The Right Frequency is a great and informative take on the history of conservative talk radio. Author Fred Lucas deftly details and breaks down the predecessors and innovators to modern conservative talk radio and frames the history in a comprehensive manner that all can understand.
As expected, Lucas has great respect for modern conservative talk radio stars such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, but also long-time legends like James Dobson, William Bennett and Bob Grant. He not only praises them but gives the reader an insightful look into how some of them think, using well-placed quotes and anecdotes to provide more than an adequate picture of the inner workings of these great pundits’ minds. For example, Lucas describes how Sean Hannity rose from a volunteer radio host in a California university (after he dropped out of NYU), was fired by that university, then landed several gigs until he reached his current status in New York. It is almost comical that Lucas describes some of these in-your-face conservative talk radio hosts as polite, as sometimes their treatment of callers can be less than polite. He does acknowledge this style of talk radio without naming names in the beginning of the book but does not revisit it.
Although Lucas presents a comprehensive history of talk radio, it seems that there is too much material to relate in a way that keeps the reader engaged. It is a monumental task to summarize almost a hundred years of talk radio history and the evolution of conservative talk radio. Yes, it is great to give a great background, but the substance and entertainment value of this book is quite diminished compared to typical Ingraham, Coulter and Hannity books.
One of the most gratifying parts of the book is how Lucas reveals the failure of the Left to mount a successful counterattack to conservative talk radio. All of their programming attempts were abject and horrific failures, some due to mismanagement of funding and fundraising. The mainstream media does not report all these failures, yet try to lampoon conservative talk radio hosts to make up for their failure to counter them. This part is a must-read for conservatives and should be a source of great pride in determining the future of politically-motivated talk radio.
Though this book is a great read for all Americans, especially conservatives, it does read like a history book. It may not light a fire in the belly of conservatives, but gives readers enough background to appreciate the medium that is talk radio. For the younger generations, most of these names are relatively unknown, so they should definitely read a book like this. Its purpose seems to be providing substantial background history about talk radio and conservatism, which is admirable, but may be a tough sell to the up-and-coming generations, and their thirst for the in-your-face, controversial and attention-grabbing headlines. Overall, it’s a good read about the emergence and survival of the modern phenomenon of conservative talk radio, much to the chagrin of the liberal and left-leaning mainstream media.
Spencer Irvine is a research assistant at Accuracy in Academia.
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