What if Rush had Died?

[Slant]

How would have the talk radio landscape changed if Limbaugh would have passed away? Which network shows would be given a new lease on life and jump up in the talk world?

 

[dustintv]

Morbid topic eh? I think if that would have happened CC might move Beck into Limbaugh's slot.

 

[radiocph]

Would Sarah Palin be on the radio, instead of Fox-TV?

 

[jerry367]

Morbid topic eh? I think if that would have happened CC might move Beck into Limbaugh's slot.

If you remember the chronology of events, when Limbaugh had his hearing degrade dramatically and was on the verge of having to cut his career short, Clear Channel had eased Beck into syndication, positioning him to take over that spot.

IMHO, Beck will not have the same authority or credibility (if you can use that word) as Limbaugh. Beck comes off a lot less believeable and a lot more kooky.

 

[jerry367]

Would Sarah Palin be on the radio, instead of Fox-TV?

What a great experiment, sociologically speaking!

I believe that Palin will sound downright silly on radio, in much the same way that TV persoanlities often sound somewhat disconnected when on radio. When the public is used to someone from seeing them on TV in one form or another, once you remove the visual, there are usually glaring pauses, not to mention a heightened reliance on the words being used---and in that case, radio will not be kind to Palin.

 

[gr8oldies]

Premiere would fill the slot...noon to three would get more live clearance in the west. There would be other launches as well, some would catch on, some wouldn't

 

[Slant]

I think you are right!

 

[Oldbones]

IMHO, Beck will not have the same authority or credibility (if you can use that word) as Limbaugh. Beck comes off a lot less believeable and a lot more kooky.

I'd guess that Premiere would have to do some major scrambling to find replacement programming noon-3 ET. Much like Paul Harvey or Stern, Rush is not replaceable...he is a high-profile personality & has his audience that tunes in to hear him. I wonder how much of his audience sticks around when he takes a day off & has a fill-in host? I'm guessing a sizeable number tune out. The last thing I'd do is to throw in just another conservatalker with the hopes he'd fill Rush's shoes.
At this stage of the game Beck has built his own audience in his own time slot.

 

[dustintv]

I was just thinking about this again...

On the West Coast, where Rush airs 9 am to 12 noon, he has local lead ins from morning drive programs on nearly all - if not all - stations.  In the East, some stations do have local-live shows in the late morning period but most air syndicated shows - most often, Glenn Beck.  If a station does have a strong local show in late mornings before Rush at noon, most likely they would move the current show into Rush's midday slot and bring in a new show in late mornings (as happened in Wilmington, DE when Clear Channel bought a station and pulled Rush from the station that was carrying him).

For the record, here are the current syndicated conservative talk options:

TO LEAD INTO RUSH:

    * Glenn Beck (Premiere)
    * Laura Ingraham (TRN)
    * Neal Boortz (Dial Global 10am-1pm)
    * Dennis Miller (WW1 10am-1pm)
    * Mike Gallagher (Salem)
    * G. Gordon Liddy (Radio America 10am-1pm)
    * Brian and the Judge (Fox News)
  


TO REPLACE RUSH

    * Fred Thompson (WW1 - 12pm-2pm only)
    * Dennis Praeger (Salem)
    * Michael Smerconish (Dial Global)
    * Jim Sumpter (IRN-USA)
    * G. Gordon Liddy (Radio America - Re-feed)
    * Mike Gallagher (Salem - Re-feed)
    * Neal Boortz (Dial Global- Re-feed)

 

[gr8oldies]

None of the above would be adequate. More than likely there would be a bunch of new launches.

 

[David67]

I like Rush,but how would talk radio have evolved if Rush hadn't made it Nationally?