Posted on 07/31/2013 1:08:06 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Headlines have been blaring all over the digital universe about Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity being tossed off the air by Cumulus and losing 40 stations in key markets.
However, in the words of the legendary Paul Harvey, readers are not being told the rest of the story. Cumulus and Clear Channel have been buying up stations in major markets. Limbaugh and Hannity are syndicated by Premiere, which is owned by Clear Channel. Rather than pay fees to Cumulus to carry these shows it makes more sense to put them on their own properties, reduce local talent costs, and save those fees. The two top-rated talkers aren’t going anywhere. They’re just changing dial positions and, in many cases, to better signals.
Seeing liberal bloggers declare victory about how a boycott of these shows’ sponsors led to this makes my hair stand on end for four reasons.
First, that’s not at all what happened, as these shows will land elsewhere.
Second, and even more importantly, these two broadcasters, with whom I vehemently, vocally, and publicly disagree politically, have done more to keep the talk radio industry alive than anyone else. It’s because of the success of these two shows that many stations have stayed in the talk format in the first place, allowing other shows to be heard. Much as liberals don’t have nearly as many outlets as conservatives (According to TALKERS magazine, conservatives own the lion’s share of the news/talk market), it would be even worse for the left if these shows weren’t making it, because the industry would be closer to collapse at a time when terrestrial radio is struggling.
Third, a boycott hurts the entire business. Advertisers run scared and are encouraged to avoid controversy, and that affects all programming, including progressive hosts.
Fourth, what kind of liberal wants to clamp down on free speech and celebrate shutting someone up? The best antidote to free speech is — free speech. As the German theologian Martin Niemoller famously said, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist…” If I, as a liberal, didn’t speak out against those who would squelch the free speech of conservatives, I wouldn’t deserve to call myself a liberal.
I will continue to speak out against the views of both Limbaugh and Hannity when I feel it’s warranted, meeting their free speech with my own. But I will never forget that, without them, I’d have a much smaller platform on which to do it.
The problem is that local advertisers don’t want to have their ads run on anything controversial. That would either conservative or liberal. The dominance of conservative talk however skews the perceived result as against conservative talk radio.
With local advertisers buying around “controversial” time slots and not in it that leaves the local stations to accept only the national ads for which they get paid very little.
The new arbitron book is just out so it should interesting to see where things stand in the latest radio ratings.
Forget those two.
Too much $$$ has filled their heads.
Anyone depending on Rush and Hannity to produce anything good are dreaming. They are entertainers $$$$ and little more. Both part of establishment GOP.
This crap about responding in defense when libs say something about them is the dog whistle $$$$ for them. Its silly.
Sounds reasonable. But I never believe anything Alan Colmes has to say.
Yes I can see that, the compass that always points everywhere but North. A Great pathfinder to follow.
Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh says that Sen. John McCain will score a stunning upset over Sen. Barack Obama and win the presidency on Nov. 4
[Rush] Limbaugh Predicts McCain Victory (NewsMax ^ | October 31, 2008 | David A. Patten, FR thread link )
“The enthusiasm that got people out in 2010, I'm seeing at every Mitt Romney rally. Romney's drawing crowds of 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 15,000. “The enthusiasm that we all saw in 2010 is there. The same issues that existed in 2010 exist today. There hasn't been anything that's gotten better.”
Rush: Everything But Polls Say Romney Landslide (Newmake Monday, 05 Nov 2012)
‘Don't Doubt me’ LOL
You should try living in the present.
:)
You will enjoy Rush’s appearance on Greta’s last night.
:)
SKELETOR HAS SPOKEN!
That would be difficult as I don’t watch Greta.
Was he telling you that you must buy Life-lock before you are captured by identity thieves?
Do you have a problem with capitalism?
Yes,
Too many idiots believe that they should worship and believe anything that those who make lots of $$$ say as if they are a deity as long as libs complain about them as with Rush and Hannity.
Well what about about when they make $$$ preying on the gullible? We should Still worship them?
Ooh, ooh, I think that I know the answer to that one!
Is it "the typical liberal"?
SKELETOR! LOL!
He lost me at;
“Much as liberals don’t have nearly as many outlets as conservatives...”
“The Cryptkeeper” works too. ;)
I never believe anything Colmes has to say, either. He's like a compass that only points South - what he tells you is the opposite of the truth.
In this particular article, amazingly enough, he told the truth (hard to believe, I know), right up until he got to this point.
ALL liberals want to clamp down on free speech. His statement isn't just a lie, it's a d@mn lie.
It’s too bad you feel that way.
1. Nobody “worships” on the Right. That’s for lefties.
2. Nobody on the Right blindly believes. OUR talk show guys are always telling us to do our OWN homework; don’t take THEIR word for it; Educate OURSELVES, etc... They speak what we already believe.
3. Rush doesn’t get a dime from me. He gets it from advertisers. I don’t care if he makes a trillion dollars each year; if he can do that, good for him. Why should we be jealous of that?
“...preying on the gullible...” -That sounds like a leftist line bro. Yet THEY are the ones who’ve mastered the art.
Are you sure you’re on the right website here?
hah!
Skeletor - still laffin FRiend.
I think he and his ilk are completely delusional.
And evil.
There’s no reasoning in them.
Just dark lies.
It’s frightening and disgusting.
———Nobody on the Right blindly believes.-——
I would argue that having been here for 15 years, there are lots of blindly believing conservatives that are intractable
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