Not a direct criticism of RL but I’m wondering if he’s whistling past the graveyard with respect to the economy. I see sales pitches asking for EIB advertisers on his site.
He occasionally reminds us that he has never increased the commercial load during his show but there are a few items to note in the last year or so...
- He mentioned in passing that the breaks in the first half of each hour have been rearranged. I don’t know if this is to delay the old :14 break or for another purpose.
- The pseudo-conversational mentions of advertisers and their products is far too obvious not to notice and frankly an insult to the audience’s intelligence he claims to respect. The mentions have increased in frequency and are even being placed as the lead item some hours. “I had cold symptoms but I used a Zicam” etc. He wasted a long segment one day on a shaggy-dog story that ended up being another tankless water heater plug. We already have one Paul Harvey, Rush, thanks all the same.
There is not an advertiser anywhere that has not been slammed by the downturn in the economy. It’s one of the first things businesses look at. That and labor.
Rush is a savvy business man as well a brilliant commentator.