Rushing away: Limbaugh looses nearly all his advertisers in two weeks.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Calling a woman a "slut" on national radio has turned out to have been a watershed in advertisers pulling support for not just Rush Limbaugh¹, but conservative talk radio in general. Premiere Networks which carries Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity, has circulated a list of 98 sponsors that do not want their ads to run on the leading right wing talk shows. Some of the advertisers include: Ford, GM, Toyota, Allstate, GEICO, Prudential, State Farm, McDonald’s, and Subway. The combined audiences for these radio shows is substantial: nearly 46 million daily listeners. ² The licensing fees for these national radio shows are very expensive, and without the support of advertising dollars, most local stations will be unable to continue broadcasts.



Holland Cooke, a media expert on talk radio appeared on the Ed Schultz show last night and commented:

There is one bright spot for Rush. "Online dating website SeekingArrangement.com, whose mission is to match subscribers with wealthy “Sugar Daddies,” said Tuesday it intends to gobble up available ad time during Limbaugh’s program."³ Personally I think this is great and like several commentators have explained: all of is this is "market forces" working to shut down talk radio. That doesn't mean that these types of shows will vanish, there's always a market for these, but without the huge advertiser revenue pool to support the expensive licensing fees, they won't be the powerhouse they once were.

You can see the entire segment from Ed Schultz here.

Rankings of talk radio⁴

[1.] As of last night, over 120 blue chip advertisers have removed support from the Rush Limbaugh Show, and even the American Heart Association has asked Rush to stop airing its public service announcements, it's that bad.

[2.] Source: 98 Advertisers Pull Ads from Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh by Jason Easley

[3.] Source: Radio Info.com

[4.] Source: Talkers.com

Comments

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

Proof that yeah sometimes the free market does work. :P

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

WHY U ALWAYS STEAL MY LINES?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

If those advertisers were truly free, they never would have sponsored Rush in the first place.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Do you remember that one time leykis didnt call a woman a slut? Neither do I.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

John Stewart is loosing his comedy material!

I hope now that the local FM station that currently switched to broadcasting Rush would go back to being a rock station again, and continue broadcasting Rush.

Er... the other Rush.

[cinchntouch.livejournal.com]

Like.

[muscadinegirl.livejournal.com]

Very good one

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I cannot help but recall a biblical verse about binding and loosing.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

You mean someday I might be able to talk freely about music without being mistaken for a dittohead?

Don't get my hopes up like that. :P

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

All those advertisers just don't understand what he really meant.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

LIBRAL WOMEN SHUD WANT TO BE CALLED SLUTS! THEY IS CONFUSING US!

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Um that would make them want to pull out MOAR

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Rush knows what he’s talking about, because every time he’s had sex with a woman, he’s had to slip her a pill first.

- Stephen Colbert

[dwer.livejournal.com]

a commie conSPIRacy!

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I guess the Invisible Hand of the free market just gave Rush a prostate exam without using petroleum jelly.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Or, more simply:

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The free market has a number of invisible hands:

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

most local stations will be unable to continue broadcasts

I suggest you start holding your breath... now.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I know, right? At best, the companies that aren't on the list will line up to take the slot. At worst, the networks will use Rush et al as a loss leader to promote their other shows.

Or maybe all those advertisers will just flock to Air America instead...

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Limbaugh's met his McCarthy moment at long last. Amazing. O.o

[michael barnett (from livejournal.com)]

Looses them from what?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

paft explained to me that Rush wasn't just insulting women, he was attempting to "dehumanize" women. I fail to see the difference.

Either you take insults to heart, let it upset you and fight back (write entry to T_P, write comments on every news item about this, boycott his advertisers, cry into your pillow, whatever action necessary)

or

it`s like water off a duck`s back. It`s like we learned in kindergarten.... Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me. I`m rubber your glue, insults bounce off me and stick to you.

The attention this story has garnered has (no doubt in my mind) upped the ratings of Rush Limbaugh. His show may have lost 120 blue chip advertisers but this incredibly high ratings are an irresistible draw for advertisers. Other companies will step up and pay top dollar to replace the absence of the 120. Some of those 120 will creep back when this controversy dies down. Rush's position as king of the shocking airways remains safe as long as his ratings stay high.

Remember when Glen Beck lost a bunch of FOX advertisers? He had pissed off a bunch of blue chip execs and many other people. He's still near the top of the national ratings list. I would suggest there's a lesson to learn here, but that would only fall on deaf ears.

This controversy isn't going to tame him or anyone else. Loosing ratings, not advertisers, will be the only thing to tame the shock-talk hosts.

What will hurt Rush Limbaugh is having his ratings plummet. His ratings will be hurt whenever he becomes irrelevant or tame. His ratings will be hurt if another shock-talk radio host (old or new) out shocks Rush. But the appetite for spectacle remains as high as ever. So there's simply not enough concern to actually boycott Rush Limbaugh and plummet his ratings to the point where his utterances no longer matter.

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

I actually agree with your idea. Advertisers will duck down for awhile, and slowly return. I give it six months maximum. His audience is too big for advertisers to want to stay away.

I personally think Rush is a fat, disgusting, evil person.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Ed. Totes okay to call someone a slut if they're a right-wing one. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YriSB0nwzgw)

'Cause everyone knows it's trufax. And not about sex. Which is the deciding factor.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Schultz stated that on his radio show. And what happened?

Schultz went on MSNBC and made a public apology. He also personally called Laura Ingraham, and she accepted his apology. He suspended himself from his TV show for a week. Rush went on a three day rampage, only apologized after he was losing ads, and he never personally apologized. But of course, he's got a long list of saying incredibly offensive and stupid things:

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?" -- In the same 1990 Newsday article, Limbaugh acknowledged making the crack about Jackson in the 1970s. But Limbaugh insisted he didn't mean it to be racist, saying "I'm the least racist host you'll ever find."

2003: Donovan McNabb "overrated" because he's black -- For some reason, ESPN hired Limbaugh as a sports commentator in 2003. He quickly made them regret it, saying then-Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb had "never been that good," but had been given undeserved credit because "I think what he have here is a little social concern in the NFL. I think the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well..

1988 - "Amy Carter is the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country" -- Rush's cruel attack on the former first daughter came because he disagreed with her politics while at Brown University. He later followed in 1992 by calling first daughter Chelsea Clinton "the family dog."

2006: Mocking Michael J. Fox -- Limbaugh is no fan of "liberal" Hollywood, but he drew torrents of criticism, including for advocates for the disabled, when he made fun of the actor's physical movements, claiming he was exaggerating his symptoms from Parkinson's disease in an ad for Democratic Senator Clair McCaskill.

2007: "The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it." -- Limbaugh made the comment on his January 19, 2007 broadcast, while decrying on-field behavior of players from the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots.

2008: "Barack the Magic Negro" -- Limbaugh previewed the parody by satirist Paul Shanklin on his show during the presidential race, even singing a few bars of the song from Shanklin's album, We Hate America. The CD was distributed by a candidate for GOP party chairman, who later lost to African-American Michael Steele.

2011: Dissing Michelle Obama -- Limbaugh attacked the first lady's healthy food initiatives, and her appearance, saying Michelle "does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you." He also said if Michelle "is going to tell people to eat like an Ethiopian," she “had better look like an Ethiopian.”

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I do not agree that he loosed his advertisers. I would contend that he lost them.

The irony of the SeekingArrangements deal is that the majority of Rush's audience are dirt poor.