Rush Limbaugh may leave radio network over advertising fallout

[DonViejo]

Criticism from Cumulus Media's CEO over Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke comments may drive him to jump ship, sources say

BY KATIE MCDONOUGH

Rush Limbaugh may not renew his contract with the Cumulus Media in response to repeated criticism from the network’s CEO over Limbaugh’s offensive comments about Sandra Fluke, which allegedly lost the company millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

As reported by Politico:

According to the source, Limbaugh is considering the move because Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey has blamed the company’s advertising losses on Limbaugh’s controversial remarks about Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student. In Feb. 2012, Limbaugh referred to Fluke as “a slut” because she had called on congress to mandate insurance coverage of birth control. The subsequent controversy over those remarks resulted in a significant advertising boycott.

The true extent of Limbaugh’s effect on Cumulus’s advertising revenue is not known. In an August 2012 earnings call, Dickey said Cumulus’s top three stations had lost $5.5 million, in part because of the boycott. In a March 2013 earnings call, Dickey said the company’s talk radio side had “been challenged… due to some of the issues that happened a year ago.” Nevertheless, Limbaugh remains the most highly rated talk radio host in the country…

The news of Limbaugh’s possible departure comes one day ahead of Cumulus’s Tuesday earnings call, at which Dickey Is once again likely to address the impact the Fluke controversy has had on advertising. The source close to the show described Dickey’s remarks about advertising revenue as unjustified, and said such “criticism” of Limbaugh had resulted in the consideration to leave the company.

Full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/rush_limbaugh_may_leave_radio_network_over_advertising_fallout/

[get the red out]

1. Love it

Not everyone listens to talk radio, but everyone is a consumer; the companies responding to the boycott know this.

[kelliekat44]

48. Too bad he has made so much money helping to tear apart the country. nt

[get the red out]

50. Agree, and tear apart he has

I just dream of him being off the air. He has done so much harm.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Poor piggy.

[lpbk2713]

3. Pimple Butt is gonna hold his breath and stomp his feet ...

until he gets his way.




      "WAAAH!! No fair!!"

[Champion Jack]

4. Some good news

[Gothmog]

5. Advertiser Boycotts can work

Look at Beck. Beck was forced out at Faux because they could not sell ads on his show. The phrase used was "empty ratings" in lieu of "empty calories" for ratings that could not generate ad sales.

Limbaugh is making noise now in that the network probably will either not renew Limbaugh or will only renew Limbaugh at a lower rate that will be realistic given the current ad sales.

This will be fun to watch

[BlueToTheBone]

12. but slimy scummy beck is back

and is raising his hate filled voice over our airwaves again.

[Aristus]

6. Well, if he can't work in radio any more, he

could always go back to his first job: fueling the energy infrastructure of Bartertown...

[House of Roberts]

7. Cumulus is a separate media owner from Clear Channel.

This just means Limbought won't be on stations that compete with his employer. He will just air his programs on Clear Channel stations in the same markets.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Bingo!

Cumulus has their own mid day show featuring Mikie Hucklenutz they would love to put on during Rushbo's timeslot. It's not Rushbo quitting Cumulus, it's the other way around...

[BlueStreak]

27. And a nice CYA opportunity for everybody

I wonder whether we are better off with Huckleberry getting more air time.

[KharmaTrain]

34. Yep...

Rushbo won't vanish...he'll move to other stations. Radio...especially AM...is in such desperate straits these days they'll continue to air the bile spewers. Ultimately the expense to run these antiquated operations along with the return of rising property values that will make the land under their antennas worth more than the bile spewing from those towers will lead to more and more AM radio stations going dark. All these radio corporates overspent on broadcast properties they will never recover, revenues are a fraction of what they were a decade ago and the large debts of companies like Clear Channel grow. Rushbo is definitely on the downside but the lower he goes the more verbose he'll get to attempt to gain attention.

Cheers...

[Raine1967]

35. Thanks for that explanation. I was just getting ready to ask about Cumulus and CC.

Still, it is a very interesting move.

[Pab Sungenis]

41. Leaving Cumulus would be a very big blow to him.

WABC in New York is where the show started, his flagship station, and where he broadcast out of before he built his armored compound with a broadcast studio in it down in Florida.

Rush leaving WABC would officially mark the beginning of the end. Even if WOR picked him up it would be a lot less prestigious. After that he'd be down to brokered time in the #1 market.

[alp227]

52. Already has happened in my area.

Last year both the Rush and Coast to Coast AM shows (Premiere Networks properties) moved from the Cumulus right wing talk station AM 560 to the Clear Channel talker AM 910. 560 later began broadcasting the Huckabee show where Rush used to be.

In fact most of the Limbaugh affiliates nationwide are Clear Channel due to CC owning Rush's distributor Premiere Radio Networks, which is also Randi Rhodes's syndication company. Clear Channel's streaming radio app iHeartRadio owns the exclusive mobile streaming rights to all Clear Channel AND Cumulus stations!

However, in some of the biggest markets the local Cumulus news/talk station carries Rush, specifically New York City/WABC (the flagship Rush station since 1988), Detroit/WJR, Chicago/WLS, and Washington, DC/WMAL. And some smaller areas too: Lansing/WJIM, Mobile/WVNN, Chattanooga/WGOW, Little Rock/KARN, Fayetteville/KFAY, Albuquerque/KKOB, Boise/KBOI, Colorado Springs/KVOR, York, PA/WSBA and Reno/KKOH.

Rumor is that WOR, WABC's rival heritage AM station in NYC recently bought by Clear Channel, will swap Huckabee with WABC in exchange for Rush.

If Rush does withdraw from Cumulus, I wonder where he'll find new stations in the smaller markets I listed as those stations I listed are most likely the ONLY informational station in town. Or if the show does move stations chances are the newer stations won't be the 50 kW blowtorches like KKOB, KKOH, WLS, and WJR. In the case of Chicago, I doubt that WGN (the heritage "live and local" talk station) will even want to take in Rush if WLS replaces Rush with Huck, nor will the local Salem Communications talk station WIND. Same situation exists in Detroit where the only other talk station than WJR is a Salem station WDTK with its own network programming.

Seems that Rush's tipping point was his creepy obsession with Sandra Fluke. Hopefully, the backlash to Rush will prevent another right wing wannabe Andrea Tantaros (currently a panelist of Fox News' The Five) from winning a major radio deal...Tantaros made similar misogynistic remarks this time about one of Obama's kids.

[tridim]

53. Clear Channel is hemorrhaging money too. nt

[gejohnston]

8. Will he be selling gold with G G Liddy?

soon? Meth out of the trunk of one of his Maybachs?

[Auntie Bush]

10. Hard to hear better news than that.

I want this pig off the air. He contaminates all that hear him with garbage, untruths and propaganda.

[SummerSnow]

11. No way is he walking away from all that money.They would have to let him go.

[backscatter712]

13. Sounds like a "You can't fire me, I quit!" scenario! Schadenfreudelicious! n/t

[TDale313]

18. Schadenfreudelicious! LOL!

I think I have a new favorite word. Thanks for that

[Politicalboi]

14. Don't Fluke around Rush

Hopefully his beard will divorce him, because it's obvious she is in it for the money.

[Wednesdays]

15. Horrible news!

I mean horrible! How would this nation recover?


(need I even add the sarcasm thingie?)

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. Good to know his venom has consequences, but won't he just go the Glenn Beck....

route?

[backscatter712]

19. No doubt, he'll find other places to spew his bile...

Doesn't he still have Clear Channel?

But this will hurt him - he'll have to negotiate a smaller paycheck from his next contract. And it'll remove him from something like 40 radio stations across the country!

[Tarheel_Dem]

21. That's great. Now if we could just get progressive talk show hosts and anchors to....

stop obsessing about him, his impact could be further diminished. I swear, sometimes I think Randi, Lawrence O, and others get kickbacks to promote this asshole on their shows. At this point, the first mention of his, Sean Hannity's, or Glenn Beck's name, I switch the channel. Enough.

[stevenleser]

31. I have a self-imposed rule on my show that I do not mention him more than once a month.

So far so good.

[Tarheel_Dem]

43. Cheers to you steven. Now, if only we could convince the rest to stop promoting....

these jackals, the world would be a much better place. I'm disappointed, because I thought the emergence of progressive talk & MSNBC would give us a space to discuss what we should be doing to achieve our goals, but progressive talk seems obsessed with rightwing talk. It's counterproductive, and has unintended consequences. It's like the only reason they mention these jerks is in the hopes that they'll mention them in return. Tit for tat, so to speak.

I find it a ridiculous waste of time. Stephanie Miller runs a spot on her show, where she gets mentioned by Rush Limbaugh and Gawker. Is that the ultimate goal? To get noticed by the rightwing noise machine?

[stevenleser]

45. Unfortunately, there is something for the statement that you arent anyone until you are hated by the

right folks. A similar sentiment is that if your political opponents don't feel the need to address what you are saying, you're not having an impact.

[BlueStreak]

28. So he drops it all the way to $10,000,000 a year. Like that will hurt him?

I am happy this blowback is happening, but let's not over-estimate what it does to Limbaugh. He is at the end of his career anyway, so it really doesn't matter too much.

The really important thing is that:

a) people understand what a mistake it is to ignore these vile voices for decades; and

b) we now know tactics that will at least cause them some consequences.

This isn't so much about Limbaugh as it is about all the Limbaughs-in-waiting.

[caledesi]

63. Very good points! nt

[Maraya1969]

17. If you want to participate to make sure he doesn't get a podium check out this FB page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/flushrush/?fref=ts

[ailsagirl]

20. And a helluva splash that would make

[gholtron]

22. Oh Please. Don't tease me.

I haven't been this excited since I saw my first naked lady.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. Poor guy.

Where else is he going to get a 20+ mill contract in this economy?

[marble falls]

24. Is there a disconnect here? Limpbaugh is the number one radio talent.....

AND his network is losing millions? Does this mean that the ditto-heads are cheap skates who don't spend money on the sponsors unless they quit sponsoring? Or Limpbaugh really peeled his network? How doe Rush's paycheck stack up against the losses of the network?

[stevenleser]

29. Simple - Tons of listeners, no advertisers want to advertise on the network during his show.

He has become toxic to the brand of any potential advertiser.

[Pab Sungenis]

55. Actually, the numbers are puffed up.

More likely, only about 350,000-500,000 people listen to Rush Limbaugh.

http://cnx.com/?p=1090 for an analysis of how "listeners" are calculated.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. The ONLY reason Libaugh is the "highest rated" is because he's EVERYWHERE.

[maddiemom]

30. Just as Fox is part of most basic cable packages.

You usually have to pay extra for MSNBC and like networks.

[Newest Reality]

26. Maybe he

can get a subsidy as an important American icon?

All kidding aside, this is in the good news department and if he ever fades away, that will be the end of the Bernaysian cacophony he has been emitting and maybe some of the pollution will clear.

[Ganja Ninja]

32. Meet Rush Limbaugh - the next Glenn Beck.

[Apophis]

33. They should fire him.

[MineralMan]

36. Sucks to Your Assmar, Piggy Limbaugh!

[VA_Jill]

37. I know he said

that he was going to Costa Rica, but he CAN'T! They actually have GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE down there!!!!! Perhaps a better place for him would be Somalia, where they have next to no government at all. I'm sure he'd be quite happy there.

[CK_John]

38. He better be careful Ms Fluke just passed the bar, not sure what state.

[House of Roberts]

39. California

in July 2012. Limbought operates in Florida IIRC.

[Initech]

40. The sooner that POS gets off the air the better we'll be.

[Th1onein]

42. Looks like the Rethugs are solving their Rush Limbaugh problem.

Hmmm....

[liberal N proud]

44. I will believe it when I see pig boy walking

[Mr.Bill]

46. I want to see him stay on as many stations as possible.

The more people hear him, the more damage he does to conservatives every day. Clowns like him, Bachman, Palin, etc should be on constant display.

[otohara]

47. If They Didn't Encourage Gun Purchases

with all their lunatic paranoia talk....

Nah, fuck him, die Limbaugh, die...Beck too

[Warren DeMontague]

49. Good.

Fuck that bloviating windbag.

[Warpy]

51. Every time that pig opens that sewer he calls a mouth

he strengthens the boycott of anyone who still advertises on his rotten show. It's not just his attacks against Fluke, it's his attacks against anyone who isn't a fat old retired white guy.

His 15 minutes have stretched on long enough. He needs to retire and count his millions.

Asshole.

[47of74]

54. Calling Limbaugh a pig is insulting....

....to pigs. Pigs are noble creatures. Mr. Limbaugh sure as hell isn't noble.

[xtraxritical]

56. Well, he does love to root in his own excrement!

[VA_Jill]

57. Unfortunately he will surface somewhere

because s**t floats

[stevenleser]

59. I think that is the sad thing about this. Someone else will take a chance on him with the

numbers he has. This would not be the end.

It might force a slight change at least though, and any change to his formula could be fatal to the popularity of his show.

[Mariana]

58. I'll believe it when I see it.

"Rush Limbaugh may not renew his contract"

"Limbaugh is considering the move"

There is no story here. It's bullshit speculation about something that may or may not happen.

[MADem]

62. The way I read it was that he MAY not renew because a new contract won't be offered...

...and he's CONSIDERING the move because they won't let him squat in his old studio!

[lindysalsagal]

60. THIS bleeding-heart librul femi-nazi is standing up and applauding

May good triumph over hatred

[smirkymonkey]

61. Oh dear, how tragic.

Where will all the right wing haters go now?