Are you very young or something?
I’m the same age as Rush, I know exactly what the political landscape was like since I started following politics in the early ‘60s. And Rush was a non-entity until after the election of GHW Bush. No one had ever heard of him. His mother had probably forgotten that he existed.
Despite your (ignorant) belief that political talk radio didn’t exist before the end of the Fairness Doctrine it most certainly did. George Putnam and Ray Briem both had conservative shows in Los Angeles, and they played a major role in the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978.
Radio stations were free to have political talk shows if they chose to. There was no prohibition on it. Quit the foolish posturing as if you’re some sort of expert. You’re not.
Rush said that his show led to Fox News, because the national success gave Roger Ailes the idea for a conservative network to go against the liberal media. But Fox News wasn’t really pro-Trump, and you’re right that there were hosts before Rush.
I am the same age as you.
Conservative talk radio may have existed in a few local markets before the fairness doctrine was taken down, but it certainly was not a national force.
You have your dates correct. Rush started his national radio show the same year that GHW Bush was elected.
Kudos for stating the obvious and setting up a straw man.
The fact is that before the fairness doctrine was repealed, there were very few and limited political talk radio shows.
Once it was repealed, in 1987, the talk radio shows boomed, Rush Limbaugh particularly flowered and became a major conservative media voice.
While this is from the Politico, hardly a conservative site, it sums up the essence of the demise of the fairness doctrine:
“Still, it’s hard to overstate the importance of the Fairness Doctrine to conservative commentators — its demise in 1987, through an executive order signed by President Ronald Reagan, is credited with the creation of modern-day talk-radio, because broadcasters no longer had to offer competing views on the same broadcasts. (The Fairness Doctrine sometimes gets confused with equal-time provisions that still apply to modern broadcasting, but equal-time rules only apply to political candidates, while the Fairness Doctrine applied to controversial issues.)”
I am not sure why you are attempting to deny the obvious here. Maybe you can explain the rise of conservative talk radio some other way. I will read your explanation.
Here is a reference to the congress of 1994 making Rush Limbaugh an honorary member:
“Limbaugh was presented a “Majority Makers” pin, the emblem of the newcomers who have given their party majority status in the House for the first time in 40 years. Six GOP women in the class added their own special thanks, presenting Limbaugh with a plaque that said: “Rush was right.” And Rep.-elect Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) added: “There’s not a femiNazi among us.”
I am sure you watched political events. So have I. So, I am sure, did the Congress elected in 1994.