With the news that Rush Limbaugh has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and the realization that Sandy Beach is soon to be 80, what do you think WBEN has in mind for six (9A-3P) prime hours?
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The not-so-distant future of WBEN
- Thread starter flybynight
- Start date
Probably paid programming....more of The Financial Guys, Esther Gulyas the Tax Lady, Hammertime, and adding Frankie Yankovick .... they are losing Cellino & Barnes revenue, so the station will be falling into the abyss soon, brought to you by the Aesthetic Associates Center and Forest Lawn... just ask a Joe if you have cemetery plot questions.
Whatever befalls WBEN also will befall many other AM stations that depend on Rush to anchor their daily dose of vitriolic blather. A few national consultants predict Hannity will be go-to replacement. But will the Dittoheads accept Hannity just because he spews the same bilge as El Rushbo. As Limbaugh's syndicator was often fond of promoting, "There's only one Rush." Maybe stations will run commemorative, best-of replays. Heck, it worked for the Car Guys on NPR, at least for a while.
Lots of nationally syndicated folks who are all disciples of el rushbo. No shortage of people who will be available to do the same show.
The station has become laughable in so many ways. Overnight I heard a big produced news opening with words to the effect, "LIVE from the WBEN Newsroom" followed by a recorded newscast by Tom Puckett (?), the afternoon news anchor, before he left for the day following his Tuesday shift. Tom's "live" report(s) played twice hourly from early evening until 4:30 in the morning.
To be replaced by Cellino Law and The Barnes Firm revenue. Probably a revenue boost in the short term.
WBEN is long in the tooth. Entercom is not going to invest much in a declining AM format. Nights and overnights are throwaway time, so you get voice tracked news segments. Even if a big story were to break during those hours, most people would not be tuning in to WBEN. Maybe back in 1985, but not now...
Probably (*gasp*) Joe Beamer.
Rusty Bridges;6301364But will the Dittoheads accept Hannity just because he spews the same bilge as El Rushbo.[/QUOTE said:
If ratings is the benchmark, Hannity is the #2 talker in the country, right behind his hero.
Hannity will not "make" a station. Limbaugh usually will. Hannity tends to do well on stations where Rush precedes him. Not so much when he has to fend for himself.
Limbaugh isn't what he once was but this seems like a Howard Stern type moment for the news/talk format. If it goes as well for news/talk as it did for rock stations then it will be a rough road.
Most legendary newstalk stations have already lost most of their ratings, so the loss of Limbaugh won't have nearly the impact that Stern did when he left terrestrial radio. It'll also be a lot easier to plug in some other dishonest demagogue to satisfy his audience's thirst for rotten red meat. Ultimately it was a lot more difficult replacing Stern than it will be replacing Limbaugh.
Not to mention, many Rush stations paid through the nose for that show, in some cases it was a loss-leader. Of course that may not be anywhere near the case now as it was 15-20 years ago. Regardless, Limbaugh's exit may not hurt the bottom line much at all.
I'm not aware of any stations paying extra for Rush any more. That was something they did a long time ago. Lately, the real cost is the fact that major advertisers still don't want to have their spots either in his show or adjacent to his show. That situation hasn't changed, regardless of what he says. All you have to do is listen, and you won't hear the kind of ads that you'll hear on non-talk stations.
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