Whatever happened to Mike Huckabee?
OK.
I confess, I never got the idea from the get go.
A political idea that is a regular loser in the political
marketplace was being marketed as a sure-fire winner in talk radio.
And marketed is an understatement about all of the hype that
swirled around this particular radio launch.
To put names to this curious fantasy, the moderate Republican
former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, was to take on Rush
Limbaugh in a venture sponsored by the public company that is
Cumulus Media.
Not since the Titanic sailed a hundred years ago amidst
a public relations blowout about the ship’s un-sinkability has
there been such hype.
Uh-oh.
Let’s remind of all the pre-launch hoopla for this venture that
at the time we
tagged as “RINO Radio” — talk radio for Republicans in Name
Only.
• On March 12, Media Matters
reported on a media conference call by Cumulus, gloating in a
headline: “Cumulus CEO: Limbaugh Firestorm ‘Very Helpful’ To
New Huckabee Show” — the “firestorm” in question a reference
to the kerfuffle over Sandra Fluke.
• On March 12, the Daily Beast’s favorite RINO David
Frum
gushed on hearing the news that “Mike Huckabee Brings on
Rush Limbaugh’s Decline.”
• On March 13, over on the web pages of Radio
Ink, the headlined
story read that in the wake of the Fluke kerfuffle, Cumulus CEO
Lew Dickey “has been touting the [Huckabee] show as a
replacement for Rush…”
• On March 18, Newsmax
headlined: “Huckabee Readies to take on Rush in Talk Radio
Battle.” This story was remarkably up front about the idea
behind the Huckabee/Cumulus venture. It began this way:
Earlier this week, Cumulus Media sent out an email blast to
fellow radio station owners with a photoshopped picture of former
U.S. Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, promoting him as the
conservative talk radio host of the future.
Though the email did not name Rush Limbaugh, the long-running,
top-rated talk radio host whose program is nationally syndicated by
Cumulus’ rival, Clear Channel Communications, the intent was
obvious to some recipients.
“They are going after Rush’s affiliates,” said one radio company
executive who received Cumulus’ email and spoke on condition of
anonymity. “They are positioning Huckabee as the safe,
non-dangerous alternative to Rush and saying to station owners, ‘If
you are looking for conservative content, we want you to consider
our guy instead of theirs.’”
• On March 19, the Wall Street Journal
reported that “With the slogan ‘more conversation, less
confrontation,’ the syndicator behind ‘Huckabee,’ Cumulus Media
Networks, has been pitching the new show to advertisers as a less
combative alternative to Mr. Limbaugh.”
• On April 1, in New York Times
story headlined “Talk Radio Face-Off Approaches,” Lew Dickey
marveled at the ratings that would be seen for RINO radio: “We
haven’t seen the 25-54 results with the stable of talent that’s out
there today. We think we can improve on that with this
approach.”
• On April 7, in a Politico story
headlined “Mike Huckabee Takes Aim at Rush Limbaugh,” both Cumulus
co-COO John Dickey and Huckabee were plain about the plan. Said
Dickey, comparing the about-to-launch Huckabee show to Rush: “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.”
Huckabee himself told Politico: “Our tagline is, ‘More
conversation, less confrontation’…”
• On May 17, Bloomberg’s Business Week
blared, “For Cumulus Media, Huckabee Takes On Limbaugh,” the
article filled with the by-then three-month old story line about
how Huckabee had “the right mix of name recognition, likability,
contacts, and the dexterity to take on different subjects without
sounding harsh or grating.” That would be “harsh or grating” like…
well… You Know Who.
And so it went. You get the picture.
If there were a reporter anywhere within reach of the Dickey
Brothers bull horn they were getting the pitch: “Extra! Extra! Read
all about it! Huckabee to topple Limbaugh!”
Fair enough. Everybody loves to fantasize about beating
champs, whether the champ in question is Muhammad Ali, James Bond,
or Rush Limbaugh.
But at some point, it’s fair to say something like: “Mr.
Goldfinger, you’ve tried everything. After failing to laser Bond to
death, shoot him to death, run him off-the-road-to-death, not to
mention snap his neck with Odd Job’s steel-rimmed hat… well, sir,
Mr. Bond is not only still alive he is now busily disarming the
nuclear weapon you believed would destroy Ft. Knox. Mr. Goldfinger,
sir….. do you have a Plan Z?”
Eventually, to recall this memorable moment in
the film, Goldfinger did come up with Plan Z — which ended
with the famous Bond enemy being sucked out of a plane window.
Never to be heard from again.
Well, Governor Huckabee has now been on the air for three
months. It would seem fair to ask the obvious questions:
- Where has all the Huckabee-challenging-Rush buzz gone?
- Where are the media conference calls with the Dickey brothers
trumpeting the success of RINO Radio?
- Where are those Media Matters stories gleefully
reporting that Huckabee has finally done in the hated Rush?
- Where are those David Frum columns trumpeting the demise of
Rush Limbaugh at the hands of Mike Huckabee?
- Where are all those radio trade paper stories, the stories in
Bloomberg, Politico, Mediaite, the Wall
Street Journal and the New York Times (among many
others) trumpeting the massive surge in the beloved 25-54 age
demographic Lew Dickey was so confident would boost Huckabee to hot
success?
- Where are all the stories about how Huckabee’s conversational
style has fatally wounded Rush by attracting waves of new young
listeners? Where are the stories about how this massive influx of
the young has fundamentally transformed conservative talk
radio?
- Where are the hot stories from Cumulus listing Huckabee’s
stations so the world can see exactly how widely accepted the
Huckabee show is on non-Cumulus stations? Where are the stories
boasting of the number and identity of the top tier stations who
broadcast Huckabee? Are these stations not being ballyhooed because
the show is essentially relegated to small stations with little
market reach?
- Where are the stories about the raison d’être of the
radio business — or any business? That would be: revenues. Making
money. If this is such a stunningly successful business plan where
are the stories on the all-important news called revenues? After
all, companies are in business to make money. Where are the stories
on how much net revenue Huckabee’s show is generating? Where are
the stories on all the profit actually being made taking on Rush
Limbaugh? In the words of Tom Cruise as Jerry McGuire: “Show me the
money!”
But in fact, what do we have here?
Just months ago the Dickeys were everywhere talking about what a
brilliant business idea it was to take on the champion of
conservative talk radio (and by extension the conservative world
well beyond). The impression left at the almost eerie silence on
the subject these days is not unlike the uncomprehending silence
that is said to have rippled through the Titanic after it
hit the iceberg: a silence caused by disbelief, followed shortly
thereafter by quiet panic. Quiet panic that inevitably gives way
when all hell breaks loose as, fingers starting to point
angrily and with predictable certainty, the ship sinks.
Or to wax Bondian, Huckabee… sorry… Goldfinger… gets sucked
out of the talk radio airplane window.
What brought all this to mind was the New York Times
Magazine story this past Sunday on Governor Huckabee. The
Times doing the predictable if always odd version of the
kind of backhanded puff piece a liberal outlet always reserves for
moderate Republicans.
The fact that this was the Huckabee story du
jour — not a rash of stories everywhere on the success of the
challenge to Rush — only drew attention to the Sherlock
Holmes-nature of the story. In the Silver Blaze, Holmes
has this conversation with a Colonel Ross:
Ross: “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my
attention?”
Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the
night-time.”
Ross: “The dog did nothing in the
night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident,”
remarked Sherlock Holmes.
The “curious incident” in the Times interview with
Huckabee? The solitary reference to his radio show was this
exchange with Times reporter Andrew Goldman:
Goldman: When I heard you were starting a
syndicated radio show in April that would go head to head with Rush
Limbaugh, I wondered if you were going after him because he hadn’t
been kind to your candidacy in ‘08.
Huckabee: He’s been very critical of me and
very wrong. It’s one thing to have an opinion, but the opinion
needs to be based on fact. Even a few months ago, he said that I
had endorsed Mitt Romney, when in fact I had not. I did not endorse
anyone in the primary. But all of that had nothing to do with my
decision to do a radio show.
Can you spot the Holmes-like “curious incident” — the dog that
didn’t bark?
Sure you can. There was not a word about how stunningly
successful the Huckabee show is. Not a solitary peep.
Does anyone seriously believe that if this RINO Radio venture
were overflowing with success in challenging Rush — that Mike
Huckabee wouldn’t be bursting his buttons with joy, and not just in
pages of the New York Times? That the Dickey brothers and
Cumulus would not be everywhere with this story?
That front pages of websites and newsprint alike from the
Times to Politico to Mediaite to
Bloomberg and on and on endlessly would not be humming
with “Huckabee Overtakes Rush” stories?
Of course not.
Instead, we have President Obama out there on the stump
attacking Mitt Romney on health care for “abandoning a
principle that you fought for, for six years simply because you’re
getting pressure for two days from Rush Limbaugh…”
The President’s attack was telling. If the Huckabee venture were
as stunningly successful as predicted — then Obama would be
attacking Huckabee. But obviously, that’s not the case. Yet another
sign, surely, of why all the silence in the media on Huckabee’s
standing.
Not just silence but total, complete, silence.
Has Cumulus in fact built a Titanic in the shape of a
radio show called The Mike Huckabee Show?
Time will tell. And it will tell relatively soon, doubtless
depending on the amount of cash that gushes into the Cumulus loss
column by a given date.
But it is safe to say that the longer we go with what might be
called “radio silence” on this venture, the more this silence will
be seen as a sign that the Cumulus attempt to float the idea of
RINO radio has already hit an iceberg.
An iceberg named Rush Limbaugh.
