Front Burner - Introducing: The Flamethrowers

Episode Date: September 11, 2021

The Flamethrowers captures the punch-you-in-the-mouth energy and sound of right-wing talk radio. Host Justin Ling takes us from the fringe preachers and conspiracy peddlers of the 1920s to the political firestorm that rages today. With humour and candour, Ling examines the appeal of broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh, who found a sleeping audience, radicalized it, and became an accidental kingmaker — culminating in the election of Donald Trump. More episodes are available at smarturl.it/theflamethrowers

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hey everyone, so we have a special bonus for Front Burners Podcast subscribers. It's the first episode of a brand new series from CBC Podcasts called The Flamethrowers. The Flamethrowers tracks the rise of right-wing radio from fringe preachers and conspiracy peddlers of the 1930s to the political firestorm that rages today, hosted by award-winning

reporter and podcaster Justin Ling. The Flamethrowers tells a story of how radio energized and then radicalized the conservative base, culminating with Donald Trump, the president who followed the conservative talk radio playbook all the way to the White House. We've got the first episode for you, so have a listen. Here tonight is a special man. It's February 4th, 2020. Inside the House chamber on Capitol Hill, Donald Trump is delivering his final State of the Union address. Beloved by millions of Americans, he is the greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet.

Trump gestures to the pews above the chamber towards Melania Trump. me. Trump gestures to the pews above the chamber towards Melania Trump. Sitting beside her is a man with white hair, snow white beard, and a hearing aid wrapping around both of his ears. Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country. As soon as the Republicans in the chamber hear Limbaugh's name, they jump to their feet. And Rush, in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire, and all of the incredible work that you have done for charity, I am proud to announce tonight that you will be receiving our country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rush Limbaugh's jaw drops and his mouth just sort of hangs open. I will now ask the First Lady of the United States to present you with the honor, please. United States to present you with the honor, please. His eyes well with tears as Melania produces a medal, seemingly out of nowhere, and moves to hang it around his neck. He clasps his hands together like a form of silent prayer. Limbaugh thumps his fist into his chest, and then he points down to the big guy on the dais. Kind of like he's saying, you and me, man. The Democrats in the room sit stone-faced.

Horrified. The Presidential Medal of Freedom. To this guy? Horrified. The Presidential Medal of Freedom. To this guy? If any race should not have guilt about slavery, it's Caucasians. This guy. How many of you guys, in your own experience with women, have learned that no means yes if you know how to spot it? Really, this guy. Guy at the laundromat.

Really, this guy. Guy at the laundromat. The Republicans across the aisle are looking on like, hell yeah, this guy. The guy who made the modern American conservative movement into what it is. A movement which, using Limbaugh's playbook, propelled a most unlikely man into the White House. A president whose supporters would storm the doors of this very building on January 6th, 2021. But that moment, when the medal drops onto Limbaugh's shoulders,

is the moment when right-wing talk radio cemented its role as central to American politics. This climb, considering where it all began, is almost unbelievable. The story starts with fire-breathing zealots. Everything we have said was true. They ridiculed us. They held us up in contempt. Who almost find themselves run off the airwaves. Give us our liberty back.

Give WXUR back to Dr. McIntyre and his people. Let them be happy. Who pass the torch to hardline conservatives. Hey, welcome aboard. Glad you're with us. It is the Sean Hannity show. And conspiracy peddlers. I know what's going on and I've had enough. I've had enough of all of it. I've had enough of it. These broadcasters fan the flames for a new populist ideology. They give a voice to a swath of Americans who felt like they never had one.

They energize and then they radicalize the conservative movement. This podcast will explore how they did it and why their conservative message resonated so powerfully and how radio made it all possible. It's the story of Rusty Sharp, a failed DJ who became Rush Limbaugh, the most powerful man in radio. It's a story of how militiamen and hate mongers used shortwave signals to reach millions. millions. It's the story of how radio transformed American politics forever. The Flamethrowers, how right-wing radio took over American democracy with Justin Ling. Let's pick up the story in a suburb of Detroit, a hundred years before Limbaugh got his medal.

That is where a Canadian priest would prove just how potent radio could be. He was one of radio's first real stars. As another presidential election approaches, a Roman Catholic priest for the first time in American history is seriously involved in national politics. Some are unpopular, but God hates the hypocrites! Father Charles Coughlin hailed from Hamilton, Ontario, but was posted to Royal Oak, Michigan in the early 1920s. Coughlin was really of the go-big-or-go-home mindset. He built this massive stone cathedral called the Shrine of the Little Flower.

It had seating for 600. But Coughlin was Catholic, and Royal Oak was predominantly Protestant. The bombastic new preacher definitely ruffled some feathers. Coughlin would later tell people that he got a welcome present from the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan reserved its ugliest vitriol and violence for black Americans, but they had more than enough hate in their hearts to also attack immigrants, especially Catholics who were flocking to Detroit to work in the new auto plants. So it's July of 1926. It's late at night. The voice on the other end tells Coughlin to get to the church right now. He arrives to find the KKK's calling card, a giant flaming cross, on the front lawn of the church.

By all accounts, Coughlin was not intimidated by the Klan, but this is one more problem he does not need. This massive church was expensive. The parish owes about $100 per week on their loans, but they're pulling in less than $50 from the collection plate. But in the flickering light of that burning cross, he finds a bit of inspiration. He is going to light his own fire. is going to light his own fire. Real peace and real democracy must be born of Christian justice and Christian charity.

Coughlin reaches out to a local Detroit radio station, WJR. Commercial radio is still pretty new. The station has only been broadcasting for about four years. And Father Coughlin starts delivering Catholic sermons on the radio. Good afternoon, my friends. The feast of the resurrection of Christ from the dead is a feast of peace and joy. Coughlin is made for radio. He has this deep, rich voice with an almost musical cadence. Therefore, this week I appeal to you.

If you are a lover of real peace and real democracy, insist that America will keep clear of foreign entanglements. In those early years, the late 1920s, Coughlin's broadcasts are mostly religious, with just a sous-sant of anti-war activism. Insist that America shall avoid entering the blood business. Insist that our prosperity shall not be builded upon cannons, howitzers, poison gas, military airplanes, and all things else which are classified as the merchandise of murderers.

But then, in 1929, the stock market crashes. America tumbles into the Great Depression. People are down and out. They're waiting in bread lines. Children are going hungry in the street. And America was pissed off. The bankers and the plutocrats... Who live in their palaces and travel in their yachts.

They had gotten them into this mess. The roaring 20s of the upper classes had crashed into poverty and hunger for the working class. Oh, you poor laborers and farmers. We have tried time and again to tell you that there can be no resurrection for America until Congress begins to coin and regulate the value of money." Coughlin steps out of this affable preacher role. He's now a conduit for a very real and very understandable anger. You want that.

You voted for that. You have that. And it's time that you take that. As the voice of outrage, Coughlin becomes a sensation. Out from Royal Oak goes a voice that takes the radio public by storm. Soon the priest is preaching to untold millions in the name of shy, simple St. Therese. Father Coughlin becomes a full-fledged national character. Today, we might call Coughlin a populist.

He's anti-communist, but he's also anti-capitalist. He supports unions, but not the more radical autoworkers union. He's left of center, but he's not that far left. far left. Coughlin's audience is estimated at 40 million. At that time, that's a third of America. Limbaugh, at his height, would only have about one-twentieth of Americans listening. There are these stories of referees stopping youth football games just before 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoons, just so that the parents, coaches, and players could get to a radio to hear Father Coughlin.

His money woes, by the way, are solved. Donations are pouring into his church. So much so that with all this new wealth, he builds a 28-foot-tall stone crucifix. Coughlin said it was a cross that the KKK could not burn. His secretarial staff looks like big business. It must be ready to answer a million letters in a single week. Exuberant in his power, he rushes up and down the land. This servant of the church, now a master of politics. Coughlin had spent years railing against the political class.

But now he turns his attention to a new politician that he can really get behind. More than a political campaign, it is a cold war. Someone who echoes his distrust of the bankers and big business. A real champion for the everyman. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. despite all opposition to the Congress, that you remain steadfast behind the one man who can save this civilization of ours. Coughlin hits his listeners with the slogan to underscore the choice ahead of America. It is either Roosevelt or Ruiz.

His support for FDR, it doesn't go unnoticed by the Democrats. Roosevelt actually invites Coughlin out for lunch to discuss the effects of the Great Depression. In the so-called Radio Priest, FDR sees a new way to reach the masses. In Roosevelt, Coughlin sees a vehicle for his social justice calling. And the next thing you know, Coughlin is invited to speak at the 1932 Democratic Convention. And he also snags an invitation to FDR's inauguration in 1933. First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. As president, FDR recognizes the visceral yet intimate power of radio.

My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking. Through his fireside chats, he enters into America's living rooms as a trusted guest. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days and why it was done and what the next steps are going to be. So when you think about FDR and those famous fireside chats, it's not a stretch to think that Charles Coughlin was an inspiration. And it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem, my friend. was an inspiration. Coughlin is no longer that small-town pastor fighting anti-Catholic bias and fearing the

Klan. He isn't worried about foreclosure anymore. But then he falls out with the White House over currency policy. And so Mr. Roosevelt, who was very loquacious in 1933 about driving the money changers out of the temple, is now bent upon another policy. I think driving the workmen out of decent annual wages. I think driving the workmen out of decent annual wages. And when FDR begins forging ties with Joseph Stalin, Coughlin is outraged. He is vehemently anti-communist. In the 1936 campaign, he flips the script on his slogan.

Roosevelt or ruin becomes Roosevelt and ruin. Coughlin even starts his own political party. And this is where things take a pretty dark turn. He says that Jews in Germany are to blame for their own persecution. Communistic Jew and Gentile who have been responsible and will continue to be The bankers and the plutocrats he was warning about a few years ago? Well, now they're part of a shadowy cabal. An international plot to rule the world. He cites the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic work of fiction that purports to reveal an international Jewish conspiracy. The Jews and the Communists, he said, they were hell-bent on taking over America. Members of the Jewish race from all over the world predominate. Every member of the Foreign bent on taking over America. Coughlin has totally shed his left-wing credentials.

He goes on the airwaves to openly praise Hitler and Mussolini. All of this would later earn him a nickname, the father of hate radio. By 1938, war in Europe looks inevitable. The persecution of Jewish people under Nazi rule is horrifyingly apparent. And Coughlin's backers have had enough. So they ditch their one-time star. His station calls out his many misstatements of fact. The Federal Communications Commission, started by FDR just a few years earlier, had warned that it would not allow the airwaves to be debased. In present-day terms, he is cancelled and deplatformed. That's basically it for Father Charles Coughlin, radio star. In 1939, he's dropped from national radio and returns to life as a parish priest in Royal Oak.

Coughlin was radio's first real political celebrity. He weaponized bombast, but he met his listeners where they were at. He sat in their living rooms and echoed their concerns. He helped propel a president to power and tried to have a say in running the country from behind a microphone. But Coughlin fell into conspiracy theories and hatred as a way to energize and galvanize his listenership. And he would not be the last. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem, brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here.

You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income. That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples.

Money for Cops. There wouldn't be someone else like Coughlin for decades. It would require a total upending of the radio market. But it would lead to such a grassroots political movement that it would become public enemy number one for the White House. You know, that's a marvelous thing. I've been broadcasting for a long time, but this will be the first time the radio audience will be able to both see and hear me broadcasting at the same time. You may have heard that video killed the radio star. Well, it's not exactly true.

Television certainly became all the rage after the Second World War. As the burgeoning American middle class started putting TV sets in their living rooms, the big broadcasters pulled resources from local radio stations and poured them into TV. In 1945, the major networks owned 95% of American radio stations. Seven years later, it's just less than half. So local stations are left to fend for themselves. Suddenly, they're looking for cheap programming. Ideally, people who will pay them for the airtime.

Also, regulatory barriers start coming down, and that creates another big boom. FM radio. Warm, rich sound. Great for music. And that means that back on the old AM dial, radical voices on the right and the left, who haven't been able to find a spot on the airwaves, suddenly have a ton of bandwidth to choose from. They can also cobble together a national network for super cheap. And on top of

the... Oh, I see the phone lines lighting up, and it looks like we have a caller online too. My name is Paul Matsko, and my book is The Radio Right, How a Band of Broadcasters Took on the Federal Government and Built the Modern Conservative Movement. This new format is cheap and there's a low barrier to entry. And the reach is enormous. I can call in and air my opinion. This unmet demand of kind of just grassroots, ordinary folks who are not happy with the political consensus of the 1950s are able to find each other and feel connected to a national movement. During the day, AM radio's range is pretty limited. But at night, you have what are known as clear channel stations.

They can pump out 50,000 watts. That's why they earned the name flamethrowers. The Flamethrowers. Yeah, yeah, we get it. It's the name of the show. He said the name of the show. It's very exciting. With Justin Ling. So especially at night, you're reaching homes, cars, and truckers straight across the country. That is millions of listeners. And this isn't like television. You're not just sitting there and watching. You're being told, hey, call in, join us. That sense of interconnectedness across time and space

is very powerful for social movement organization, political movement organization. This audience has been out there waiting the whole time. What's new is how much radio has started to talk to them. And so I think we focus too much on demand and not enough on shifts in supply. And that's why this rise of radio, I think, plays an underappreciated role in the rise of the new right. You start seeing the rise of these stations that offer all talk all the time. It was a torrent. I mean, you could go 20 all day every day and listen to nothing but right-wing radio. The NAACP is trying to use the American Negro to advance some liberal white men's political biasness. And that really is new on a national basis in the 1960s.

Well, it appears tonight that the House Judiciary Committee really started something yesterday. There were more than a dozen right-wing radio broadcasters that aired on more than 100 stations nationwide by the early 1960s. And for every one of those national guys, there's dozens of kind of local guys who are on 10 stations or on 20 stations, three stations. For the stations and the companies, there's no particular ideological quest at play. Conservative talk is just cheap.

They're just trying to make a monthly budget, right? They don't have time for this highfalutin, elevating the listener type stuff. These right-wing hosts also tap into something really visceral that might also sound really familiar. This sense that is common in conservatism, a sense of embattlement, the idea that everyone else is out to get you. That is very much part of that message even back then. But this is the moment. The 1960s is when that get you. That is very much part of that message even back then. But this is the moment, the 1960s is when that is learned. It's a learned habit. At the forefront of this new wave is Carl McIntyre, host of the catchily named 20th Century Reformation Hour. Good morning, good morning, everybody. This is Carl McIntyre, out by giving the people what they really want.

Lengthy sermons. Thank thee that thou didst provide it, that we can use these modern means of mass communication to get through to millions. The 20th century Reformation hour was exactly what it said on the tin. Organ music, a homily, and a monologue. But those monologues were mostly about two things. Two big threats to America. The first was communism. What are we going to do about this creeping socialism that ties us all up in some collectivistic knot?

What are we going to do about these Marxian ideas and this Marxian virus that seems to beset us and gets mixed up with Christian ideas when they identify it with the kingdom of God? And the second was ecumenicism, or the progressive wing of Christianity. And that was represented by the National Council of Churches. The NCC, as all the kids call it, would be McIntyre's enemy and his obsession until the bitter end. and his obsession until the bitter end. Whether it's via the UN, via, you know, control of the Kennedy administration, whether it's the National Council of Churches, it's the commies are going to come and get us. If you want to know what McIntyre was all about, you only have to listen to the venom in his voice when he says the word secularism.

This ecumenical secularism that I was telling you about yesterday, there's a complete realignment taking place in the religious world. And it's a strange thing when those of us who believe what the church has always believed before this liberalism and social gospel came in, somehow or other, we become the fanatics and we become the so-called right-wingers. He loved going after the National Council of Churches and he just loved accusing them, with no real evidence, right, of being Soviet sympathizers and Soviet plants even. McIntyre is hardly an outlier here.

Most of the biggest radio voices share his feverish obsessions. This is not a political war. This is not an economic war. It is not even a military war. It is a religious war at bottom. Clarence Mannion was the dean of law at Notre Dame, a committed Catholic, and a big radio guy. And the communist movement cannot succeed in an atmosphere of religious belief and religious practice and religious self-government. And Billy James Hargis. His truth is part of the law. He led what was called the Christian Crusade.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the National Council of Churches is an instrument of Satan. These lines of attack were a very successful formula, certainly for McIntyre. In 1956, Carl McIntyre is airing on two radio stations nationwide. One station up in Pennsylvania, one in Georgia. By 1960, he's on more than 100 radio stations. And by 1964, he's on more than 100 radio stations. And by 1964, he's on more than 400 radio stations. Now, I bet you've never heard of Carl McIntyre. I confess, I hadn't either before I started working on this series.

But it is staggering just how much influence McIntyre had on the conservative movement in America. The incredibly influential National Review magazine had 73,000 subscribers. Well, McIntyre had 20 million listeners. You may have heard of the Southern Strategy. That was the Republicans' effort to pick up pro-segregationist conservative Democrats.

Well, people like McIntyre, they were instrumental to that effort. He's saying as a northerner, it's not racist for you to be in support of segregation. He's really telling them a message that they want to hear. He's validating their support for segregation. McIntyre may have been based in New Jersey, but fully half of his stations were in the South. So in this regard, I think of right-wing radio, of hosts, conservative radio hosts outside of the South who are typically Republican. They play a kind of John the Baptist role, preparing the way for the partisan transformation of the South from deep Democrat to deep Republican. They do so by playing on racist, segregationist fears.

And there's another pivotal moment that McIntyre is right in the center of. It comes just as McIntyre and his ilk are building this fear of a fifth column, the Red Menace,eping Bolshevism. Uncle Joseph's Secret Plot. The Lenin... You know what? No, I'm just going to let Paul explain. You really can't understand the American political scene in the 1960s

without realizing how pervasive conspiracy theorizing was on both sides of the aisle and how much of the political discourse at the time was just driven by paranoid fears of dangerous others. There are some who will say it can never happen here. But this is the story of how it could happen in seven days of intrigue. A lot of the top hit movies of the time period, it's all about a right wing, an authoritarian coup, taking over the government out of the paranoid fear of communism. We think of seven days in May. The seventh day when the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff dared

the President of the United States to stop the conspiracy that couldn't be proved. Dr. Strangelove. For more than a year, ominous rumors had been privately circulating among high level Western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the ultimate weapon, a doomsday device. And this brings us to the moment that McIntyre proves just how powerful this anti-communist hysteria really is. I'm talking about, yep, we're here, say it with me. It's the Polish Ham Boycott of 1962. I know you were wondering when I'd get to the Polish Ham Boycott of 1962. Well, here we are. At this point, the Cold War is just heating up, and John F. Kennedy is anxious to prove he is tough on communism. He wants to use new trade deals to drive a wedge between the Soviet Union and some of its satellite states.

McIntyre, meanwhile, is at the height of his power and popularity. The carrot was, if you are friendly to the U.S., you're friendly to the West, Western Europe will normalize trade relations with your country. We will lower tariffs. And then maybe we can even peel some of those countries behind the Iron Curtain, some of the Eastern Bloc countries away from the Soviet zone of influence. But the JFK White House clearly was not prepared for a Miami chiropractor named Jerome Harold. He was concerned about the regularization of trade with Cuba, which was also part of this. It was Cuba and Eastern Europe.

Harold starts a local boycott. His little boycott, quixotic little local group, gets an assist from right-wing radio hosts, who, when they hear about this, they think this is great. And right-wing radio picks up the cause. Then, suddenly, the crusade becomes really focused on Ham. Because of a poem about ham. We trade iron ore for canned Polish ham. The slave farmers starve while our Uncle Sam settles back to enjoy the communist roast as the ore arrives at the Polish coast. Our State Department encourages this trade.

So eat up, my son. It's a cheaper-priced grade. It's inspected by men from a communist land who started the war in South Vietnam. They fashioned a bullet from that iron ore, and to stop it, your son is called to the Corps. Killed in action, reads the brief telegram. Correction. Killed in your kitchen by a Polish ham. It's amazing. Worst Dr. Seuss poem ever. But this poem about evil ham, it goes viral thanks to

Carl McIntyre. A mother sent him a copy of this poem along with a note that said, My son is in Vietnam. How long must I endure this? Put yourself in the shoes of this housewife. Your son is in Vietnam, and a broadcaster tells you the bullets that could kill your son. You get a telegram any day saying your son has been killed, and he could be killed because of things like imported Polish hams. McIntyre declares war. He dispatches a legion of angry housewives on missions called card parties. They march into grocery stores across the country, armed with stacks of cards they had drawn up. They start sticking these cards everywhere they'd fit.

Inside suit pockets, under packages, all over the stores. These cards are full of anti-communist messages, warning shoppers to steer clear of the Eastern European meats. And all over America, it works. If you want to create an army of motivated grassroots activists, give them that taste of power. The Polish embassy says the trade boycott causes a $5 million drop in exports to America. That's about $44 million in today's bucks.

It's the power of a national right-wing media ecosystem, this new radio right, to pick someone or something from relative local obscurity and amplify it on the national stage. So to me, that story is a testament to the power of right-wing media. The cost of freedom is always high. This is a huge wake-up call for the Kennedy administration. But Americans have always paid it. As the Kennedy White House is figuring out how to take on this right-wing radio problem in 62, one advisor writes a memo. What is a good example of this power, of this grassroots that these broadcasters have? And he settled on, quote, the card party movement

that invaded supermarkets which sell Polish hams. The administration invites a couple of union leaders, the Ruther brothers, to suggest some strategies. And they draw up a plan. Well, I call it the most successful censorship campaign in modern American history. At the time, right-wing broadcasters were technically educational non-profits. That means any contribution could be written off

against your taxes. Suddenly, that's at risk. But if I sent a lobbyist to Washington, D.C., they would have legal grounds to take away the tax in-state of Christian Crusade in 24 hours. Out in Oklahoma, Billy James Hargis is spitting mad. The National Council of Churches sent 75 lobbyists to Washington this week, but nobody questions their tax-exempt status. Billy James Hargis loses his tax-exempt status. All of this is against the law! He only got it back after an expensive eight-year court battle during which he really couldn't raise any money. But ladies and gentlemen, these liberals are law unto themselves. They're not a people of law. battle during which he really couldn't raise any money. But that wasn't all. The White House also

instructs the FCC to get serious about enforcing something called the Fairness Doctrine. As a condition of their license, broadcasters have to present issues of public importance, and they have to do it in a manner that was fair and balanced. It had been in the books since 1949, but had never really been enforced. The Kennedy government was giving it new teeth. In 1963, they issue a so-called clarification,

which gives examples of the kind of speech that was a problem. It is immaterial, said the FCC ruling, whether a particular program is presented under the label of Americanism, anti-communism, or states' rights. In other words, all the right-wing tropes. It was open season. Liberal interest groups start filing fairness doctrine complaints. That generates a paper trail of fairness doctrine complaints that the FCC can then act on. But if you're going to generate complaints, someone has to listen to all those hours of radio.

Several progressive organizations leaned into this effort, including the National Council of Churches. That's the same progressive group that Billy James Hargis called an instrument of Satan. And then the White House hits right-wing radio even harder. They rule that insulted parties have the right to reply, on air, for free. And beyond that, they can demand transcripts of radio shows.

You hear an attack, you go to the radio station, demand the transcript, they look it up, and then you can use that to file, you know, have evidence for your fairness doctrine complaint. This is a giant hassle for the likes of Carl McIntyre. It's a terrible thing that's happened in this country. He takes to the airwaves and he rails against the government. And the FCC's put this so-called weapon of the fairness doctrine in the hands of our enemies to go and harass stations and all the abuse that comes from that area.

The Kennedy administration's tactics? They work. By 1967, a third of right-wing radio programs had gone off the air. Stations were dropping them left, right, and center, mostly right, because they were just too much of a liability. Facing ruin, McIntyre makes a desperate move. He buys his own station, WXUR in Philadelphia. He figures at least this way, he won't be at the mercy of station owners. This is McIntyre's last stand, and he goes all in. He actually puts his life insurance policy,

he puts a second mortgage on the building that his seminary is housed in. So there's a lot on the line here, and there's a lot of opposition from the local affiliates of the National Council of Churches. After a two-year court battle, the FCC rules against McIntyre. He loses his license, but he has one last trick up his sleeve. He buys a World War II converted minesweeper, outfits it with a massive radio station antenna, and sails it just off the coast in kind of international waters

off of Cape May, New Jersey. I tried really hard to get a converted minesweeper for this program, but my coward bosses said no. Give us our liberty back. Give WXUR back to Dr. McIntyre and his people. Let them be happy. A permanent license to every radio station and get our men out from under the shadow and the cloud that they're living under. But that doesn't work either.

On July 4th, 1973, McIntyre delivers one last broadcast on WXUR. WXUR died tonight. There's one issue, freedom of speech, free exercise of religion. My religious and liberal opponents were successful in securing the aid of the federal government to silence a voice of a religious minority. My friends, we shall wait while we join in singing, Nearer, my God, to thee. And this will be the final word as the station proceeds to sign off and to conclude its ministry until God speaks otherwise.

By the early 1970s, right-wing radio is in ruins. The biggest stars, who used to be on hundreds of stations, now appear on a few dozen. Owners have been totally cowed by the fairness doctrine. And as talk radio declines, so does the social movement that had been such a powerful force in the Polish hand boycott. If the radio right provides

this kind of organizing principle, this way of getting activists on the ground feeling connected to each other, feeling like they're part of a movement that's bigger than themselves, getting advice and direction from those hosts, if you remove that, well, you remove that key organizing principle.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you goodnight and goodbye for a few days. Here it is. Amen. A president launches a golden age of conservatism. The Americans living in this land today, there isn't any problem we can't solve if government will give us the facts, tell us what needs to be done, and then get out of the way and let us have at it. And pulls the shackles off of right-wing radio. And... This is a program also, I should say, devoted exclusively to what I think.

The rocket fuel rise of Rush Limbaugh. From a washed out DJ to Republican kingmaker. This is not the time to get moderate. This is not the time to start trying to be liked. The Flamethrowers, episode two. Where we're going, we don't need the fairness doctrine. The Flamethrowers is written and produced by Peter Brown, Matt Amha, and me. Our coordinating producer is Fabiola Carletti.

The show is mixed by Peter Brown. Thanks this week to Slate and Thomas Doherty for their history of Father Coughlin and to Lisa Bryn Rundle for her outraged cameo. Paul Matsko's book about early right-wing radio and the fairness doctrine is called The Radio Right, how a band of broadcasters took on the federal government and built the modern conservative movement. Our senior producer is Jeff Turner, and the executive producer of CBC Podcasts is Arif Noorani. I'm Justin Ling,

and remember to avoid the noise. Alright, so this has been the first episode of The Flamethrowers. New episodes are available every Wednesday on the CBC Listen app and everywhere you get your podcasts. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.