Depends on what the calls are about.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
WRKO dropping Rush
- Thread starter Deleted User
- Start date
Depends on what the calls are about.
Rush Limbaugh's show is just a shadow of what it used to be. Once it used to be funny and light-hearted. Now is it just the same stuff recycled over and over again. Has Rush had a new idea in the last ten years?
I am conservative but haven't listened to him for a long long time, it is too boring. His hearing problems certainly haven't helped either.
I am conservative but haven't listened to him for a long long time, it is too boring. His hearing problems certainly haven't helped either.
I remember hearing him the first time...and he was a riot...with all the "updates" he used to do, etc.
I think somewhere along the line he started to take himself too seriously.
...but they are totally symbolic. He's been deaf to any opinions other than his own for as long as I can remember.
RKO new morning show now probable for mid June
Shouldn't the debut of the new RKO AMD offering, necessitating a move for Kuhner, coincide with the expiration of Rush's contract with RKO?
(I can't believe how Rush is being kicked to the curb here by many posters. I've been listening to him for the past five years or so and enjoy his broadcasts.)
RKO might be able to get out of Rush contract a couple weeks or so early but if not they can have Kuhner maybe temp. be part of new morning show then he moves to the noon
slot. Not sure how the boston.com people would feel about it, but...
slot. Not sure how the boston.com people would feel about it, but...
I believe Rush's slot is going to Kuhner when the latter vacates the AMD slot to make room for the boston.com offering.
But V.B. would make a much better noon-to-3 host on WMEX than what they're now considering, don't you agree?
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Had not consolidation happened, there would be more owners in each market and there might have been additional opportunities for Rush. But what's done is done, and stick a fork in Limbaugh ... he's done.
I don't think ownership or consolidation has anything to do with this situation. It would just mean more owners who'd say no.
Is Rush gone from RKO after tomorrow? Not sure but Tom Taylor says so...\\from Tom Taylor Now
>>The situation in Boston where Entercom’s talk WRKO (680) is dropping Rush tomorrow galvanizes former iHeart corporate talk programmer Darryl Parks – who’s ready to enlighten you about what affiliates really pay. Darryl blogs that “WRKO is paying around $500,000 in rights fees” to Limbaugh syndicator Premiere Networks. He figures ’RKO “also provides approximately 3,900 barter commercial minutes annually, which if valued at just $150 per 60-secinds is another $585,000 in cash they’re giving up. And there’s the Rush Limbaugh Morning Update, which takes on another 780 minutes annually for another $117,000.” Tote it all, up and Darryl calculates that having Limbaugh has cost WRKO about $1.2 million a year. Darryl, without citing sources, offers estimates of what some other big-market affiliates are paying in cash compensation - $300,000 for Minneapolis affiliate KTLK (1130) and $150,000 for Tampa’s WFLA (970). The thing about those stations is that they’re already in the iHeart family – but they’re required to pay cash and run the barter spots, too. (That’s “vertical integration,” explains Darryl.) Emmis has been paying an estimated $150,000 a year to have Rush on Indy-market talker WIBC (93.1), and it’s dropping him.
..Entercom’s WRKO (680) is saying goodbye, and yesterday’s Boston Globe says rival talker WMEX (1510) “will pass on Rush and go instead with a new lineup meant to bring more humor and local coverage to conservative talk radio in Boston.” Daly XXL Communications has an LMA-to-buy with Blackstrap-owned WMEX, and its Mary Catherine Remmer says “Rush has been offered to us four times and we’ve said no.” Syndicator Premiere continues to point out that Rush, a dominant force in talk radio since the late 1980s, “is heard in every measured market in America.” But replacing lost affiliates in Boston (WRKO) and Indianapolis (WIBC) may take time, and the show will likely roost on lesser facilities.
Darryl Parks
http://darrylparks.com/2015/05/27/the-business-of-being-rush-limbaugh/
>>The situation in Boston where Entercom’s talk WRKO (680) is dropping Rush tomorrow galvanizes former iHeart corporate talk programmer Darryl Parks – who’s ready to enlighten you about what affiliates really pay. Darryl blogs that “WRKO is paying around $500,000 in rights fees” to Limbaugh syndicator Premiere Networks. He figures ’RKO “also provides approximately 3,900 barter commercial minutes annually, which if valued at just $150 per 60-secinds is another $585,000 in cash they’re giving up. And there’s the Rush Limbaugh Morning Update, which takes on another 780 minutes annually for another $117,000.” Tote it all, up and Darryl calculates that having Limbaugh has cost WRKO about $1.2 million a year. Darryl, without citing sources, offers estimates of what some other big-market affiliates are paying in cash compensation - $300,000 for Minneapolis affiliate KTLK (1130) and $150,000 for Tampa’s WFLA (970). The thing about those stations is that they’re already in the iHeart family – but they’re required to pay cash and run the barter spots, too. (That’s “vertical integration,” explains Darryl.) Emmis has been paying an estimated $150,000 a year to have Rush on Indy-market talker WIBC (93.1), and it’s dropping him.
..Entercom’s WRKO (680) is saying goodbye, and yesterday’s Boston Globe says rival talker WMEX (1510) “will pass on Rush and go instead with a new lineup meant to bring more humor and local coverage to conservative talk radio in Boston.” Daly XXL Communications has an LMA-to-buy with Blackstrap-owned WMEX, and its Mary Catherine Remmer says “Rush has been offered to us four times and we’ve said no.” Syndicator Premiere continues to point out that Rush, a dominant force in talk radio since the late 1980s, “is heard in every measured market in America.” But replacing lost affiliates in Boston (WRKO) and Indianapolis (WIBC) may take time, and the show will likely roost on lesser facilities.
Darryl Parks
http://darrylparks.com/2015/05/27/the-business-of-being-rush-limbaugh/
Would they offer the show to WCRN Worcester-Boston with studios now in Westborough and pull it from WTAG in Worcester? At least it would give Premeire an illusion of a Boston radio home. This scenario would probably be better than being on an AM radio station in suburban Boston that no one has even thought about in a long time.
Although WCRN's audience numbers aren't great they would be better than no outlet at all serving Boston and / or one of the small suburban AM stations starting from scratch.
Although WCRN's audience numbers aren't great they would be better than no outlet at all serving Boston and / or one of the small suburban AM stations starting from scratch.
Interesting idea; not sure if they'd go for it. Cost of show based on market size etc and could CRN afford him...more to the point, would they sell enough ad time to justify it?
Meanwhile, this tidbit from 2008. "How times have changed..."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121504302144124805
>>July 3, 2008
Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh Wednesday inked an eight-year contract for around $400 million, underscoring how radio is spending big sums on bankable talent to compete in the crowded entertainment field. Mr. Limbaugh's compensation of $38 million a year, plus a signing bonus of about $100 million is less in absolute terms than the five-year, $500 million contract Howard Stern cut in 2004 with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. But Mr. Limbaugh's contract could net him more, as Mr. Stern must pay costs for his cast and production.
>>It's a big jump from Mr. Limbaugh's last contract, which at $285 million was a record for a radio personality when he signed it in 2001. Since then, the weekly audience for his three-hour midday show has held steady at about 20 million listeners, according to his syndicator, Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s Premiere Radio Networks. But advertisers are increasingly anxious to reach that audience.
Meanwhile, this tidbit from 2008. "How times have changed..."
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121504302144124805
>>July 3, 2008
Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh Wednesday inked an eight-year contract for around $400 million, underscoring how radio is spending big sums on bankable talent to compete in the crowded entertainment field. Mr. Limbaugh's compensation of $38 million a year, plus a signing bonus of about $100 million is less in absolute terms than the five-year, $500 million contract Howard Stern cut in 2004 with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. But Mr. Limbaugh's contract could net him more, as Mr. Stern must pay costs for his cast and production.
>>It's a big jump from Mr. Limbaugh's last contract, which at $285 million was a record for a radio personality when he signed it in 2001. Since then, the weekly audience for his three-hour midday show has held steady at about 20 million listeners, according to his syndicator, Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s Premiere Radio Networks. But advertisers are increasingly anxious to reach that audience.
If Rush's contract finishes at end of June maybe they could launch Kuhner at noon mid June and put last 2 wks of Rush at night.,otherwise they'd be introducing Kuhner at a time,first wk of July,when many are on vacation
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
I did say "might". I didn't say "would".
I did say "might". I didn't say "would".
I don't even agree with the word "might." If you read Tom Taylor's article on the subject, I have no reason to believe that having more owners with fewer stations MIGHT lead to more opportunities for stations to pay $500K in rights fees plus an additional $500K in inventory.
This is a money issue. More owners means less money to spend. With the decline in ratings for AM talk, you're going to see fewer stations willing to make those kinds of deals. Rush is going to have to reinvent his deal to fit with the current economy. It's cheaper to hire someone locally. The loss of two major affiliates is a wake-up call.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Even then, how long before old Rushbo ends up on a network of smaller stations with less than full market coverage? I can see a lowering (or elimination) of the cash payment making him attractive to those, but if you were a major market talk station and saw Rush's numbers declining (and taking you down with him) would you stick with it on a 100% barter basis or drop him?
It was a rhetorical question, A, but feel free to answer anyway.
- Status