Posted on 05/30/2016 12:46:50 PM PDT by EveningStar
Earlier this year, as that unmistakable bass line of the Pretenders’ My City Was Gone faded into the background, Rush Limbaugh opened his daily three-hour broadcast with characteristic bombast. “[According to the] latest research data,” he intoned, “the audience is expanding at near geometric proportions, as people seek guidance, answers, explanations, information, and an answer to the basic question, ‘What the hell is happening out there?’" ...
And yet, there are signs that all is not well in the Limbaugh radio empire. Because even as his influence is sky high and his dominance at the top of talk radio remains unchallenged, as a business proposition, Limbaugh’s show is on shaky ground. In recent years, Limbaugh has been dropped by several of his long-time affiliates, including some very powerful ones: He’s gone from WABC in New York, WRKO in Boston and KFI in Los Angeles, for example, and has in many cases been moved onto smaller stations with much weaker signals that cover smaller areas.
Why? Because four years after Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” on air, spurring a major boycott movement, reams of advertisers still won’t touch him. He suffers from what talk radio consultant Holland Cooke calls a “scarlet letter among national brand advertisers.” And for someone who has said that “confiscatory ad rates” are a key pillar of his business, that spells trouble. (Limbaugh ignored multiple interview requests.)
Limbaugh’s extremely lucrative eight-year contract—estimated to be worth roughly $38 million a year—is up this summer ...
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Different format, but I always liked how Phil Donahue let callers speak their mind. I know PD is very liberal, but he appeared to let guests and callers explain themselves. Rush is the opposite where he dominates with a monologue that seems increasing slow paced. The cable news channels line up two or more guests and yell over each other.
I've pretty much tuned out....FR is my go to source for news.
Well, actually the article states he has been very neutral with Trump, but his problem is that several years ago, he went from some very strong stations to weaker ones. Advertisers bailed on him after the Fluke comment. Trump has nothing to with this. He is still number one and is the most influential, but many advertisers won’t advertise even if it is during local news breaks and that goes for any political radio show.
I find it hard to surf the net during my drive to and from work.
Gonna listen to Something!
Yet he 100% endorsed GWB, Dole, McCain and not the Donald.... I wonder when you mentioned money, how much of this is the old Bush Rolodex and the power it still wields and how it is related to his income stream....
And Sandra F. is still a flucking slut.
“Glad to hear that he is opposed to amnesty. His support of Robot Rubio, who fought extensively for amnesty, sure leaves a different impression.”
Yea, it was WEIRD...made no sense. I do wish Rush would come clean and tell us what made Rubio so attractive to him. It was almost like Rubio put a spell on him.
“While that’s possible its not likely on Rush’s part.I doubt he would sell out that cheap. It would take mega-millions for him to be bought by any candidate and it don’t think he works that way anyhow.”
I agree, Rush has all the money he’ll ever need, and he know it. It was something else.
The commercials do tell a story. He’s usually been smarter and stayed vague in the primaries but this time he tipped his hand.
What he needs to do is bring back more humor if he’s going to right the ship. When’s the last time you heard a new song parody on his show? He doesn’t even recycle the old ones.
One thing not mentioned in the article was the change of ownership of WABC from Clear Channel to Cumulus Media. They swapped a lot of major market stations (including WJR in Detroit) and the Dickey’s didn’t want to pay Premiere (Rush’s syndicator and a division of Clear Channel). So as contracts ended they replaced Premiere talent with their own.
Anyone remember the big splash when they announced Mike Huckabee as the alternative to Rush? Didn’t last too long. Same with Savage. They peddled Savage as an alternative to Hannity so they could keep the money in-house and make some advertising money as well.
Clear Channel and Cumulus have both gone through some serious financial issues the past few years since Sirrus/XM got placed in most new cars and their senior notes came due.
Both Clear Channel and Cumulus went hog wild snapping up station after the FCC changed the ownership rules back in 1996. They paid outrageous sums of money for small/medium market stations and the bill came due. As a result...Clear Channel reorganized and the Dickey brothers were ousted from senior management from Cumulus.
Radio is a business. People’s taste change, it’s one of the reasons FM went from Classical radio stations to a more mainstream content.
Rush will lose some stations, may have to take a reduction in pay or retire, but I doubt he’ll be shopping at a Dollar General in Palm Beach anytime soon.
I don't think anyone doubts that. What I do doubt is the premise that he is "in trouble" because of her.
I haven’t been high on Rush this election season, mainly for trying to prop up Rubio as some great constitutional conservative, and for being too biased in favor of Cruz. But when I read the article and saw that the odious David Brock was part of the “Flush Trump” movement, it makes me want to turn on the radio from 12 to 3 just to help Rush in the ratings. There are few people in the political world I despise more than the sociopathic David Brock.
Ahh! We don't have to look too far to find these "so-called conservatives" now, do we?
This thread, for example...
Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.
“’Course, I do it with the volume turned down”
LOL!
” However, I do not recall he expressing outrage over the invasion of this country. “
That’s because he didn’t. People prominent in the border patriot movement tried to get him to help all the way back to 1994 and Prop 187. He wouldn’t do it.
It wasn’t until a decade later and the huge fight against Dubya and his amnesty erupted that Rush ran as fast as he could yelling “wait! wait! I’m you’re leader”.
Apparently this fooled some people into thinking he had been a force in doing something about illegal immigration. He certainly wasn’t.
There’s some truth in that.
Rush Limbaugh lied to his audience for years. He allowed our political ENEMIES, whom he pretended were his political enemies too, to control his content on his show. Either for money or to be with the cool powerful kids.
I just found this out a couple months ago, that he is not who he pretends to be. I was heartbroken. He doesn’t deserve his salary so if they do dock him by 60% it is fine with me. All of his listeners think or thought he was the persona he plays. They wouldn’t be loyal to him if they knew he is just lying to them about lots of things.
I didn’t mind the jokes he made about Fluke. How ridiculous was she? But I don’t appreciate that he won’t talk about subjects Chuck Schumer and Roger Ailes don’t want him to, like presidential eligibility or amnesty. I’m sad he’s just a phony.
My opinion is that he uses FR as an unattributed show prep.
It isn’t your opinion. It’s proven fact.
I did tune in to Rush briefly last week at some point and could hear that he doesn’t have feedback on his voice sound any more. He had a booming, lower radio voice, but he needs a friend to give him feedback, maybe per segment or per hour, so he knows when he is pressing or squeezing his larynx too hard and thus making his register go up, sounding too high and too pressured. Heavy men as they age need to worry about all that estrogen, which also raises the voice higher.
He could be modulating his voice better; as the daughter of an audiologist I understand that he personally can’t use hearing to biofeedback himself, so he needs a good friend to tell him to relax his voice sometimes, when he is focused on the content of his speech and not his vocal sounds. He needs people to tell him he is sniffing or making other unpleasant sounds too much as well. For the money he wants in July, he really should make that effort.
Yes and the article implies that his new stations don't have the signal strength as his previous stations. But that certainly isn't true for WOR. Also given Rush's time slot at 12:00pm AM radio signal strength doesn't matter much, there is no ionosphere bounce at that time. This is just the contract negotiation propaganda that always comes out.
The syndicator has to ask themselves this: who do you replace him with? What talk show host is going to hold an audience and not be controversial? Now I have not been particularly happy with Rush during this primary season. He has been a little off his game from the few times I was able to listen to him. But when I'm in the car from 12 - 3pm EST there is literally nothing else to listen to from a talk show perspective in my area.
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