Message Fatigue Dooms Rush Limbaugh's Business Model

[hue]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/25/1287201/-Message-Fatigue-Dooms-Rush-Limbaugh-s-Business-Model?detail=facebook

Speaking on the Ed Schultz radio show, industry insider Holland Cooke recently broke down the precipitous decline of right wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh's popularity and profitability.

Cooke noted that Limbaugh has been moved to the #36 rated station in Los Angeles and the #17 ranked station in San Francisco.

Asked by Schultz whether Limbaugh's slump was related to format, content, burnout, or technology, he acknowledged that all those factors played a part, but the primary reason was a public which has had enough of Limbaugh's hateful rhetoric:

HC: I believe that this message fatigue is driving it as well, and you can peg it to Leap Year Day, February 29, 2012, when Rush Limbaugh started calling Sandra Fluke unthinkable things on the radio. It has never recovered since.

Ed: It hasn't recovered?

HC: No, it has not recovered, and the whole format is tarred. You have a radio show, and you've suffered as a consequence of what Rush Limbaugh has done because dollars left the format entirely.

Ed: Yeah, there are agencies out there across America that are saying, "I do not want to be on a news talk station; it makes us too vulnerable. We do not want to be associated with possibly some disparaging talk."

The Flush Rush Facebook community has played a major role in the changing fortunes of the Rush Limbaugh Show as well. More than two years after the incident Cooke mentioned, the activist community continues to notify advertisers that their ads are being aired on the controversial program. Many immediately act to remove their ads.

Yesterday, when notified by a Charlotte StopRush monitor that his nationwide company had aired an ad on the Rush Limbaugh Show, Bike Source president Marc Eisenberg sent this emphatic response:

[Berlum]

1. "Yeah, even we kinda got tired of being lied to all the time." - RepubliSuckers

[Laelth]

2. k&r for "Flush Rush." n/t

-Laelth

[Voice for Peace]

3. well there's some cheerful news!

K&R

[warrior1]

4. get rid of the hate talk right wingers on the radio

and the money will come flowing back....imo

[SunSeeker]

5. What sucks is that 36th rated LA station Rush was moved to used to be the home for progressives.

That's the station that used to play Thom Hartmann and Stephanie Miller. Now it plays Rush, Hannity and Beck. The billboards along LA's freeways announcing their new lineup make we want to puke.

[calimary]

9. Yeah, they call it "The Patriot." PUKE!!!!

Repulsive. More like "The Putriot" if you ask me. I used to listen every day, every time I was driving. Stephanie Miller, Bill Press overnights (if I was ever up that early), Thom Hartmann until he changed timeslots, and Randi the Righteous Rhodes! LOVED her show every afternoon. Nicole Sandler would fill in for her and I love Nicole! Met her and really enjoyed our talks. She interviewed me on one of her shows. She's a terrific lady, so well-informed and so warm-hearted.

I MISS that station SO much! This is the second-biggest city in the country, the second-biggest radio market in the country, and there is NO progressive radio, NO progressive talk. NONE. Not even KPFK is listenable anymore. That station's a mess. The only consolation for the loss of KTLK is - it had such a shitty signal you couldn't hear it in most parts of town. So the Gas Giant and his friends were moved from clear-channel 50,000 watt powerhouse KFI to this little rinky-dink piss-ant station with no coverage, no signal strength, and no ratings. And they'd pre-empt the regular programming for the most useless shit, all the damn time, for a special on hangnails and old potato salad. I remember the night of the California primary. A Tuesday night. It was the night Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were having a big showdown, HUGE news all over the country, and what did that station decide to air? A fucking HOCKEY game. It wasn't even some NFL playoff or some such, and who cares, really? I don't even remember. But I was just aghast. BIG NEWS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY and it wasn't as though this couldn't have been anticipated. The California Primary's date was set AGES beforehand. They couldn't even bring themselves to tape-delay the damn thing. The broadcast contract with the NFL, I guess, meant they were airing a fucking hockey game, in Los Angeles, on the night of the California Primary. UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE.

And to add insult to injury, these days, not only are they shoving limbaugh at us on that station, they've got that-guy-whose-name-rhymes-with-Vanity on there, too. Yanked him off KABC Talkradio, a weak competitor to KFI, and loaded him and a whole bunch of other CON bozos on what used to be KTLK. I don't know what the call letters even are, now - if they changed or what. I don't care. And I certainly don't listen.

[SunSeeker]

10. Stephanie's show is aired on Free Speech TV. And there's always iHeart radio.

iHeart radio has Randi segments, or you can just listen to 92.1, The Mic, the progressive radio talk station out of Madison, Wisconsin using the iHeart radio app. The Mic has the Stephanie and Randi shows.

I downloaded the iHeart app on my smartphone, then listen to The Mic through the speakers of my car since my car stereo has bluetooth.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. Driven by anger, some eventually reach burnout.

Sounds exhausting to be that angry all the time.

[hue]

7. Anger & hatred are really quite BORING emotions after awhile. Subject to burnout.

[Omaha Steve]

8. K & R

[KoKo]

11. Good News....I'm surprised he's lasted this long...!

But...then...look at the Republican Congress....

Let's hope this a turning point.