Talk Radio’s Advertising Problem

If Rush did retire, Mark Steyn would do nicely as his replacement.

Thanks for posting that. I was surprised by several things:

-Rush is #1, but only 13 million-plus? IIRC, he had over 20 million listeners at one time. Limbaugh is still the best at what he does, so I have to think this is a sign of structural changes in the industry, as another poster mentioned.

-Hannity is #2? I don’t think Hannity is a bad guy, but I’m very surprised he’s right behind Rush Limbaugh in the ratings. I would have figured him top 20, but not this high, based on what I’ve seen on his tv show.

-I was sort of hoping Dana Loesch would be in the numbers mix. I enjoy her show.

“It’s so bad that I just switched to NPR.”

I tried that also, but found myself cursing to the interviews and dialogues. Music gets boring but talk radio makes me know I am getting smarter everyday.

-Rush is #1, but only 13 million-plus? IIRC, he had over 20 million listeners at one time. Limbaugh is still the best at what he does, so I have to think this is a sign of structural changes in the industry, as another poster mentioned.

That's probably true. Here are the top talk-radio personalities (leaving out NPR, LOL), according to talkers.com:

-Hannity is #2? I don’t think Hannity is a bad guy, but I’m very surprised he’s right behind Rush Limbaugh in the ratings. I would have figured him top 20, but not this high, based on what I’ve seen on his tv show.

Agreed. Hannity is good, but not #2. #2 probably should go to Levin. Both Limbaugh and Levin are host-driven shows.

You can characterize talkers on a spectrum from host-driven to guest-driven.

Host-driven is very demanding. We marvel at how Rush goes thru his "stack of stuff" in stream of consciousness mode, elaborating theories about the Left with each new tidbit. Bouncing an idea off Snerdly now and then. For the listener, it's, where is he going to go next? (probably even he doesn't know before the segment starts).

Hannity is guest-driven. You line up interesting guests and drive the conversation. Hopefully, you plus good guests add up to an interesting show. Doesn't require the host to be a genius, but still can yield good content, given a smart host, which Hannity is.

-I was sort of hoping Dana Loesch would be in the numbers mix. I enjoy her show.

I hadn't heard much of her, but her Wikipedia entry is interesting:

On January 12, 2012, after the release of a video of U.S. Marines urinating on Taliban fighters garnered national attention, Loesch celebrated the actions on her radio show saying that she would "drop trou and do it too"^[9]

Looks like her RSS feed is here. Thanks. I'll add it to my list!

I wish that Rush would have only 2 or 3 shows a week.

Someone holding a gun to your head?

True that RINOs are gutless wimps! But all radio advertisers are afraid of political pressure and protests. Both conservative and liberal talk shows are suffering from a decline in advertising.

I was maybe two minutes from home before Mark came back on and then there was the intro music, the intro talk, and then I was turning into the driveway.

To make it even worse, all talk radio commercials are so badly written, voice acted and produced. Are ad agencies actually being paid to churn out this awful garbage or are these small business owners doing the whole thing themselves from home? I'm serious. They are ALL that bad.

Al and Jesse will sic the mob on dissenters.

I’m a dissenter that won’t go down alone, see.

Snapple was small. Uggs were small. Lifelock was small.
Goldline was small. What do these have in common?