Rush Limbaugh isn't the first and probably won't be the last talk show host to put his foot in his mouth on the issue of race. In New Mexico we've seen it all before. Chris Jackson was a race-baiting afternoon talk show host on KKOB-AM in the late 90's and Ardy Patton had a similar shtick in the nighttime hours on the same station but in a different era. Patton was forced off the airwaves by management when he made disparaging remarks about immigrants, repeatedly pointing the finger at "wetbacks." Jackson would say things to callers like: "Oh, that is soooooo New Mexican," leaving little question of what he was trying to put across. The Jackson and Patton shows spawned terrible public image problems for the state's largest station. Democrats took to calling it "hate radio" as Jackson vented his racially tinted tirades. The station never did recover a large portion of the mainstream audience it lost. Today it remains a powerhouse and expertly managed by Albuquerque's Milt McConnell, a veteran broadcaster who takes standards more serious than his predecessors. Will Rush remain on the KKOB airwaves? Surely he is in jeopardy and millions of dollars of radio profits across the nation depend on the answer. The ratings services will be extra busy tracking to see if Limbaugh has lost popularity because of his latest controversies. As long ago KOB disc jockey Chuck Logan told me once: "In the radio business, you live and die by the ratings book."