The approach also reflects a business strategy as cleareyed as Limbaugh’s “play to the base.” Limbaugh’s audience not only skews old; it skews male. It was already 72 percent male in 2009—more male than that of almost any other program on radio or TV. Advertisers are not nearly as interested in talking to old men as to middle-aged women. If Huckabee can draw such women to his new program, as he has drawn them to his TV show, he will reshape the market.

Huckabee explains his appeal as driven by his choice of topic. “I want to do a show that has politics. But I don’t want a 100 percent political show.” It’s also a matter of tone and style. Limbaugh’s lascivious “joke” about wishing to see a Sandra Fluke sex tape was only the latest in a career of demeaning and prurient remarks. Only a few days beforehand, Huckabee was sitting down with Meryl Streep for a warm and easy talk before a studio audience.

Rush Limbaugh won’t vanish from the radio of course. But the overpriced Limbaugh program is highly vulnerable to economic shocks. “If just one station in a top-20 market replaces Limbaugh with Huckabee, it’ll be an earthquake,” remarks a veteran of the radio business.