video did not convince me he was actually playing anything. He plays the bass guitar and seems to be only plucking one string, yet is pretending to finger chords.
Anyone with more of a guitar background? I looked at 3 or 4 more videos and none of them were any more convincing where he was playing notes solo, not masked by a keyboard and other guitars.
Either way, he seems less of a fake than Rick Santorum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZPexbzJUU4
He also just strongly implied he intends to run for President again.
That youtube was uploaded 2011 with the description “From the May 14, 2011 broadcast of the Huckabee show.”
Please, Huck, don’t do it!
Tom Sawyer might let him whitewash Aunt Polly’s fence.
“A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride”
I remember Rush, CC ! God, I was a kid back then.
Yeah Huckabee was sort of like Fred Thompson show. Put your ass to sleep in no time flat !
I liked Fred. He was ‘Red State Update’ pick back in 08.
IN NC news:
Hey Art: Did you see, they closed the Bonner Bridge to Hatteras island over Oregon Inlet? says the bridge is 50 years old, That’s cool. Last time I was over it was 1974.
http://outerbanksvoice.com/2013/12/03/breaking-bonner-bridge-closed-due-to-safety-concerns/
parrott
I took my dad there once – the only time I visited the Outer banks. We took the two ferries on the South end. The 50 year old bridge was expected to last 30 years. You can imagine with the tides and salt water and hurricanes every few years, it takes quite a beating.
The bulk of the people who live on the Outer Banks are not affected by this. Most of the road south of the bridge is running through Federal wildlife preserves and park land. Private boats can do a lot of the transporting of people and food to the mainland. People probably won’t try to get to the island so much like people who work during the week and go to their cottage on the weekend – especially this time of year.
Governor McCrory is pushing back hard that this has been caused by environmental lawsuits – I suspect to at least some degree they are exaggerating the situation. Setting a weight limit and closing the bridge during storms would probably be safe, but closing it completely will force the hands of the affected people to join the battle against the “extreme left wing” environmental groups.
My feelings about this are mixed. You know the Bible warns you to not build your bridge support pilings on sand. Every time a big storm blows through, NC and the Feds have to spend more money reconstructing the roads and infrastructure. Wrightsville beach is much more defensible and better connected to the mainland. Maybe it is time to let nature win. The same applies to New Orleans, but as long as free government money is available to keep rebuilding, people will.
http://amilewide.com/portfolio/bonner-bridge-interactive/
Very Impressive!!! Must be some good Flounder fishing in and around the bridge, plus all those yummy Blue Crabs!
Today was the final live show for the Huckster. Does anyone know what Cumulus is going to do now? My guess is they’ll run reruns until Dennis Miller takes over in January… Or maybe they’ll play “holiday” music.
Huckabee pretty clearly is going to try for President again
So, he had to quit, right? Lots of planning for the Huckster to do in the days ahead, and it’s best to get things out of the way now.
Who will he stab-in-the-back this time?
Sell you a button? 😉
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3143/2998022577_190a78a297.jpg
What he said when asked by a caller pretty closely matches what Huckabee said a year ago. A big portion of his compensation was based on a portion of the national advertising, which is close to nonexistent. He wasn’t making enough money to make it worth his while – and he was specific that doing a 3 hour show was consuming almost all his available time that he would rather use in other ways – “stay tuned”
OK, let’s resign ourselves to the probability that Huckabee is going to try for the Presidency again. As CC’s humorous post & image suggests, we could run the theme song to “Huckleberry Hound” on top of his commercials and speeches.
So imagine if Hillary ‘bravely’ waltzes into the limelight again, what would be her theme song?
woo hoo witchy woman see how high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye
Well I know you want a lover, let me tell your brother, she’s been sleeping
in the Devil’s bed.
woo hoo witchy woman see how high she flies
woo hoo witchy woman she got the moon in her eye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAIAXk0z0lI
Interestingly, Rand Paul was the guest on Huckabee’s last show. Read into that whatever you want.
Rand is more into pushing the Christian agenda than his father was. His father was a Christian too but believed more in a separation of church and state.
So, will Rand Paul take down the Banksters, repeal ObamaCare and put most of Congress in FEMA camps while he is forcing everyone go to church once a week?
I don’t think Rand is that extreme. I think he has stronger pro-Life feelings for the government than his dad did. pro-Life vs pro-Choice is not a libertarian issue. Libertarians believe in more individual choice, but like the big government types (pro War or pro redistribution) don’t all agree on when a single cell becomes a person with legal rights.
I’m generally OK with Roe v Wade, although I find that most pro choice people don’t even know what the decision says. The most important thing it lays down is the principle that a fetus becomes a person with legal protections when it is far enough along that it can survive outside the womb if delivered by c section. Viability has since moved back a few weeks with advances in extremely expensive technology.
The problem I have with Roe v Wade is that these kinds of public policy issues should be decided by the legislature, not the courts. This is why we’re still fighting over it 50 years later.
Contraception is not going away, and neither is RU 486 which terminates the pregnancy around 3 months with only minimal involvement by the doctor.
My attitude is – if you don’t like abortions, don’t have one. Ultimately, it is the people having healthy children who will make the rules in the next generation.
J. D. Hayworth is guest hosting. It looks like the plan is probably to fill the time in December with professional guest hosts with radio studios in their home.
The Department of Justice signed off today on Cumulus acquiring Westwood One, although they may impose some yet to be determined restrictions on the syndicated programming, especially control over available satellite distribution systems.
Game on
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2013/12/want-economic-populist-run-president-2016-meet-mike-huckabee/356122/
Oh boy, I’m so excited. /NOT
I see in the article he did an interview with Pat Robertson’s CBN — getting the suckers on board early. “Every dollar sent to me is a dollar sent to Jesus!” — just listen to those phones ring with donations.
As a young man, after he started working in radio, he was hired by televangelist James Robison to manage publicity. He is a Southern Baptist minister.
I find him hard to listen to – he clearly has had significant training in how to speak in a way to hide your emotions and “soothe” people. That would come in very handy to tell Christians to hop into freight cars heading to relocation camps.
He had a parting shot near the end of his show that he thought the problem with talk radio is its lack of civility. His slogan was “more conversation, less confrontation”. Dick Morris handled his political campaigns in Arkansas