Even in this era of digital domination and hashtag activism, radio remains a signifi cant factor in our political life.

This week, erstwhile Arkansan Mike Huckabee, former governor and presidential aspirant, begins a nationally syndicated daily radio show. He has hosted a weekly TV show on Fox News for several years and has done short radio commentaries, but now hopes to become a major player over the airwaves.

The timing of the debut of Huckabee’s program has added signifi cance for a couple of reasons.

It comes shortly after a major brouhaha involving the king of talk radio, Rush Limbaugh. His misguided and inappropriate verbal attacks on a young woman brought him a boatload of justifi ed criticism and caused some of his advertisers to pulltheir support.

The new Huckabee show also comes as electionyear politics heat up. It will be interesting to see if Huckabee, whom many thought might have had an inside track toward the Republican nomination this year, will have any impact on the presidential race. (There is, of course, the outside possibility that Huckabee might be selected as the GOP vice presidential candidate and would accept that role, though he appears to have opted for the media slots and the fi nancial benefi ts.)

Huckabee’s program will be distributed by Cumulus Media, which is the second largest owner of radio stations, about 570, behind Clear Channel, which owns 850 stations. Once there were limitations on the number of stations a company could own, but those no longer apply. Clear Channel distributes the Limbaugh show to about 600 stations, including some owned by Cumulus.

Huckabee will begin with about 180 stations carrying his daily show.

Talk radio and Limbaugh have thrived on controversy and blunderbuss. Will Huckabee’s common-sense conservatism and aft able personality match up against Limbaugh’s hardright anger? Is Limbaugh’s shtick wearing thin and can Huckabee draw audience away from him?

At times in our history, radio played a far more important role in politicsthan in today’s mostly contentious chat shows, where facts often give way to uninformed fury. Of course, there have been previous cases of radio being used to stir political disgruntlement. A prime example was Father Charles Coughlin, the “radio priest” who was reaching an audience of 30 million in the early 1930s, blasting President Franklin Roosevelt and launching anti-semitic and profascist tirades until people began to see through his demagoguery.

Roosevelt himself made masterful use of radio.

Especially eft ective were his fireside chats. Delivering 30 of those over a 12-year period, he was heard in an average of 70 percent of American homes in those broadcasts. By contrast, the leading radio entertainment programs of the day (Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos ’n’Andy) averaged less than half that audience.

Radio also played a key informational role during World War II as reporters such as Edward R. Murrow provided regular updates on what was happening in the war zones. I recall hearing that my grandmother, who had family members serving overseas, sat next to her radio at 6 p.m. each evening to hear the news and no one was allowed to say anything while she listened.

In the post-war years as television took hold, radio lost much of its traditional programming, eventually moving to format radio.

Many stations featured particular music genres while others turned to talk formats.

Technology today is far advanced over what was available in the past and there are varied means of accessing broadcasts today, and media consumers havean array of sources for news and entertainment.

And there is much to be appreciated within that extensive line-up of choices, including music, sports (baseball and radio still make a good match), and the quality news and public aft airs programming of National Public Radio and public radio stations.

As for talk radio, it might well be called “agenda” radio and has been increasingly dominated by ax-grinders, who play to and reinforce the preconceptions and prejudices of the audience.

When Mike Huckabee goes behind the mike, will he bring a dift erent dimension to radio talk and become a popular alternative to the ranters?

As they say in radio, stay tuned.

HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.

Opinion, Pages 13 on 04/08/2012