Posted on 01/12/2014 8:41:19 PM PST by DoughtyOne
A Commentary by DoughtyOne based on an article appearing in the Los Angeles Times.
For quite some time we have been aware of efforts to reduce the impact of Rush Limbaugh on the psyche of the American Public. It was rumored that an effort was underway to remove Rush from many stations so that local programming could take center stage As of the first of the years, it has quietly taken place. Clear channel has moved Rush off superstations across this nation, placing him on third rate stations.
Why is this a big deal, you may ask. Well lets use Los Angeles for an example. Radio Station KFI in Los Angeles is what is known as a super-station. AM 640 can be heard from roughly Santa Monica on the West to San Bernardino on the East, close to San Diego on the South, and north close to Santa Barabara. I believe it's a 50,000 watt station. Moving Rush over to the KTLK affiliate has probably reduced his on air audience to perhaps 1/10th to 1/20th of it's former size. I believe it is rated at 10,000 watts. Referencing the call letters KLTK is in a sense misleading, because a Clear Channel nod to Rush in Los Angeles has the call letters revised to KEIB, the normal radio "K" plus Rush's Exellence In Broadcasting title.
I haven't been listening to Rush much as of late. I don't know if he has addressed this or not. What I do know, is that this is a massive slap in the face to a guy who made his slot the number one slot across the nation. Someone should take Clear Channel's exectuives in the the back room, and bitch slap them for weeks, or however long it takes for them to realize what an insulting thing they have just done. It's suicidal in a business sense too.
Here is a short list of other stations Rush has been bumped from. Some of them are super-stations too. I'd imagine a majority of them are.
In San Francisco he is leaving KKSF for KNEW. He has been shifted off his normal station in Minneapolis, Houston, New Orleans, and New York.
Here's the way it's being sold in Los Angeles:
“The Patriot will be home to well-known hosts sharing the same conservative philosophical views and values, while KFI will be live and local all day long focusing mainly on the issues that affect Southern Californians,” Greg Ashlock, Clear Channel's market president for Los Angeles, said in a statement.
Evidently Greg Ashlock hasn't pulled his head out of his posterior long enough over the last twenty years to know that Rush's program covers information important to every citizen, not just the 5 to 10% of those he used to reach.
It's also unclear how this is going to improve local probramming in the greater Los Angeles region, since two stations already provide pretty much live local coverage. Now there are three of them, and Rush is relegated to basically using a CB Channel for his future broadcasts.
You have to know that the FCC under the direction of King Obama was behind this.
I hope the stations Rush got kicked off of fall flat on their faces.
In Los Angeles the KFI hosts just went from Right Wing to Flaming Liberal. Local programming IS NOT going to be the only thing these programs talk about either. This was only a masterful way to eliminate Rush as a mover and a shaker across this nation on live radio broadcasts.
Imagine if the reverse had been done, the best Leftist shows in the nation all at once relegated to 5 to 10% of their former audiences.
This was not a sound business decision. That leaves only one reason why it's taking place.
Check the photo of Rush out at the link. Good grief! No axe to grind here... /s
LINK to Los Angeles Times information
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I don’t know about this.
KFI has become sort of mixed in political affiliation.
Sure they had Rush, but he was immediately preceded in the morning by Bill Handel.
Handel has a lot of listeners, but I find him abrasive and not interesting.
The new station may not have as powerful a signal as KFI does, but I think there may be more to the decision than simply station power.
Just saying.
Fat-mouth Savage has been crowing for weeks over Rush being moved to smaller stations. It does not bother me. My DAR.fm service records Rush each day for me to play back whenever I want.
Rush is still the king. Savage is a sniveling serf.
Off WABC Radio in NY, now on WOR. Hannity as well. Levin still on WABC.
Another Freeper told me that the new NYC station Rush is on (WOR 710 on your AM dial) has basically the same range as WABC 770 AM does. But I’m not sure about it.
As long as you can listen on the computer all will be well. That is what I mostly do now.
Obviously that doesn’t work in the car, but Rush does not have a drive time show, and I’ve usually been able to find him during the rare times I’ve been wandering the hinterlands in my automobile.
BTW, only Rush will muzzle Rush. No one is interested in any defeatism he might be harboring.
For a number of years, Rush was on the premier conservative talk show station in the Bay Area, KSFO. He went to KKSF only a two years ago. That station is a backwater. KNEW is better known as a conservative competitor to KSFO, for many years hosting Glenn Beck. Both have 20KW transmitters.
So this is actually a better arrangement for Rush in the Bay Area. Remember too that an increasing fraction of listeners do so by live streaming audio. So my suspicion is that the effects you mention will be more strongly felt in LA than the Bay Area.
This is the long anticipated move to local programming.
It was a wedge used to move Limbaugh out. Which would you rather have Rush on, if it were your station?
Would you want to sell advertising based on an audience of the size I just mentioned, or one 5 to 10% that size, with the guy that is the number one syndicated show host in the nation?
Clear channel just chopped off their own nose to spite their face.
Rush will now be heard in an area roughly ten to fifteen miles from the Broadcast station. He was heard in an area that was about 250 miles by 150 miles.
Advertisers won’t want to spend much on his show now. Nice one Clear Channel.
Handel is an idiot. He’s a former Cocaine addict who can’t stop talking about it on the show. He has the wrong view on just about every subject. KFI has just been replaced on my radio push button.
No changes here in lib land.
Still on WCBN Baltimore and WMAL Wash DC both big stations with conservative programming.
Have they switched already? Has anyone measured how much time the new shows spend on local issues?
So are you claiming Clear Channel is conspiring to reduce the impact of Rush, on voters?
Rush used to be on KNBR680 in the morning.
iPhone + iHeartRadio = Rush anywhere.
Rush is still listed on kfi site as 9 to noon..so are you sure he no longer on?
The buttons on my car radio only go to one station. I listen from noon to three.
That always struck me as odd, being on a sports talk station.
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