Posted on 05/09/2013 5:13:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
Predictions of the demise of Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio are a dime a dozen. That liberal wish has been a repeated incantation. But it’s more amusing when the demise talk comes from .... “Newsweek.”
Come again? Who’s yesterday’s news? John Avlon of the Daily Beast asserts Rush Limbaugh “Bleeds Millions From His Carriers as Toxic Talk Slumps.” Ahem, nobody’s bought Rush’s show for a dollar, like someone bought Newsweek. Avlon finds some guy whose newsletter has a Facebook page with nine Likes to insult Limbaugh’s audience as “all wearing Depends” – when he graduated college in 1968.
We're watching the end of right-wing conservative talk radio," says Jerry Del Colliano, publisher of the radio-industry tip sheet Inside Music Media. "The genre is dying among ratings and dying among advertisers ... Rush is at the end of his career. His constituency is all wearing Depends. And he's getting himself into trouble he doesn't need. So can you put Humpty Dumpty back together again? They have been able to improve their advertising picture, but they have not been able to come back.""Sandra Fluke was simply the lightning that struck and hit an old building that collapsed," Colliano says. "She didn't do it. She helped to bring it down at the end, but it was falling apart on its own."
...But the larger issue is the declining demographics of the right-wing talk-radio racket. Look at the millennial generation, says Colliano. Theres 80 million of them coming of age. They dont see color. They dont see gender. And theyre civic minded: they dont like bloviating. They dont like yelling and screaming. So you tell me: hows right-wing talk radio working for them?
As in the past, the aging right-wing talkersseveral of whom are represented by Limbaughs agent and brother Davidwill angrily dispute any decline in their profitability or ratings. Its all become part of their self-serving kabuki, but Colliano dismisses their reflexive playing of the victim card. They read the ratings the way they read the Gallup ratings right before the Obama victory. Its their metrics; its their way. But its not backed by fact.
It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that radio programmers might look at Obama's re-election and wonder if conservative talk radio is still hot. But you can't trust people who keep saying this over and over -- and Avlon wrote almost the same article in 2011.
Dear Mr. Avlon: speaking of "toxic talk," never forget sitting in the middle of a Newsweek chat about how no one should ever give Dick Cheney a heart.
I don’t think he’s shilling for Hillary, particularly, but since the election (which I think he did not handle very well) I’ve quit listening to his show because it is increasingly self-referential and all about how wonderful he is. Also, sometimes he’s simply not prepared and doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about. (I think his deafness may have contributed to this.)
People listen to him because they want conservative analysis of what’s happening and suggestions about how to deal with it, delivered in a compelling and hopefully witty way (think Mark Steyn). They don’t want to hear about Rush’s golf game or his basketball picks or how wealthy he is or have him try to peddle his strange products.
Me thinks the rumors of his demise are greatly exagerated.
And they will say "see, we told you so"......LOL!
I had a surprising Google search just now on that very topic.
According to The Left, Air America never died; it just went underground. The talk radio hosts all got their own indie programs, and they hopped onto Sirius.
The usual hipster meme: “Radio is so mainstream, you’ve probably never heard of these guys...”
“Radio is so mainstream, youve probably never heard of these guys...”
I don’t want XM or Sirius Radio. I don’t want to add another bill to the pile so I’ll just have to continue NOT hearing of those guys.
I guess Newsweek would know something about the death of a media giant. Oh, wait, they were never a "giant". But they could ask their friends at Time-Life.
Working ads into the monologues doesn't help any.
They dont want to hear about Rushs golf game or his basketball picks or how wealthy he is or have him try to peddle his strange products.
I dare them to name me just ONE alternative that is gonna draw a bigger audience on radio. Just one.
What is Snoozeweek's circulation? About a thousand?
Wishful thinking.
With the exception, of course, of all those 24 year-old women who listen to his show and get all indignant.
What the last few elections have shown is that the MSM still has a large amount of control of the narrative.
If they can convince enough advertisers that Rush is done, he is done. It has nothing to do with the numbers (which are declining across the board anyway as more people turn away from radio).
Same thing with gun debate. They will blackmail, shame, and destroy any who don’t fall in line.
Rush will survive. He has before. But as he gets older you can sense the fire is not at the same level it was 20 years ago. He needs to find a heir, and soon.
How successful are they?
And even then, the buyer overpaid.
The millennials are not quite what the left thinks them to be.
They are much more libertarian and jaded.
Newsweek isn’t the MSM.
Newsweek isn’t the MSM.
Again? How many times is that liberal mouthpiece going to proclaim such a thing? Ever year, right?
I hardly think something that has 5 million listeners at any time and 20+ million listeners per week is going anywhere.
If that were the case then maybe Newsleak should proclaim CNN and PMSNBC dead as they have far less than half a million listeners on most days.
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