Thompson part of the rest of the story?

Politician, movie star, TV star, Republican, Vol, and all around good guy Fred Thompson's next role may be his toughest. He's been signed to a radio contract with ABC News Radio for a daily commentary. Rumors are flying he might be tapped to follow Paul Harvey when the great one goes:

He will be based at ABC's Washington bureau and will host radio specials and provide commentary on politics, national security and current affairs, the network announced over the weekend. He also will fill in for Paul Harvey when the 87-year-old radio personality is on vacation.

To those of us who grew up listening to "News with Paul Harvey" (and that spans generations) hearing him these days is almost like falling into a momentary time warp. His eventual departure from the air (and they're gonna have to pry that mic out of his hand) will definitely close the curtain on an era of great 20th century radio men. Today's broadcasters are good, but in my opinion not cut from the same cloth.

Assuming they give the job to Fred he'll no doubt need to create his own style and format. Hopefully they won't try to just slide him into the same template, since I'd rather not hear him trying to perfectly enunciate all his P's and Q's or roll off a sqeaky "good day" at the end of the broadcast. That might actually be pretty funny, but we'll probably be treated to a "thanks for droppin in, y'all" or somesuch.

Still, following a legend is hard--just ask the several who've tried to follow baseball broadcast icon Jack Buck in St. Louis. Assuming Fred gets the chance he might pull it off, but my jury's still out.