At least according to Media Matters.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201203080010
Is this idiot blowhard finally going down?
This is a short-term effect. Rush’s show will have to be unable to attract advertisers in the long term to really get knocked out. I’m skeptical about that; I think that after this blows over, advertisers will come back. The collective attention span of the internet is limited; people can’t maintain this kind of outrage for long. I think he’ll lose some advertisers and some radio stations permanently, and he may see a long-term decrease in advertising revenue, but I don’t think this will kill off his show entirely.
But how short term? If he’s not bringing in any profit for them, how long will stations continue to carry him in the hopes that things will turn around?
That was just the station in a liberal city. What was the situation in more conservative markets?
Right now the entire internet seems to be focussed on Joseph Kony and The Lord’s Resistance Army. Maybe if folks are reminded of what fell out of Limbaugh’s cake-hole when Obama committed some troops in their direction, their outrage may go even farther than misogynistic name-calling will get it.
Is there an FCC mandate as to how many minutes of the hour must be advertisements?
Or rather…if you don’t have advertisers, do you have to fill ad slots or can you just lengthen your show?
Or is it a matter of Rush’s contract saying he only has to be on air X minutes per day?
I, for one, am planning to boycott any company that sponsors this cretin. Enough is enough.
I’m not sure. Remember, his show is wildly profitable, and he can take a sharp hit to profits before he actually becomes unprofitable. And again, I think he can operate at a loss for quite some time. Besides, there are a couple of companies who have pointedly offered to buy up all his unused ad time. They’re doing it as a publicity stunt, but money is money. It’s possible, of course, that he will be driven off the airwaves. But I don’t think so. Peoples’ attention span is too short, and he has too many fans who will not stop listening for that ad space to stay vacant forever.
Funnily enough, the first time I ever heard of the LRA was when Rush made that stupid comment. Again, this LRA outrage has already taken the Fluke-Limbaugh media circus out of the top spot of Internet consciousness. I just don’t think that the news cycle is long enough to actually starve Rush off the air. People get bored with recreational outrage very quickly. I think that Rush will see a long-term decline in the value of his advertising time, and a long-term decline in overall profits. I don’t think he’ll be driven off the air.
Time will tell, and I freely acknowledge that I might be wrong. But I predict that one year from now, Rush Limbaugh will still be widely available on the radio.
Does he have the net worth (and liquidity thereof) to finance it himself? He’s vain enough that I can see him paying to be on the air if the alternative is no show.
Its a syndicated show. Many of the commercials are local. The breaks have to be timed so the local shows know when to put in commercials, weather/traffic and the news. That is the limiting factor. There is no FCC mandate.
He will have no problem geting advertisers. In the short term they may have to lower their prices and get lower level companies. If he continues to get good ratings he will stay on the air.
It is ridiculously cheap to create radio talk show content. Assuming he’s got a house with a spare bedroom, he could create a semi decent studio for less than repaving his driveway.
This will blow over, unfortunately, and he’ll be back in business soon. The internet forgets.
Does anyone else find this ironic that one of the largest beneficiary is the United Negro College Fund?
Uh, you do realize that this isn’t your target audience?
When is Media Matters going to concentrate on Bill Maher for his total assholeishness? Or does a million dollar check absolve him from all the furor? If Rush writes a million dollar check to the Democrat Super Pac, will all this bullshit magically go away?
As far as the libs are concerned, money apparently trumps integrity any day of the week.
Oh, yes, another meme: Bill Maher is just like Limbaugh. Stick to those talking points!
If you don’t like Maher, feel free to organize a boycott. It’s not our job to do yours. I haven’t seen you taking Rush to task for what he’s saying- so why do you expect us to have to do anything about Maher?
(Why do I have this mental image of conservatives rolling around on the floor, drumming their heels, and crying, “It’s just not fair!!”?)
I think if you’re really concerned about Maher rather than trying to create an equivalence, you should criticize Maher when he says something objectionable - not when Rush Limbaugh says something objectionable. By the way, Maher is on HBO, which is a subscription network that doesn’t do advertisements.
So two of 86 ads were from companies that still want to do business with Rush? That is a very useful metric and I appreciate it. I have seen it nowhere else.
Who are these last two?
Never mind those. What about the idiot markets?
Same thing.
The way a syndicated radio show works, economically speaking, is this: The owner of the program sell subscriptions to local stations and gets revenue from that. That fee may vary by the size of the market the station is in, and the rating the show gets in the local market, The owner also sells some of the time of the program time to national sponsors and gets a separate revenue stream from that. The owner might also own some of the stations carrying the program, and would benefit from the revenue those stations earn from selling local advertising. I believe Clear Channel, the owner of Rush’s program, owns many of the stations that carry the show.
That’s actually a double edged sword, since even though the the Clear Channel-owned stations might have to pony up the subscription fee, Clear Channel would be essentially paying from one pocket to another for these fees. So it’s probably more correct to look at these stations as ones who get the show for free, though of course ALL their revenue belongs to Clear Channel.
To figure out how much this is actually costing Clear Channel need a lot more information than we have. For instance, it might have dealt with threats from some stations to drop the program by offering them a discount off the fee. It might be keeping the sponsors it still has by discounting their ad prices – which they would have to lower anyway if the ratings show there’s been a significant loss of listenership. And Rush, by some media reports, personally makes about $50 million a year on his deal. Would he keep working for $25 million? Who knows, but if this kerfluffle costs Clear Channel $25 million dollars in revenue this year, that’s entirely erased if Rush makes them them some kind of offer like that.
The only thing that I think would really kill the show is s significant and sustained loss of listeners. It is ultimately the audience that is the economic worth of the program. Clear Channel is selling the audience to the advertisers.
I haven’t seen any stories whatever about the effect on listenership. I suspect there isn’t a whole lot, though I’d be pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.
ironic that they chose Maher for their fake equivalency tu quoque, he’s gone on record defending Rush:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-57392383-10391698/bill-maher-accept-rush-limbaughs-apology/