Rush's ratings must be through the roof!

[Jay Walker]

bullspit. Limbaugh has nowhere near the imagination or command of the English language that Paul Harvey had, and Harvey never demonised those who disagreed with his politics, which is the very basis of Limbaugh's act...

Too bad there is not a "like" button.

As a dirty ...... hippie talent, during my tenure in Chicago, before my show, I'd sit and drink morning coffee at the Stone Container Building in the forth floor engineering lounge with the usual cast of engineering misfits and occasionally Mr. Harvey. While we usually never agreed on much he was never anything but a gentleman. It is a fact Mr. Harvey was a totally gracious, extremely intelligent, fair minded, human being and it was a pleasure to have been in his presence. I learned much from those brief incidents.

I see no comparison with Rush the performer, or as it appears, a person.

Page Two...

 

[Tom Wells]

The last time I heard Warren was in the late 1990s in Houston, he was a guest on a show where they were discussing
John Denver, and Warren stated that John diddn't "know" he was dead, and probably still thought he was flying his ultralight plane....

You mean, he never heard all the news reports of JD's plane crash? Or did he think JD was still "alive," just like Elvis? ???

He meant that John Denver did not experience his death in a malfunction of his ultralight plane, but somehow had a continuing experience of finishing his flight in the ultralight, going home, etc...

And I have no idea where the show/station with this show originated. I was in the full travel mode years, and using a homebrew
regenerative tube set I built in 2000. With the separate loop, I was getting a lot of interesting stuff I never ID'ed there.

But when I heard Warren's unmistakable voice, I forgot all about dxing and honed in hearing what he was saying.

I remember the 1975ish promotional event where any (youth) who would write out a copy of the Pledge of Allegiance would recieve a pencil.
I did so, and received a WLNR Warren Freiburg pencil.

Oh, how Warren moaned, groaned and gyrated when Jimmy Carter was elected.
These memories of him at WLTH 1370 and later at WLNR are what make me think that Rush must have heard him at some point.
The delivery and emphasis are SO close that maybe Rush did hear Warren, or maybe it's just a Steel City thing/effect.

This is a lot like the New Jersey loudness, where people shout at work because it's loud and it just carries over.

"He's not shouting at ya, he just wants to make sure you hear him."

Sure wish I know where that pencil went, I may have it still. What could that bring on Ebay?

 

[radio-darn]

Rush reminds me of Paul Harvey.

...bullspit. Limbaugh has nowhere near the imagination or command of the English language that Paul Harvey had, and Harvey never demonised those who disagreed with his politics, which is the very basis of Limbaugh's act...

Paul Harvey was a totally scripted teller of human interest stories, so comparing his act to Rush's glib adibs on current affairs is really not possible: it's like comparing Jim Morrison to Pavarotti - apples to oranges and then some. But I don't see demonization of his political opposites as the core of Limbaugh's act: he demonizes their policies and beliefs and does use tongue-in-cheek humor to characterize them, but has apologized when he went overboard as in the case of alleged student Sandra Fluke. We could fill up this forum's server with the names of current TV commentators who consistently make personal attacks and never, ever express remorse (well okay,

I do remember one of Harvey's forays into politics and it resulted in my general manager airing a rebuttal. In 1972 Harvey went after then President Nixon in regards to the Vietnam War, saying, "Mr. President, we love you, but you are wrong..." Our station's rebuttal naturally started with, "Mr. Harvey, we love you but you are wrong..."

Rush and Paul shared an understanding of how to make the most of the medium of radio to become nationally-known unique talents. Paul got criticized for being too sweet and Rush gets it for being too sour, and their detractors will never understand why they could attract a large, loyal audience.

As masters of communications, maybe they can in fact be compared to each other as well as to such great political communicators as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. You have to be willing to separate the method from the message. I was a press secretary and public affairs director for various conservative politicians, but I recall the first time I ever saw Bill Clinton when he was an relatively unknown potential candidate for President: he was being interviewed on PBS and I don't recall his expressed beliefs in the interview but I was blown away at his presentation. I remember thinking "I'd love to run a campaign for this guy - he's as certain winner," which it turns out he was. Now I've never been a big fan of his ideology (whatever it actually is) but I rate him as the best political communicator in the US since perhaps FDR (and even he would have never been able to convince us all that a BJ is not sex).

And now, the rest of the story...

 

[KFodor]

For example, select markets where the local news staff and/or local news programming has been cut back and staffers let go. That can and does negatively affect the ratings of news talk radio stations. Always has. Always will.

It's a chicken and egg thing. You can't keep staff if the revenue is dropping. Usually the revenue drop comes first, then management has to react to the drop in revenues with cost cutting. They don't do it because it's fun. But when revenues fall , you can't spend as much as you used to. Either people take pay cuts, or you have to lay people off.

Smart programmers and managers know these things. I think Rush is often used by some owners as an excuse for bad ratings...when that owner is too egotistical to believe his financial decisions may also have played a part.

The main problem with Rush and several other hosts is they've been targeted by some major advertisers like Geico and Home Depot, who demand that their spots not air in his show. These are some of radio's biggest advertisers. Rush has been able to replace those sponsors, but the local stations haven't. It's a big problem for his affiliates, and Premiere needs to come up with better answers. So far, they haven't. The show still gets the same ratings, but it's making less money.

Some stations are...and some aren't. Some stations don't put all their eggs in the conservative talk basket, so to speak and have other programs on the air not talk radio related which the Home Depots and Geico's of the world will advertise with. Smart programming on their part. And again, less than smart management on the part of those stations losing audience and revenue.

 

[TheBigA]

Some stations don't put all their eggs in the conservative talk basket, so to speak and have other programs on the air not talk radio related which the Home Depots and Geico's of the world will advertise with.

Depends on if the station has its own national sales person, or they get those spots from networks or other places.

 

[KFodor]

A little of both in the case of the station I work for, A...