Rigin - Limbaugh replaced Morton Downey on that station in 1984, and it was a talk show - not just a DJ show where he spun records. There were plenty of talk shows of the type at the time, but when the Fairness Doctrine was in effect, if you had a show that presented one point of view, you needed to offset it with another show that offered an alternate.

The Fairness Doctrine was torn down by the FCC starting in the 1985 - after years of complaints about the doctrine. It is true that it was a Reagan appointed FCC chairman - Mark Fowler, and in 1987 Reagan vetoed congressional legislation that would have forced the FCC to apply the doctrine again.

It is very true that the Fairness Doctrine went away it opened the floodgates and Limbaugh took full advantage of it.   His skill at manipulating audiences created an industry.