Limbaugh's Audience Size? It's Largely Up in the Air (when every other attack fails..)

WaPo ^ | Mar 07, 2009 | Paul Farhi

[libh8er]

How many people actually listen to Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk titan White House officials have spent the past week characterizing as "the head of the Republican Party"?

According to what Limbaugh delights in calling "the drive-by media," the number varies wildly. Is it 30 million (Pat Buchanan on MSNBC), 20 million (Time magazine, ABC News), 19 million (Fox News), 14 million (CNN), or "14.2 million to about 25 million" (The Washington Post)?

Answer: Maybe.

Limbaugh is widely acknowledged to be the most popular talk-radio host, as evidenced by the record $400 million, eight-year contract he signed with his syndicator last July. But estimates of Limbaugh's nationwide (and overseas) audience are exercises in guesswork, slippery methodology and suspect data. Limbaugh himself has muddied the water with the claim that he reaches 20 million people a week, although there's no independent support for that figure.

[mad_as_he$$]

The next round will be “See Rush is too powerful and we need the fairness doctrine!”

[mad_as_he$$]

It's not the size of the audience, it is how you use it.

[Eccl 10:2]

“While others do have fun listening to Rush, I can’t do it. For one, I just can’t see spending that kind of time. It’s just too much time involved.”

If you just listen to the first half-hour, that’s when he lays out the theme of the day, backed by his brilliant analysis.

He is so successful for a reason. He is, far and away, easily the best at what he does.

[Excellence]

I used to download his podcasts and listen at 1.6 speed. Skip the phone calls and I could get the whole show in about an hour. Now I listen on a pocket transistor and a single earpiece while I do other things.

[Star Traveler]

You said — “I used to download his podcasts and listen at 1.6 speed. Skip the phone calls and I could get the whole show in about an hour.”

I’m trying that out now. I’ve speeded it up to the fastest where I can still understand him. It sure does help, because he does take so long to say things. So, the speedup helps that way... :-)

If I can speed up things a lot, when listening, maybe it won’t be so aggravating to listen to the slow pace...

[Erasmus]

I’ve often wondered why they’ve always said something like “the most listened-to talk show in America.”

Couldn’t they say “the world?” Or does someone out there have a bigger audience than Rush?

[Excellence]

Some of his rants, though, are worth listening to one word at a time, just as a good steak is worth consuming one bite at a time. : )

[jmcenanly]

If he weren’t that popular, they wouldn’t be making so much noise about how unpopular he is.

[Col Freeper]

Poor Paul Farhi,

He looks around at his paper's constant shrinking and loss of advertisers.

Then thinks that it will be saved by a silly article about whether Rush's audience is being correctly reported.

Yo Paul, the two groups who care the most about the size of Rush's audience is the White House and advertisers.

Based on the attacks coming from the White House, I think that they know his audience is very large (and way larger than your paper's audience).

Based on the advertisers rushing to Rush, (and away from your paper), I think that they also know his audience is very large (and way larger than your paper's audience).

Get it now Paul? You're a loser and before long, you'll just be a (bad) memory.

[kickonly88]

I listen while I work in my shop. Rush ranks third on my list of favorite voices. #1 being my wife’s,#2 our 2 1/2 year old son’s and the sound of my stroker Shovelhead and Rush in 3rd.

[chippewaman]

They are attacking Rush because they HAVE to. Just like when they attacked Sarah Palin ... they HAD to. If Rush or Gov. Palin were both bafoons and were not a threat to their agenda they wouldn’t have to.

[o2bfree]

I used to think that way... but now I download Rush’s show to my iPod via my membership to his website. I can listen to the show any place I want and at any time of the day.

I’d choose listening to Rush or Sean or Mark over democrat run cable shows anyday.

[TornadoAlley3]

*

[libh8er]

It's not the size of the audience, it is how you use it.

Actually, as many hosts would attest to, how long the audience listen to the show is sometimes not as important as how wide they are. And Rush's audience is far and wide. :>

[yazoo]

If advertisers are lining up to buy time on his show then you need no additional proof his ratings are soaring.

[srmorton]

You are probably right, but oftentimes I am listening to Rush, watching TV, AND reading FR!

[dangus]

>> I often wondered whether that 20,000,000 per week is the same 4,000,000 people listening 5 days a week or 20,000,000 “unique visitors” to use the Internet term. <<

I’m pretty sure it’s at least unique users over the course of the entire week. I’d love to know how that translates to TV ratings, which are the number of viewers at any given moment, averaged over the length of the show.