RUSH LIMBAUGH'S CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS AND FALLOUT.....HMMMM

[DukeFan4Life]

I may be the first in my state, the country or the world to post the following but please read on.

We all know radio is changing at a rapid pace with all the mergers, buyouts and AM talkers going to FM and so on.

Talk radio as we know it is about to get a MAJOR shakup now that Mike Huckabee's launch date is near.

Like many other forms of radio, talk radio is scripted. Could it be someone wanted Rush off the air and therefore told rush to say those awful comments about that law student; he did lose many sponsors and at least one affiliate as a result and it made national news.

What will become of El Rushbo and news/talk radio in america now that he appears to be being replaced in many markets by somone brand new after twenty some years.

I am NOT saying it was an inside job but this was just a thought after all Cumulus or someone is always up to something

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Your post leaves me scratching my head. Say what?

I was under the impression we are in a lull right now in the number of mergers, buyouts, etc. AM talkers going to FM seems to be somewhat limited to companies who have come to realize the heritage AM they own is going to need some kind of new audience genre for the programming to survive. Are there a lot of AM talkers moving to FM stations not under the same ownership?

I don't get the idea that we "know" there will be a major shake-up with the arrival of Huckabee. There might be. Then agagin, there might be one collective yawn. What do you know that we are overlooking?

I would agree if you said that Talk Radio sticks to talking points and it seems many Talk Radio folks look to the same sources for guidance on their Talking Points. (People and organizations close to are allied with Grover Norquist has always been my guess.) But to say that Talk Radio is as tightly scripted as other forms of radio does not strike me as a solid assessment. But, what do I know?

Do you really think the mechanism that makes Rush tick is so flimsy that some flunky can feed him "bad balogna" and topple his empire. I have my own criticisms of Rush, but I have never felt his staffing was that flimsy. It would have to be an inside job for someone to torpedo the ship.

 

[microbob]

I've wondered myself if the majority of talk radio is scripted as it seems to be. Most callers to talk shows are, which makes for the same rehash of bland boring not thinking outside of the box radio hosts that infect talk radio today.

 

[borderblaster]

Nice conspiracy but it doesn't fly. Rush will survive, and I Cumulus won't be replacing Rush on their stations at least until current contracts run out. Huck launches next week, and of the alledged 140 affiliates, I know of 3.

 

[jh]

Nice conspiracy but it doesn't fly. Rush will survive, and I Cumulus won't be replacing Rush on their stations at least until current contracts run out. Huck launches next week, and of the alledged 140 affiliates, I know of 3.

On another board, someone posted a list of Huckabee talk show affiliates in Minnesota. I don't know if it's accurate, but it had about a dozen stations, all small non-rated markets.

I haven't heard of anyone dropping Rush for Huckabee and I doubt if anyone will. Huck might make a nice companion show to Rush, before or after Rush airs, but not in place of. And I don't see any station having too much success running Huck against Rush, either.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I think for maybe the first year, you are right. Rush is well established and if a station has no "pressure" on them, they are not going to walk away from Rush to gobble up the Huckabee availability.

Life is, however, full of unknowns. If Romney becomes president, Rush two years from now could say: "This just isn't fun any more. I like to have some one I can criticize, shoot canons at, etc." If in the next 18 months Rush were to have two "stumbles" of the magnitude of the Fluke controversy, stations might begin to say: "Once was o.k. but three times across the foul line is more that we are comfortable with." And none of us are getting any younger. We have no idea what day Rush will wake up and say: "I'm just getting too old for this. I'm Through." I get the idea people think that won't happen for another 10 years... but we don't know and he probably doesn't know. And of course, none of us are getting any younger. We have no idea what dauy Rush..... woll not wake up.

This is a bit of a gamble by Cumulus and Huckabee. They may be calculating Rush will wake up some morning and say I am tired of this.... BEFORE Huckabee wakes us some morning and says: "This isn't working as well as I thought it would.

If I sound philosophical about age in this post... that is because I will rise early tomorrow and begin an 800 mile trip to attend the funeral of someone who died too soon.

 

[borderblaster]

My condolences on your loss GRC and safe travels.

 

[del_griffith]

Same here to GRC. Safe travels and sorry about your loss.

Rush will live to see another day. But while he didn't kill talk radio, he did harm it. Actually radio in general. The 2 week hiatus of Premiere network spots was proof that damage control was underway. That two weeks was needed to let this blow over a bit and allow Premiere and its affiliates a chance to not drive themselves crazy with today's edict that would only change tomorrow. That two weeks allowed for some damage control and logistics control. But there will forever be a scar from the Limbaugh incident.

 

[MC]

Some stations were scripting the transitional banter between the news guy and the traffic guy.

The way the screening works on many talk shows is that they wait for someone to call in that will bring up a topic that the host has researched and the host is prepared to talk about. "open lines" has the same dynamic.

Peter B Collins interviewed Rush when they were both on KNBR in SF and Rush said: "I take callers that make me look good."

Huckabee will take away some stations and platitudes about the "king" won't help in the long term.

 

[country24]

GRC says

If Romney becomes president, Rush two years from now could say: "This just isn't fun any more. I like to have some one I can criticize, shoot canons at, etc."

Rush has fired lots of shots at Romney. True, they're pretty mild compared to what he says about liberals. But you sure can't say he's never criticized him.

And he can lambast liberals when they're out of office as well as when they're in office. Anyone who listened to him during George Bush's terms know that. Like Rush often says, "As long as there are liberals, there'll be plenty to talk about."

 

[FreddyE1977]

He had his share of dust-ups with Bush as well.

He could rightly accept much of the credit for sinking Bush's immigration reform effort,
and his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

 

[MCLowe]

You guys are hilarious! I've been listening to Rush since 1990. This Fluke thing was NOTHING! Rush will always be on the air and will always be on top. If anything, it allowed him to replace a few weak-spined sponsors with others chomping at the bit to have access to his massive and loyal audience.

As for thinking he will get bored with Romney as prez... dream on! That's when he shines! He talks about that all the time. People were saying the same thing after Clinton was gone, wondering what Rush would talk about. Believe me... he will have PLENTY to talk about with Romney. Not to mention, the libs go NUTS when they aren't in power, so there's plenty of fodder there as well.

Any bets you place against Rush are generally going to lose. Check his long and controversial history. If you think this Fluke thing was big, you haven't been paying attention to Rush for very long. ;-)

Peace,
MC