Rush flushers seeking to hold Limbaugh accountable for hate speech are crippling the radio industry

[richardmyers]

Rush flushers seeking to hold Limbaugh accountable for hate speech are crippling the radio industry

The radio industry doesn't like to serve up public information about its private business. This may account for the shroud of secrecy that has existed for nine months, only to be swept away when Dial Global fell by nearly 92 percent (over 1 year), with most of the drop occurring in one day. Dial Global blamed Rush Limbaugh.

Cumulus Media is also in trouble. In May, Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said that Limbaugh had cost the company a couple million in each of the two previous quarters. In August, Dickey alluded to ten "underperforming" stations (out of 570) that were responsible for all of the network's losses. In November, Dickey again complained about the ten stations, blaming them for the company's "material decline" in top-line revenue.

Dickey didn't name the stations. But Radio Ink speculates that likely candidates include, "in New York, WABC-AM; in Los Angeles, KABC-AM; in Chicago, WLS-AM; in Dallas, KGO-AM; in San Fran, WBAP-AM; in Washington, DC WMAL-AM; and in Atlanta, WYAY is all news."

Ten stations. Out of 570.

Examining a few of these ten may explain why the titans of the radio industry are falling, and how tens of thousands of volunteers are bringing one of the most powerful industries in the country to its knees.

[Ned_Devine]

1. As long as my NPR doesn't go away, that's all I want

nt

[Scuba]

5. My NPR went away several years ago.

I used to be able to count on hosts challenging guests who repeated already-debunked lies. Not any more.

[yardwork]

2. Why is the radio industry allowing one person to destroy them?

Why is Rush Limbaugh so important that an entire industry will allow itself to be destroyed in order to keep him on the air? Most companies don't hesitate to lay off tens of thousands of people to make a tiny bit more profit. Why is Rush Limbaugh so special that he is allowed to destroy an entire industry?

[socialist_n_TN]

7. I'm sure you know why (or have a strong suspicion).........

, but it's because Rush is the mouthpiece for the capitalist propaganda machine. He doesn't HAVE to make money. He serves another purpose entirely.

[pscot]

11. No. He has to make money

That's why the advertizer boycotts are so sucessful.

[socialist_n_TN]

41. Eventually he might "retire to spend more time with his family".........

POSSIBLY. While they ramp up another RW blowhard to take his place. His TYPE though won't go away, no matter how much money they lose. They are too good at stirring up the petit bourgeoisie against the working class. Their propaganda value is worth more than their losses.

Edited to add: And BTW, he hasn't gone ANYWHERE yet. Even the "retirement" situation above will be one of those "believe it when I see it" occasions.

[jberryhill]

8. Contract termination provisions

The likely explanation is that the termination provisions of the relevant contracts amount to a suicide pact.

[aletier_v]

35. relevant contracts amount to a suicide pact.

Keeping Rush on may be a suicide pact, too.

[Squinch]

9. I'm goint to guess it's because they already paid him a chunk of his 40 million. They don't

want to face up to the waste of that much money, and keep telling themselves that this will blow over (as it has at times in the past.)

[xxqqqzme]

28. This time it won't. It will just

keep fading. Demographics are not w/ him. His target audience is getting old.

[Squinch]

43. Yep. This one is different, and it's affecting the whole right wing radio industry, and scaring the

RW tv industry. It's delightful!

[richardmyers]

17. Rush is important to the industry because

it is cheaper to syndicate one content provider to 600 stations, than to have each radio station provide its own content. In other words, Rush is big (600 stations), and an economy of scale makes him cheaper than many alternatives. However, if the ad revenues drop below a certain point, all of that will change.

[kelliekat44]

20. Hate is a great motivator.

[RichGirl]

22. Probably because they made Rush all or nothing.

His listeners have probably kept radio going. They never offered anything that us sane people wanted to listen too. They put all their eggs in the Rush basket and now they have nothing.

[BlueToTheBone]

3. Thanks for the post

and welcome to DU

[Brother Buzz]

4. Flush twice

It's a long way to hell

[Care Acutely]

16. ohmygod that's PERFECT n/t

[reggaehead]

6. Cumulus killed KGO

kGO was a talk radio station for decades in the bay area. Cumulus killed it when they took it to an all news format with the exception of Ron Owen. As predicted by former host Bernie Ward. I miss KGO in the old format.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Cumulus and Dickey are wasting their spit by criticizing Limbaugh.

They really have two choices:

1) Fire him/terminate his contract, or
2) Sue him for damage to their brand.

[maxrandb]

12. It is the local stations that need to be gone after

Last edited Sat Nov 24, 2012, 05:46 PM - Edit history (1)

that's the only way to end this hate radio idiocy. It needs to be made non-profitable at the local level.

I don't give a shit if the local station carries news and my favorite college football team...if they provide a time slot for syndicated Limpballs in Insanity, I don't listen to any of their programming.

They have a choice as to what they carry, and they've sided with hate and idiocy. I don't care how good of a traffic report, or weather report they produce...they still give a platform to the ruination of our country.

Sometimes you have to cut off the head to kill the snake, but in the instance of Hate Radio, there is so much big money and support at the top, you really need to start at the bottom...and that means locally.

[Mariana]

25. It's not a bad idea to listen from time to time

just to take names. We should all periodically be sending off fresh letters to the advertisers. It doesn't even necessarily have to be Limpballs' show - complain if they advertise on ANY show that runs on that station.

[Frank Cannon]

40. I NEVER need to listen to that asshole.

I can tell you what he has to say on almost any conceivable subject, and I have people like Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, etc., who are more than happy to fill me in on what I'm missing out on.

So no, there is absolutely no reason to listen to Rush unless you are suffering from dangerously low blood pressure.

[zbdent]

13. seems like they didn't learn their lesson ...

to make up for the losses caused by this blowhard ...

they're cutting the "liberal talk" ... again ...

Happened in 2007, after the Dems retook the House and Senate when the Repugs had expected a permanent and expanding majority ...

[Comrade_McKenzie]

14. Acceptal collateral damage. nt

[freshwest]

15. '...Limbaugh had cost the company a couple million in each of the two previous quarters...'

Mr. Dickey, if it's that awful, the quickest way to recoup that loss is to cancel the hateful windbag's contracts, if possible.

Although you and yours thought he was worth all of this in the past, and he has paid off handsomely for the GOP, whose elected officials have drained the public sector and the people for trillions.

It's difficult to figure how much money he has, one source says his net worth is $350 million and he makes $40 million a year, but these results aren't dated well:

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rush-limbaugh-net-worth/

According to a book entitled "Bias" by Bernard Goldberg, Rush Limbaugh signed a contract in 2001 for $297 million dollars to broadcast through summer 2009, which would make the answer, $33 million per year.

This, of course, does not include any additional money he is paid for speaking engagments, book residuals, or earnings in the stock market.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_Rush_Limbaugh_make_per_year

And clearly, they still like the job Rush he's doing for the owners of the stations, not the advertisers or the people who be fired to preserve the high salaries of their favorite shills, such as Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck:

Rush Limbaugh Gets $400 Million To Rant Through 2016
Hilary Lewis|July 02, 2008|

From The Business Sheet: Who says you can't make money in the radio business?

NYT: Striking a deal estimated to be worth $400 million through 2016, the conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has renewed his contract with Clear Channel Communications and its syndication subsidiary Premiere Radio Networks.

The contract renewal was announced Wednesday by the companies, and the financial details were provided by Mr. Limbaugh in an interview with The New York Times Magazine for an article to be published on Sunday. In the interview, Mr. Limbaugh said the new contract would pay him about $38 million a year for eight years. He also said he would receive a $100 million signing bonus.

More on this odious piece of flesh:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh

[xxqqqzme]

29. What you supplied

about his contracts is proof there is no God!

[freshwest]

39. Or else he hates us!

[Doctor_J]

30. which means that the couple mil he loses is chump change

the whole premise of this thread is absurd

[freshwest]

34. Rush's continued existence is not based on the free market or profit, but his ability to train

Dittoheads to vote against themselves, disguised as the others he claims are the source of their problems.

If they had the wisdom of a dumb animal, they'd realize the others are themselves. They could break Rush and Beck's spell of xenophobia, racism, sexism, etc. that they love to mentally masturbate about while hearing two ridiculously petty men bloviate.

We also fall for the propaganda they will stop promoting division to destroy the country from within, if we don't buy their stuff at the store. That's not what's being sold here.

The idea that everything this nation accomplished since the days of Lincoln, the Roosevelts and the Civil Rights era, is bad, is so ingrained in the American psyche, that the knee jerking from the right and the left are now the same.

It's no wonder Rush and Beck are paid so much. The total wealth of this country is worth thousands, tens of thousands of times more valuable to those who pay him. It's not revenue from ads. IMO, that's part of the business myth, most especially since we are in global market.

When we see the vanity slop we've had seen dished out to us since 2000 from the GOP, that's not what they're selling. Follow the money, who benefits from putting 'enough digits to sign the bills already produced' per Nordquist.

When the Tea Party began, I knew it was just another brandname promoted by the GOP to get around their bad reputation, that demoralized many repukes in 2008. They are gobbling up our private land and public lands, and infrastructure, and taxing us with the profits they are inserting in every single transaction.

Americans are so brainwashed with the religion of capitalism that they will not question it, anymore than people who (or so it is claimed) believed the world was flat and if one sailed too far one would fall to their deaths, or whatever. They have blinders on about profit and relationships between different people and actions in society, so they are too afraid to question this bullshit.

[Doctor_J]

37. bulls-eye

you think Hitler cared whether his newspapers and radio stations were making money? As long as der volken believed that der Juden were causing the problems, and that Deutschland was winning the war, he was happy as could be.

I think these "Limpballs is going down!!11!" posters are moles.

[freshwest]

38. I don't know, I see a lot of people taken in by these memes here. Who else tells people differently?

We are posting on this message board for free. Well, not really. We pay to post from our computers, internet charges and membership donation, if we made one which is not a profit on our part.

We also donate our time and effect, which does cost us, but we're going up against those who are paid by the second by these ______.

The notion that commerical speech is representative of free speech is an offense to me. Commerical speech is paid for, and the owner picks the tune that the speakers will play, but we give these marionettes on a string the same respect as someone who is more our equal, who really wants to change things. It gets no respect from me now.

I don't trust much 'media' as it is known, on or off line, because of the ownership media, and the owners censor anything that doesn't serve their agenda. It's so common, so well infused in society, the people they hire self-censor themselves to get the job and continue to do so in order to maintain employment.

You made a good analogy there, but rather dark thoughts, huh. I expect we can still go forward, each in our way to effect what is closest to us. Precincts, community meetings, etc.

Those who fell for entertainment news, were led there by years of entertainment to see themselves as being trendy, smart and now self-righteous. I have no innate disrespect for the variety of ideas put out daily, I don't demand anyone believe what I do, just as I refuse to believe what others claim I must.

If the entertainment industry owners confined itself to that, and not infected the news, and even then, if they'd been benign, that would have been one thing. Instead it's promoted hate to keep us at each other's throats. Our part in that is our willingness to others.

The standard broadcast airhead is just doing a job, like flipping burgers. No depth, just reading a script, extremely happy to be overpaid for doing it. But the more successful ones as Rush and Beck, I hold in a different category because they have interfered with the lives of persons they do not know.

It is the ulitmate in vanity, IMO, to judge or even discuss, what is going on inside people's bedrooms, inside a woman's body who they do not know, or demand obedience to religion or ideology or not. The way I really feel about them is not suitable for public reading.

[KharmaTrain]

18. Convenient Excuse For 20 Years Of Mismanagement...

While I can't wait for rushbo's demise...and it does have a factor on the rapid decline of hate radio, this doesn't account for the billions in debts racked up by Dickey at Cumulus (one of the greediest broadcast robber barons out there) and his ilk. There's other factors going on here.

Radio overall has "deregulated" itself into irrelevance. Large corporates turned the public airwaves into a private plantation and then proceeded to scorch the earth...destroy thousands of stations for the mighty bottom line. Thousands of talented and dedicated people were fired as Dickey, the Mayes gang at Cheap Channel and Fareed Suliman at Citadel (eaten last year by Cumulus...adding to their debt) milked every dime they could out of every property...inflated their values, amassed personal wealth and stripped the company of the bare essentials. Along came new competition from internet and satellite and the old corporates were too debt-bound and stuck in their own self-importance to see the changes and adjust to them.

Today Dickey oversees a crumbling "empire" of stations that have lost more than 50% of their value in the past 5 years with little prospect of turning things around. Rushbo makes an easy excuse cause he's looking to dump the show that is owned by his dreaded prime competitor (Bain/Cheap Channel) and replace him with Mike Hucklenutz. The once financial and political power of hate radio is fading...the free market is showing that too big to fail can and should fail...

[patrice]

27. +++1!

[tabasco]

19. LOL!!! It's not the radio corporation CEOs to blame!!!

It's the librul Rush-haters' fault!!

[aletier_v]

21. The Rush giveth, and the Rush taketh away

[Wellstone ruled]

23. Here is my spin on this.

Corporations have for several decades have been pushing our nation towards a Fascist two class state. They did it with Germany and Italy in the 30's. We still have the same major wealthy families pulling the levers,just a new day and some new faces,that's all. Notice also,how all the media is in the hands of just five families,Georbels was right in the 30's,it's all about propaganda and who controls the voice.

Guy's,me thinks we dodged a bullet with this past election. Notice how the biggies,Koch's,Perry,Rickertts,and the Wall Street Boy's have crawled back into their holes. It's all about the Optics and the Message,and Bain will take a hit on this,course Willard will load these stations with debt and then,guess what,Let The Harvest Begin.

BTW,the new Meme is -----------The Fake Fiscal Cliff. Duh,which Family needs the Inheritance Tax brake,that's what this B.S. is really all about isn't it.

[SomethingFishy]

24. It's not the "Rush Flushers"

It's Rush. A 20th century holdout. In time, hopefully sooner than later, Rush will go the way of slavery, segregation, back alley abortions, and Pat Boone.
His rhetoric is old and tired and he just needs to go retire with his viagra and his ego to keep him warm at night.

[patrice]

26. People are also tired of robot-DJs, pre-defined programming that conforms markets to itself, instead

of actual authentic grassroots markets defining what they themselves want to hear.

One-size-fits-all generic programming that DEPENDS upon HATE to make connections to hateful listeners, or depends upon fear to make brainwashing connections with frightened religious bigots, is OVER.

[NuttyFluffers]

31. good. i hate cumulus radio.

radio people rebound, it's an industry famous for unsteady employment. but i can't wait till these RW asshat owner/management consortiums end up eating their hats.

[Doctor_J]

32. this is ridiculous

hate radio isn't going anywhere. if these companies cared about making money, the blue areas would have some left- or Dem-leaning programming. Instead most cities, including Chicago, have 5-6 hate radio outlets and one or zero low-power liberal stations. Kos has kind of lost their way.

[socialist_n_TN]

42. That's true and what I was trying to say in my post above......

Hate radio serves a purpose for the capitalist class. It influences a portion of the petit bourgeoisie and even the working class into supporting ANYTHING other than it's own self interest politically. They do this by using the "hate" part of hate radio to divide and distract us against each other. It's an old game that they've done over and over throughout the years (centuries really) with media to keep the mass of the population from realizing that they've actually got the power, IF they'll use it.

That's why Rush is just a face. If he loses enough market share to become an ineffective propagandist for the owners, sure he'll be the sacrificial lamb, albeit one with a HELL of a golden parachute, but the hate will go on with another face.

VERY good point BTW about how the profit motive doesn't apply when it comes to propaganda. If it were only about profit, there would have been left leaning talk radio all along at least in the urban areas.

[Warpy]

33. Maybe they'll abandon propaganda and start playing music again

and wouldn't that be absolutely wonderful! I imagine people who want the radio babbling at them all day would tune into sports talk, instead.

I would love to see market forces kill right wing talk radio. It's way overdue.

[Doctor_J]

36. maybe pigs will fly

or I'll have sex with Norah Jones. Both are more likely than Hate Radio going away