As I mentioned over in the Orson Scott Card thread, Cumulus Media have announcedthat they will not be renewing the contracts for Hannity and Limbaugh’s radio shows this year. The company are citing losses of $2.4m to the “syndicated talk segment”, and are apparently attributing this (in part or in whole) to the fact that “48 of the top 50 network advertisers have ‘exclude Rush and Hannity’ orders”.
I don’t know how big a dent the 40+ stations these two are losing will make in their income or listenership, but it’s gotta hurt.
I am fiscally conservative, so I agree with a lot of what these guys say in theory. But, I cannot listen to their shows. It is just hateful, silly, hate-mongering crap that divides people and makes them dumber. I am glad to get something else on WLS for those time slots, Maybe a Larry Elder or Dennis Miller?
If only they could take Mark Levin out back and shoot him, we’d be in good shape.
I never liked Hannity at all…not an original thought in his fat head.
Rush, though…eve when I didn’t agree with him, the show used to be entertaining. He USED to be fairly lighthearted and creative. He USED to be thoughtful.
I can’t put a finger on when it changed, but I can’t stand listening to him any more. He’s just bitter and hateful. And mean.
I have noticed a big change in advertisers over time, too. Gone from legitimate stuff to companies hawking gold or silver, dog vitamins, and identitify fraud protection.
Was it 2008 by any chance? It’s easy to be light-hearted and thoughtful when you think you’re winning; when you think you’re losing, sometimes the meanness comes out.
A word of caution before we get too optimistic: If you go to the original Politico article, it says that this is a rumor they have heard and that the talks broke down, not that Cumulus is making some sort of bold stand against these shows. They’re still in negotiations.
Agreed. Even though I disagreed with him, he was usually entertaining and sometimes had a point worth thinking over even if it didn’t ultimately sway me. These days he’s obsessed with just calling the other side evil with everything short of using those words. And the more extreme the claim, the more tenuous and ridiculous the evidence he clings to to back it up. The times I tune in these days, it’s because the other station has Dennis Miller and his show is just terrible.
890AM Chicago is a Cumulus station so they’d be dropping him. I wouldn’t be surprised if the competing conservative talk station’s (560) parent company made a grab but maybe they don’t have the cash for it.
Agreed. I used to hear things on Limbaugh that I did not hear anywhere else, and he could be thought provoking. He’s awful now, just a shrill gasbag.
Hannity has mostly always been awful. He plays that song with the line “I’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!” as bumper music, and I seeth with rage every time I hear it. Just trashy, hillbilly, stupid bullshit.
For a moment in the early 90s, I thought Limbaugh was funny and occasionally had a real point. Almost like a conservative version of Jon Stewart. It didn’t last, not even through Clinton’s first administration.
He’s nothing but a hate mongering, ignorance peddling, rabble rousing fat sack of horseshit.
Heh. When I read the thread title I couldn’t figure out what Geddy Lee and the boys did to deserve this. I didn’t know who Hannity was, so was curious what kind of music they played!
