Posted on 03/12/2012 11:29:14 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Mike Huckabee is expanding his media reach to a radio program scheduled to start airing in April. However, the show is scheduled to be in direct competition with none other than Rush Limbaugh. In a column for The Daily Beast today, David Frum thinks Huckabee’s new show might end up hurting Limbaugh’s numbers, and gave some insight into the reasons surrounding decisions by advertisers to leave Limbaugh’s program.
Last month, Huckabee announced he would be doing the radio show for Cumulus Media Networks, while continuing to work the weekend shift on his Fox News show, Huckabee. His show has been distinguished as not a “conservative talk show, ” but “a talk show by a conservative.” When asked about the fact that his show will be broadcast opposite Limbaugh’s, Huckabee said he doesn’t see Rush as a competitor, and acknowledged that Limbaugh has a very loyal audience that has stuck with him for years.
That was last month. In the aftermath of Limbaugh’s huge controversy and advertisers leaving his program in droves, some are wondering if this will end up benefitting Huckabee’s show and giving him an advantage. Media Matters suggested that Huckabee would offer a “safe harbor” to advertisers who have no problem with buying ad space on conservative talk radio, just not where Limbaugh is concerned. Frum took it one step further today by laying out exactly why Huckabee will end up being a more serious challenge to Limbaugh’s radio dominance than previously imagined.
Frum explains that unlike most other radio hosts, Limbaugh charges radio stations for his content and charges incredibly high advertising rates. However, these deals are reliant on Limbaugh delivering strong numbers, and Frum says he has been “notably failing” in that respect. One metric advertisers really care about is TSL (time spent listening). Here’s how Frum breaks it down:
Here’s how this operates in the real world. Limbaugh knows that his share of big markets like Dallas or Atlanta has dropped from his old 5 percent in any given hour to, say, 3 percent. But if he can entice that 3 percent to listen twice as long, he can more than make up the loss.
That imperative explains why Limbaugh kept talking about Sandra Fluke for so long. He was boosting his TSL to compensate for his dwindling market share. Few things boost TSL like getting the old folks agitated over how much sexy sex these shameless young hussies are having nowadays.
So why are Limbaugh’s advertisers fleeing? Because according to Frum, advertisers are starting to “revolt… against the TSL strategy” and ask “that their purchased minutes be placed on some less-controversial program. And that’s exactly what Huckabee is offering. A show that’s “more conversation; less confrontation.” But any shifts won’t come quietly. As one radio veteran told Frum, “if just one station in a top-20 market replaces Limbaugh with Huckabee, it’ll be an earthquake.”
Huckabee is such a bore...I’ll never listen to him...I detest him because he and his antics ushered in McCain last time....
Huckabee on radio = Dukakis with a helmet in a tank
I can hear Rush now saying, “Come on in Huck, the water’s warm.”
Frum ignores the fact that the radicals with their hair on fire organized and jumped into attack mode threatening to boycott Rush’s advertisers. Not mentioning that fact (especially since some advertisers have asked to be reinstated) doesn’t evidently fit with Frum’s template - especially since most of Rush’s audience is 100% behind him in the Fluke dust-up.
Pssst: Frum, we LIKE that Rush can be confrontational. It’s what drives the left absolutely bonkers and drives more listeners to his audience (whether or not he talks about the left’s sex stories). Huckabee’s show will attract a completely different audience. I like Huckabee and wish him well. He will probably come to be known as the Lawrence Welk of radio.
It doesn’t matter what kind of ratings Huckabee pulls. He will be off the air in August when he joins up as Romney’s VP. As nauseating as it is I stand by my prediction.
< echo chamber=on> Huckabee < echo chamber=off>
I can just hear the parody playing now! Rush, is that you?
Don’t make me laugh.
no.
No competition. He isn’t that interesting.
You make it sound like Huckabee only has one topic for his new show (how the prisoners he released went out and killed cops). I don’t think you are being fair.
He can also talk about puppies his son tortured and hung to death. And how he tried as governor to help his son escape the bounds of justice. he could spend an hour or two on how he fooled all those people that he didn’t have a bypass and lost the weight through hard work — and how those suckers bought his dishonest book about it. he’s got lots of fun topics.
While indeed the “slimming” striped shirts are the most jarring part of the photo, the most telling part is the poor dog. If your son had been arrested for torturing and then killing by hanging a poor hound, would you really want your Christmas card to show you choking your dog and yanking its leg to keep it in the photo????
Nope, no real chance of the Huckster huring Rush.
Your facts are incorrect.
Huckabee doesn’t barbecue squirrel. He cooks them in his popcorn popper.
“.....all they really care about is not picking a fight with the left, keep in with their elitist liberal pals like Colmes, Beckel , their own pockets and power...”
And to that list, I would add J.C. Watts. I used to really admire him; but when he stated that he HAD TO vote for Zero because Zero is BLACK; that frosted it for me. I then filed J.C. Watts in the turd brain category!
Leni
Pullease.....I laughed so hard reading that headline.
hehehehe...hahahaha...hehaheha...please stop...look out below I’m am about to do a marie osmond...heheh...hahaha
“Media Matters suggested that Huckabee would offer a ‘safe harbor’ to advertisers who have no problem with buying ad space on conservative talk radio, just not where Limbaugh is concerned”
What the fudge does Media Matters know about the radio business (or anything, for that matter)?
Our local radio station just read an email they received from Huckabee people promoting his show. The email slammed Rush and Beck with a bunch of left wing insults. If they post it, I’ll post it here.
Somebody is seriously delusional. Only when Huckabee is hosting an interesting guest, I stay on the channel...until the guest leaves.
8:}
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