Herman Cain gets his own radio gig

After 42 years on the air from metro Atlanta, conservative radio host Neal Boortz has announced his plans to retire. His last broadcast will end at precisely 1:00 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 21 -- inauguration day.

“If it’s Barack Obama, then I’m going to disappear into the mountains and come out after he has destroyed this country. If it’s Mitt Romney, we’ll start drinking as the show begins,” Boortz told listeners early Monday.

But the airwaves won't be silent for long.  Boortz's timeslot will be filled by another booming conservative voice -- that of former GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate, will inherit Boortz’ chair, microphone — and a syndicated audience that reaches 6 million listeners weekly over 200 radio stations. Boortz, 67, will continue to check in daily with a brief tirade.

But otherwise, “the Talkmaster” has a bucket list that next year alone will take him as far north as Alaska and as far south as Antarctica. One of the most influential voices of the American right, who has declared public education to be a plague and speaks of Democrats in nothing but withering italics, will hit the road without a thought of any void left behind.

“I’ve always tried to push that thought away. Once you try to give the impression that you’re a political force, then your head starts getting big. All I’ve ever wanted to do is just get ratings,” Boortz said in a telephone interview before his announcement, from his phone in Naples, Fla.

Boortz also took a moment to recognize conservative radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh for blazing the trail for conservative commentators.  “Limbaugh did for talk radio what Arnold Palmer did for golf,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Rush Limbaugh I would have quit talk radio a long time ago, and I’d have been practicing law.”