Left Side of the Dial

[meegbear]

THEY SAY THAT timing is everything. So if you’re one of the folks involved with Central Air — that rather secretive group seeking to start a liberal radio network sometime next spring — you’ve got to love what was on Rush Limbaugh’s Web site earlier this week.

With one easy click, you could watch a clip of the right-wing blowhard’s lawyer, Roy Black, being interviewed on NBC’s Today show. The subject: the ongoing investigation into Limbaugh’s drug problems. The spin: Rush is not a criminal! The subliminal message: the Excellence in Broadcasting Network sure isn’t what it used to be.

But if Limbaugh, the long-time king of conservative talk, sits on an uneasy throne these days, it is nevertheless by no means certain that the public is clamoring for a liberal alternative. Conservative talk succeeds because the hosts — whether they be Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly on the national scene or Jay Severin and Howie Carr locally — manage to create a sense of grievance, an atmosphere that it is they and their listeners who are the outsiders, and the liberals who control everything else.

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As we shall see, the formula it seems to be moving toward — fast and funny — may turn out to be just right.

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Tha article is from the Boston Phoenix, so the local refs are Boston based, but a good read on the gearing up of a liberal talk radio network.

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/dont_quote_me/documents/03400278.asp