Rushbo is keeping a lot of dying AM stations on the air...appealing to one of the few audiences that still listen...older white males. Rushbo opened the door to the cheapening of radio as his show runs in middays and instead of paying a local talent in that time slot, just plug in rushbo. Thousands of people lost their jobs as corporates replaced local programs with satellite-delivered hate and no one dished out the hate like Rushbo. In many ways he was the loss-leader for these stations who now only offer local content in the mornings and cheap programming the rest of the time. While others have tried to knock rushbo off his perch (O'Reilly, Dreck), no one can generate the response and this is a major reason Cheap Channel will eat glass before they'll eat his contract.
There are a couple of wildcards here. Some of rushbo's biggest affiliates are now owned by Cumulus...a bitter rival of Cheap Channel. Will this be the justification to pull or suspend him on their stations that include the biggest markets? I'm watching to see what moves, if any, John Hogan at Cheap Channel and Lew Dickey at Cumulus make. They're the key players here...those two men alone could pull rushbo's empire down. But they're greedy and spineless...they'd rather fire another 1,500 people to save the money they throw at rushbo.
AM radio is in its death throes...pulling the plug on Rushbo would further erode the shrinking values of thousands of properties these companies paid top dollar for. Just like with the real estate bust, these properties have seen their values plummet in recent years and a big loss like this could be a financial disaster. Right now those corporates are thinking about the audience spike that's sure to happen tomorrow and then hope this latest rushbo flap fades away...
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