Rumor: Rush Limbaugh To WEMP?

[hubcity]

It's an election year. Rush will be sold out.

Rule one in commercial radio: thou shalt not make your advertisers uncomfortable.

Rule two: see rule one.

If he's sold out, it'll be at fire sale prices.

 

[DToTheJ]

If WEMP would be willing to air Rush, they might as well get Glenn Beck too. Beck as the lead-in to Rush is already the formula in most markets.

As a prior poster made reference to, that could indeed be the game plan for Merlin's Philadelphia station. I don't know if New York wants Beck back, though...

 

[DToTheJ]

It's ridiculous that these non-radio people start with 300 stations, but Bob Grant is on one.

Bob Grant??? The dude's like a hundred!! (Okay, 83.)

Grant was briefly syndicated during his run on WOR. If it makes you feel better, it had more affiliates than that "Ellis & Henican" disaster... :

 

[reelyreal]

No, he's never hosted a long-form talk show on the radio, but everybody has to start somewhere. It's not like he was plucked out of the blue, he's got a past in broadcasting, and a successful one at that.

How is it successful? I'm talking about the fact that he's never hosted a regular radio show. He's going to fail.

They don't carry your commentary on over 500 stations if you suck.

Oh, that's right, I forgot. If you've never done something before, you can never ever be successful at it.

 

[Seltzer]

I'll guess a few factors led to Huckabee getting such a broad clearance in the number of stations.

1. It's an election year

2. He's an established name

3. He'll use his Fox News presence to cross-promote his radio show

4. Abundance of conservative commentary stations across America

5. There is a demand for non-abrasive GOP talkers to offset Rush, Savage and others


Demand. Really? Certainly not by the listeners. And the advertisers will come around or be replaced.

 

[LLL]

Seltzer,

Stations definitely want reasonable GOP voices. They are the ones bringing in advertisers. And the numbers in some cases(John Batchelor).

Look at Medved, Prager and Hewitt. They signed Barbasol, Allstate, and GEICO while Rush and Beck are being targeted for boycott.

Stations want voices who are marketable and not vulnerable to boycott.

 

[TTalkradio1]

No, he's never hosted a long-form talk show on the radio, but everybody has to start somewhere. It's not like he was plucked out of the blue, he's got a past in broadcasting, and a successful one at that.

How is it successful? I'm talking about the fact that he's never hosted a regular radio show. He's going to fail.

They don't carry your commentary on over 500 stations if you suck.

Oh, that's right, I forgot. If you've never done something before, you can never ever be successful at it.

Commentaries aren't radio shows.

 

[reelyreal]

No, he's never hosted a long-form talk show on the radio, but everybody has to start somewhere. It's not like he was plucked out of the blue, he's got a past in broadcasting, and a successful one at that.

How is it successful? I'm talking about the fact that he's never hosted a regular radio show. He's going to fail.

They don't carry your commentary on over 500 stations if you suck.

Oh, that's right, I forgot. If you've never done something before, you can never ever be successful at it.

Commentaries aren't radio shows.

Your whole argument is that if you've never done a radio show, you can never be successful at doing a radio show. Do you think radio talk show hosts are magically created from on high? Everybody has a "first job."

Huckabee's got a better chance than an unknown small market talk show host.

 

[badjef]

No, he's never hosted a long-form talk show on the radio, but everybody has to start somewhere. It's not like he was plucked out of the blue, he's got a past in broadcasting, and a successful one at that.

How is it successful? I'm talking about the fact that he's never hosted a regular radio show. He's going to fail.

They don't carry your commentary on over 500 stations if you suck.

Oh, that's right, I forgot. If you've never done something before, you can never ever be successful at it.

Commentaries aren't radio shows.

Your whole argument is that if you've never done a radio show, you can never be successful at doing a radio show. Do you think radio talk show hosts are magically created from on high? Everybody has a "first job."

Huckabee's got a better chance than an unknown small market talk show host.

Huckabee has been doing TV. That is much different than radio. Show me a TV program that is three hours long, five days a week.

An "unknown small market talk show host" has already been used to doing it.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[R.F. Burns]

WABC has a very old audience. I find it hard to believe that WEMP would go from one failed format to another. First, 101.9 doesn't have the market coverage/penetration that WABC does. If WABC is getting their numbers from outside the boroughs that would be one strike against going on 101.9. Second, outside of WABC (which as I said earlier has the 70 to dirt nap segment of the population tied up), what conservative talk station gets any ratings? WNYM? WOR? Face it; putting a conservative talk format on WEMP would be sillier than putting a beautiful music format back on FM, in 2012. My guess would be that they lease or sell to ESPN & seeing that the Yankees contract will be up next year they could bid heavily for the Yankees. With the Jets already under contract they could become a real player in local sports. As crazy as that sounds it makes more sense than putting someone on who advertisers are running from. His problems with advertisers aren't going away as new sponsors such as Walgreens have publically removed their spots from his show and others are still defecting.


http://features.rr.com/article/05XkeUQ6fC16K?q=Rush+Limbaugh

Walgreens. Another sponsor on Sharpton's radio show. Funny how Rush is "controversial" but Sharpton isn't.

They hypocrisy of liberals is that they threaten advertisers who appear on Rush. Meanwhile the Democrats will buy a ton of spots on his show, all across the country. The same people who bash Rush want to reach voters via his show.

Even Jon Stewart is buying time on WFLA in Tampa to promote his live tour date there, but for some reason, I don't think "Color of Change" will boycott Jon Stewart any time soon.

It's an election year. Rush will be sold out.

Limbaugh is in real trouble. Networks are now setting up what are called "Limbaugh channels" so that certain advertisers don't air on stations which air the Rush Limbaugh show. That means there are enough advertisers who don't want to be associated with him or his program to cause different distribution methods to be set up to satisfy those advertisers. That doesn't happen if this thing were going to blow over in a week or two. Trust me, he's toast and if stations weren't under contract to air his program many more would have pulled the plug already. Check out what happened in Philadelphia. Stations are starting to bale on him. He screwed up on TV and it looks like radio is following. Check out Twitter to see how active the anti Limbaugh sect still is and they cntinue to go after his advertisers. Those sponsors don't like controversy and won't defend this blow hard. Companies are still bailing even though the boycott is no longer top news.

 

[wadio]

It's ridiculous that these non-radio people start with 300 stations, but Bob Grant is on one.

Bob Grant??? The dude's like a hundred!! (Okay, 83.)

Grant was briefly syndicated during his run on WOR. If it makes you feel better, it had more affiliates than that "Ellis & Henican" disaster... :

Actually it was "Henican & White" but, yes, it was a total disaster.

 

[TTalkradio1]

Limbaugh is in real trouble. Networks are now setting up what are called "Limbaugh channels" so that certain advertisers don't air on stations which air the Rush Limbaugh show. That means there are enough advertisers who don't want to be associated with him or his program to cause different distribution methods to be set up to satisfy those advertisers. That doesn't happen if this thing were going to blow over in a week or two. Trust me, he's toast and if stations weren't under contract to air his program many more would have pulled the plug already. Check out what happened in Philadelphia. Stations are starting to bale on him. He screwed up on TV and it looks like radio is following. Check out Twitter to see how active the anti Limbaugh sect still is and they cntinue to go after his advertisers. Those sponsors don't like controversy and won't defend this blow hard. Companies are still bailing even though the boycott is no longer top news.

Philadelphia got rid of Hannity and Glenn Beck last year, so I don't think that means Limbaugh is toast.

 

[LLL]

LOL @ "Limbaugh Channels". Where did you hear about this? Rachel Maddow?


It's called "Rush Radio" and it was launched a few years ago. It's basically a way of branding conservative commentary radio stations.

And who says that the boycott against Rush is not big news? "Color of Change" and other radical activists are working full-time against free speech.

 

[BiggieFats]

The way WABC seems to treat Rush's show sometimes (coming back to the show late from commercial breaks, doing EAS tests during his show, also causing the break to come back late, and then today Ken Duffy breaking into Rush's show to announce Santorum dropping out and carrying his press conference live) makes me believe that the switch will happen.

 

[LLL]

Sometimes Rush is interrupted.

When he's interrupted by Obama, he cries conspiracy. When it's something like Santorum pulling out(pun intended) Rush acts like the world revolves around his 3 hour slot and people purposely plan important announcements around his show.

Stations like WABC and WLFA in Tampa always talk over his bumper music and it sounds like commercials are cutting into his show. It's annoying.

 

[jhguthlac]

What WABC did to Rush yesterday was uncalled for. They take ten minutes of his show to air Santorum. Then at 1:31 there is dead air for several minutes (on-line). How can the nation's top N/T station be run so carelessly?

 

[TimeIsTight]

What WABC did to Rush yesterday was uncalled for. They take ten minutes of his show to air Santorum.

Santorum's exit from the presidential primary was of much greater interest, and certainly far greater importance than anything Rush had to say for those ten minutes. Santorum's comments were especially important to a Conservative Republican audience for whom it was BIG NEWS that most wouldn't want to miss, and in NYC Santorum's comments would have been covered live on competing stations. Don't forget it meant the party candidate, essentially, had been chosen, after a long drawn out primary fight.

Carrying it was a surprisingly classy call on the part of Cumulus. It sounded like a real in-touch with what's happening radio station, and not just a satellite fed drone.

As to the messed up on-line feed, that is small potatoes to most radio stations, but interruptions like that still shouldn't happen on any commercial radio station, let alone one in the top market owned by the second largest station group owner.

 

[wadio]

The question is, what was Rush doing during Santorum's press conference? It's not like this is was a local story. Rush used to join such conferences live and inject his own commentary, providing value-added (to his fans) over the all-newsers.

My impression of Ken Duffy stems from that annoying, humorless and totally unnecessary top-ten news countdown he hosts on WABC Saturday mornings. Anyone who listens to news/talk radio is already familiar with those stories so this two or three minute feature is superfluous. While the top-ten countdown might make some sense on a music station, running it on a news/talk station is simply bad judgement. Maybe the same bad judgement that was taken yesterday by preempting Rush?

 

[FLjack2]

If he's sold out, it'll be at fire sale prices.

No way. Rush may have done something really stupid and there might be a bunch of advertisers who ditched him, but you don't think that there was a line behind those folks just dying to get their ads on his radio show? Hell, I haven't listened to Rush in years and, after seeing all the controversy, put him on a few times just to see what he was saying about it. He (and his affiliates) are doing just fine.

 

[badjef]

If he's sold out, it'll be at fire sale prices.

No way. Rush may have done something really stupid and there might be a bunch of advertisers who ditched him, but you don't think that there was a line behind those folks just dying to get their ads on his radio show? Hell, I haven't listened to Rush in years and, after seeing all the controversy, put him on a few times just to see what he was saying about it. He (and his affiliates) are doing just fine.

There are a lot of people who don't listen to Rush, take what someone else says about him who doesn't like him, and then that person runs with what they think that Rush said. It happens in sports reporting as well.

You are correct that there are, and always have been, advertisers trying to get on Rush's program. In syndicating him to the smallers stations at first, allowed those stations to have audiences in some places, they didn't even know they had.

We, who listen to Rush, know what he said, and what he meant. Those predisposed to an emotional dislike for the program, heard what they wanted to hear.

Rush will survive and retire when he feels like it. Whenever that is.

This is not the same as Imus. Imus was not getting traction with his program in syndication. Imus has lost credibility because of the staleness of the program.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!