Best of Luck, Phil
Phil Valentine, the popular Nashville radio talk show host whose crusade against the proposed state income tax helped defeat it several times, is leaving WLAC 1510-AM, his home of five years, in order to write a second book. His first book, From the Heart: The ABCs of Reality in America, is selling well.

Valentine also plans to launch a nationally syndicated radio show.

Here's how The Tennessean reported it:

With hopes of taking his popular radio talk show to a national stage, Phil Valentine has announced his resignation from NewsRadio 1510 WLAC after five years of afternoon discourse. In that time Valentine has become a local conservative icon, known especially for his influential on-air campaign against an income tax in Tennessee. In the past year his afternoon show has drawn more local listeners per week than national pundits Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy, he says. After his final broadcast tomorrow, Valentine plans to write a second book and pursue national syndication. WLAC has not made plans yet for Valentine's 2-6 p.m. time slot.

''If I'm going to step out and be a national player in talk radio, now's the time to do it,'' Valentine said yesterday. ''The show has been doing so well at a local level that it's time to start branching out, and I just didn't feel so comfortable that WLAC was going to be the place to do that.''

A few thoughts. During much of the four-year income tax battle, I wrote a weekly newspaper column, first for the now-defunct weekly In Review, and then for the Nashville City Paper, from which sprang this blog. Often, I wrote about the income tax and the state budget, and Phil graciously read many of them on air. That lead to numerous on-air appearances on Phil's show, including from Legislative Plaza during some of the horn-honking anti-tax rallies. Great fun.

Some believe talk show hosts espouse views chosen to attract listeners, and perhaps some do. Not Phil Valentine. He truly believes the things he says on the radio, and his beliefs spring from bedrock values and principles. That, I believe, is why his show became the number one radio show in Nashville. That I believe, is also why it won't be long before the Phil Valentine Show is syndicated and slotted on stations coast to coast.

Phil, I wish you the best of luck.

Now, a word of advice for WLAC. Hire another local conservative talker. You've got the audience already - don't drive them away by hiring some liberal or some mushy moderate. Don't blow it.

And hire someone new - not some local conservative retread. And hire someone who understands the Internet and can incorporate it, via a weblog, into their radio show. Imagine a radio talk show host who not only interacts with callers but also interacts via the comments feature on a blog and can link listeners to source materials and related news, commentary and content via a blog.

It would be powerful stuff.