Posted on 06/19/2015 5:29:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Rush Limbaugh's woes in the ratings game of partisan talk radio are being highlighted by his left-wing enemies, Media Matters is gleefully reporting that the radio talk show host is on a downward slide.
Salon puts this headline on the piece, "Rush Limbaugh’s downward spiral continues: Another demotion, another step toward irrelevancy."
The piece highlights a recent move down the radio dial Limbaugh was forced to make after being dumped by his host station in Boston, Mass.
Limbaugh is still on the air in Boston but the conservative radio talk show has a new AM home in the city and it "currently boasts a 0.6 rating, trails four non-commercial stations in the market, and becomes yet another big-city, cellar-dwelling outpost that Limbaugh is forced to call home," Salon reports.
The have a lot more Rush bashing here.
Earlier, the New York Daily News revealed that sagging ratings might mean less money for Limbaugh in his next contract noting that "the ratings for syndicated conservative talk have flattened or dropped for several years, despite the gift of a Democratic President to hammer, and some think the format is wearing down."
Daryl Parks, a former talk host, media blogger and self-described Republican is quoted by NYDN and has the opinion that the schtick is wearing thin,
“Today’s talk radio is fast fading into the sunset because of a format stuck with 1990s rhetoric,” he says.
“A constant right-wing political drumbeat no longer resonates.”
The article notes that Rush "lost many advertisers after the Sandra Fluke birth control controversy in 2012, and that could affect what his syndicator, Premiere, will offer when his eight-year, $50 million a year deal expires in 2016."
Despite the ratings woes and aging demographics for the show he is still the "face of syndicated conservative talk radio," according to the NYDN.
You’ve got it. Nice analysis...
He has indeed, and it's his success / size of listening audience that gives him that power.
I'm also in the boat with those who were at least disappointed by what Rush didn't bring up (for example, the question of Obama's eligibility). From the get-go, back in the late 1980's, I knew that Limbaugh was avoiding the really sticky issues. He knows he is one of the elites, and he plays by the elite's rules. He gave Arlen Specter a pass on some nonsense that Specter spouted during a call-in by the then senator. Limbaugh never fessed up to being duped, but I'm sure he knew it - maybe in advance, certainly within a day after.
Still, on balance, he's been a powerful force for good.
-- But the edge is gone and it is time for the next fresh generation to take up the battle standard. --
There are plenty of contenders. I don't see any of them getting the kind of success that Limbaugh enjoyed. But that's okay too. Baseball goes on, even without Babe Ruth.
Exactly, the Internet is what is killing Rush, as are all talk shows.
I download and listen to Rush on my iPod and I think a lot of other do also. That way I get the whole show in one unbroken stream with no ads. It is great! And I can listen to it at any time...walking the dogs, cooking dinner, in the car.
Baseball goes on, even without Babe Ruth.
From my perspective it's time to hang up your jersey, ball cap and glove when you can't slide into home plate anymore.
As I pointed out, young people my kids’ ages don’t listen to radio. We need a Rush Limbaugh of Social Media if we are to have any prayer of the country not going full-on Communist. Right now that space is owned by people with an agenda (Yahoo, Facebook, etc.)
If it weren’t for El Rushbo showing me the truth about the Clintons, I may have been doomed. Well maybe not because my wonderful husband also showed me FreeRepublic, but Rush has been a beacon to many of us. I may not like every show as much as the next, but I will always listen as long as he is on.
I almost never listen to him any longer. He’s lost his fastball....and age & time have something to do with that. But more to the point: he really never saw what this massive wave of legal & illegal immigration was doing to the demographics of the conservative voting block. He thought all these people, mostly from the third world, who have cascaded in here in the last 40 years, were going to become traditional Americans....instead what happened: 80% of these new comers vote democrat.
He also read the culture wars wrong....we have been losing them since the 60s....he seemed to think things were getting better. After the reelection of Obama, you can see it hit him hard. It finally hit him over the head that we have lost the culture on almost every level....and all his joking about “the last liberal” nonsense was just that. Nonsense.
Nothing lasts forever. He’s had an extraordinary run and is still very successful. He’s the dean of conservative radio talk and likely will be as long as he stays in the game.
Dissent is Patriotic - Cankles Clinton.
Rush will leave when he decides to Retire and not a minute sooner.
BTW - I’m getting tired of seeing Threads with links to Salon.
It is interesting to note that for a guy that is becoming irrelevant, there are 150 posts here. Rush has peaks and valleys after so many years, but he remains doesn’t he.
We had a Rush Limbaugh of Social Media. His name was Andrew Breitbart. He is now dead.
To all the naysayers on this thread who will never read this post, but I have to get it off my chest anyway. Rush has been and continues to be one of the best, if not the best, conservative voices in our nation today. For all of you people bitching about when he goes “off topic” and delves into football or golf or whatever gives you people heartburn about him......I truly wonder if you really ever listen to him. I am a Rush 24/7 member and am happy to say it. I rarely miss one of his shows. Sure he has “off” days, but he always makes up for it with another fantastic show. As far as Rush being a blowhard, blowbag, egotistical or whatever you poor little pansies don’t like about him.....do what he always tells new listeners. You have to listen to him consistently for 6 months to really get to know him. Is he sure of himself? Absolutely. Is he cocky, absolutely not. I have listened for over 20 years and he has only gotten better with time. He is one of the most caring and giving person there is. I could go on, but I think you get the point. I suggest doing what I do. I listen to Rush for awesome overall political and social issues and insight and then I also listen to Mark Levin for the hardcore political analysis and comprehension. Lastly, this BS about Rush’s ratings going down, the socialist libs have been saying this same crap for years. always false, this is to.
I agree. I have loved that man for fifteen years. He always covered “stuff” that did not interest me, but it was minimal. He started making those things the main part of his show. He has a right, he always said he talked about things that interested him. They just don’t interest me.
I was thinking his sponsors may have told him he was talking about politics too much. Or it may have been his wife. Wives can really influence. Witness the Bush men.
No, conservative talk is alive and well. The talkers will have to, as one poster said, return to his roots.
Most listeners I know are working and use the podcast features to listen on the way home from work and finish up if possible at home. Skipping through some parts. Listen to the first few minutes of a segment to tell if you want to skip it. Times for each segment are standard.
Same for Red Eye Radio show.
My wife is the only person on our family who listens to radio, and only in her car going to and from work. My daughter never has (she grew up with MP3 players and the internet with youtube and streaming services) and I listen to music on my Fire Phone and home computer.
Once we dropped Cable/SAT TV it became very hard to stomach constant commercials. I can barely watch a Live NFL Football game now because the commercials annoy me to the point I want to leave the room and find something useful to do. Radio seems to be nothing BUT commercials now. If we are in the car I either turn it off or wear noise canceling headphones and listen to music while I read. I just refuse to listen to the constant blather of commercials anymore.
Rush had an infectious zest in the early days and it was fun to see him skewer Congressmen caught robbing the till in the House Post Office scandal, for instance. I still listen to his show at 9am every day, but only with half an ear because of all the stale topics everybody here has been mentioning.
And then when he brings up some topic that might be interesting and I focus attention on the show, it turns out to be a lead-in for one of his advertisers. I have a new rule: whenever he accepts a call from a ten-year-old who adores the time-traveling horse in Rush’s books for kids, I turn off Rush for the rest of the day.
I stopped listening to Rush in the second Dubya administration because he was no longer heckling Congress and the White House, he was an apologist for them. I started listening again during his “Operation Chaos” campaign against Hillary.
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