Speaking of Pete Buttigieg

Blair Garner, whose self-titled Nash FM radio show is syndicated nationally across more than 150 radio stations, interviewed [presidential candidate Pete] Buttigieg on Wednesday while the Democratic candidate visited Nashville, Tennessee, as part of his campaign tour.

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Cumulus Media, one of the largest broadcasting companies in the country, blocked [Blair] from airing his interview.

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“[Blair] has a big audience,” [said Buttigieg campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith]. “And it’s an audience that doesn’t typically hear directly from Democratic candidates for president.”

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In his roughly 20-minute interview, Buttigieg discussed meeting country music icons Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw and called on the Democratic Party to reach out to more communities traditionally viewed as right-leaning.

“I think that our base tends to be more conservative,” Garner told Buttigieg of his program’s listeners. “And the fact that you, from the Democratic ticket, are the singular candidate to reach out and to say, ‘May I please be on your show?’ That you are reaching out to our listeners ― I think we all have to embrace that and be appreciative of that.”

  HuffPo

But not Cumulus Media.

“My employer decided I couldn’t air it,” he tweeted with a link to the interview published on his personal Soundcloud account.

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“It is not, in any way shape or form, my intention for our show to become political,” the host of “The Blair Garner Show” wrote in the email. “But because someone clearly saw the value of our listeners, I felt secure in affording him this opportunity.”

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“I’ve been told that the interview cannot air,” he wrote in the second email, also obtained by HuffPost. “I was very proud that a presidential candidate of any party valued our show to the degree that they would ask to be a guest.”

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A spokesperson for Cumulus Media told HuffPost that programming managers decided not to air the interview “because of the large number of political candidates currently in this race.”

“The decision was made by local programming management based solely on concerns related to the application of the FCC’s Equal Time Rule,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday."

I guess that works. But if they air any Trump campaigning, that reason won't hold.

Kurt Bardella, creator and publisher of the country music newsletter “The Morning Hangover,” said he was in the studio during Garner’s interview with Buttigieg. He slammed Cumulus Media for pulling the plug on it.

“It is an incredible act of cowardice for a company who’s slogan is ‘Where Every Voice Matters’ to censor an interview with someone who, for the first time ever, thought it was worthwhile to engage the country music audience in a conversation about the future of our country,” Bardella said in a statement to HuffPost.

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“Country radio should be on the frontlines of breaking stereotypes and promoting diversity of thought.”

That doesn't sound like Country radio to me, but it sounds good.

Yikes.  Blair has teeth.

Want to know what a conservative host asks a Democratic candidate?  Check it out.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.