Rush Limbaugh – Fake Callers, Fake Audience

[Fearless]

"Limbaugh obtained the largest audience during an era when audience count was made by manually filled out diaries, a practice which has been slowly phased out over the past few years, as detailed electronic tracking became available. Once the detailed tracking was available, Rush’s ratings dropped significantly, by over a third. With an estimated weekly audience of 15 million users now, that comes to an average of less than 3,000 listeners per station, not very good ratings at all. For comparison, left-wing giant Ed Schultz on Jones Radio Network sports an estimated 8,000 listeners per station. To get these numbers, we took the totals given from Talkers Magazine and cross-referenced with the number of stations that carry each show. Rush is carried on over 10x as many stations as Big Eddie. Even though Rush’s overall listenership is high, the number per station is low."

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/07/11/limbaugh/


Also:

Rush Limbaugh's phony empire exposed
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/11/1108524/-Rush-Limbaugh-s-phony-empire-exposed?detail=hide

And:

Current TV’s Cenk Uygur Issues $10,000 Challenge To Rush Limbaugh: ‘Prove Your Ratings’
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/current-tvs-cenk-uygur-issues-10000-challenge-to-rush-limbaugh-prove-your-ratings/


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An interesting and illuminating read!

[The Magistrate]

1. Interesting Indeed, Sir

[Booster]

2. Fake host too.

[11 Bravo]

5. But the man boobs are real!

[chervilant]

15. As is

the addiction to Hillbilly Heroin...

[Archae]

3. I remember reading an article about a survey of Rush listeners.

Most had the show on as "background noise" at work.

Others had the show on to "know the enemy."

Out of 10 listeners, 1 agreed with Rush.
That's all.

[freshwest]

6. Same thing with Faux, they inflate their viewer numbers with cable bundling.

[Archae]

8. Satellite too.

My Mom got a "bundle" for her satellite dish, she got it mainly for the Encore Westerns channel.

Faux "news" was included, MSNBC is not.

She has tons of shopping, religious and sports channels she never watches too.

[freshwest]

10. What's disgusting is she's having to pay for it, too. I dropped everything but TWC and SCAN.

[alphafemale]

20. I heard they counted people as listeners even if they were Involuntarily Exposed

At work or in a place of business.

[AzDar]

4. K & R

[tularetom]

7. Do the authors of this piece know something I don't?

They refer to limbaugh's four ex-wives. I thought his current wife was #4.

I realize it's just a matter of time until she gets tired of her job as a beard and takes a hike but I had no idea it had already happened.

Did I miss something.

[dmr]

17. I think I heard she left him recently. n/t

[greiner3]

22. Wasn't there that incident;

In the Dominican Republic when he got some young boy pregnant? The Dominican Republic is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and when the boy's parents heard about it they gave Rush a 'shotgun' wedding. This all came out when he was caught with the Viagara but the media focused on the drugs and overlooked this tidbit.

[tularetom]

25. I'm an old guy and the last time I got anybody pregnant was nearly 50 years ago

So I admit I may not be really up to date on the subject.

But I didn't know that it was now possible to get a boy pregnant. I guess evolution is happening at a faster pace now because of global climate change or something.

[PotatoChip]

27. Wait what?

"he got some young boy pregnant"

Ok, never mind. Your post very nearly whooshed right over my head until I reread it. Yikes!

Thanks for that greiner3.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Fearless.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Would this deception be considered fraud as far as Rush's rate for advertising?

[rurallib]

12. rate for what advertisers?

I think Angie's list is all that is left.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Good point. However, if I were the sponsor who spent big bucks

advertising in the past, based on fake audience numbers that over-rated my price for advertizing, I'd want to sue to get my money back.

[dmr]

18. Don't newspapers get in trouble if they

inflate their subscriptions?

[csziggy]

26. Angie's List advertises on Limbaugh?

If so, good info for the next time they call me to sign up. I can tell them I won't subscribe to any company that supports that blowhard!

[rurallib]

30. I listened to it one time about 3 weeks ago

and they seemed to be the only sponsor.

[csziggy]

33. Thanks - next time they call, I'll use that as my excuse for not signing up

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Rush offered his show for free to spread it around.

Station managers grabbed it because they were able to get three hours of air time filled at no cost and were told there was a built in audience of loyal listeners and local sponsors lined up to have their ads aired during the show. The ad buy in that time slot was considered premium.

Then the audience dropped off as the once proud "dittohead" label became synonymous with "brainwashed asshole".

Listen to the end of this clip from the Mike Malloy Show where they talk about Limbaugh and O'Reilly's radio numbers:

http://server4.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/MalloyMemories/Dixie_Chicked_by_the_vast_Right_Wing_Minority.mp3

[tanyev]

16. Like a virus.

[NewJeffCT]

19. The problem is, Rush is on a zillion stations

a few less than before, but still a ton...

[hobbit709]

21. Fits right in, he's a fake human.

[sofa king]

23. Unfortunately, not all listeners are created equal.

From a marketing perspective, Rush's right-wing authoritarians are a "solved" demographic. They are motivated by fear and uncertainty, can't think for themselves and rely upon authority figures to spoon-feed them their beliefs, have little empathy for others and are unconcerned with the negative consequences of their own behavior, and consider themselves to be somehow above those of us who do, um, think.

To marketers, that means all they have to do is shake the right voodoo doll on Rush's show and the listeners hand over their money. Just like their voting, they are consistently drawn to the things that are not in their own best interests. These are the chumps who greenlighted two tragically expensive wars and handed over their jobs, their wages, their pensions, their retirements, and their homes in order to keep themselves safe from the guy whose brother was watching the attack on the Pentagon with the President's father.

They're suckers, simply put, and they're almost certainly worth a lot more to advertisers than educated consumers are worth to them.

That, and Rush's disinformation and propaganda is worth so much to the GOP that they'd pay to float his crap even if it never turned a dime. But it sure does.

[Ligyron]

38. Well Said

"... rely upon authority figures to spoon-feed them their beliefs'..."

I'm hijacking that line for myself 'cause I've never heard it expressed any better anywhere.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. The only thing real about Limbaugh is the big man tits. nt

[Turbineguy]

28. Everything is fake

except the money.

[former9thward]

29. Someone's math is off here.

Every source I have seen, including Limbaugh's own web site, says he has 600 stations. 15 million divided by 600 is 25,000 not 3,000.

[pintobean]

31. It could be that

he's actually on 5000 stations, instead of 600.

No, I think you're right, the math is off.

[titaniumsalute]

32. I don't know much...but I do knwo something about radio ratings

I worked at Arbitron for 12 years and have a very in-depth knwoledge of how radio ratings work. The bottom line is this poster is kind of making ridiculous claims.

It is true that as Arbitron moved from diaries to electronic measurement that some talk radio (network and local) saw Average Quarter Hour ratings decline. However, many saw their overall audience numbers actually increased. How is this so? A rating takes two considerations. 1. How many people tuned in. 2. How long each person who tuned in listened.

The electronic measurement did a great job capturing people who tuned in for "light" listening. Arbitron found that the diary didn't do a great job reporting the "light" listeners. So the overall audience levels on many stations increaseed with electronic measurement.

Conversely, the electronic measurement also reduced the time people listened compared to the diary (in talk radio.) This made the AQH ratings decline.

Therefore...it certainly wasn't Rush's fault the measurement system changed. (As much as I hate the bloated gasbag.) To report Rush's average listener per station is not how radio ads are bought and sold so it really doesn't matter. Unfortunately Rush's audience and ratings are nationally significantly higher than Big Eddies. Of course if Big Eddie was on as many stations it is a good chance his ratings would be as high or higher than Rush's ratings.

[lpbk2713]

34. How many times must he be proved a liar before they remove him from Armed Forces Radio?

I never will get it. Having this POS on Armed Forces Radio
is just like giving regular air time to Goebels during WW-II.

[libodem]

35. Yes

Absolutely. Callers are plants.

[KharmaTrain]

36. I've Been Saying This For Years...

I've worked with Arbitron numbers and long ago knew that the numbers Rushbo and his sheeple use were bogus.

The truth is there hasn't been a real rating of Rushbo's show...EVER. The numbers were always guestimates based on the OVERALL ratings of the stations he was on vs. his actual daypart numbers. Say WABC in New York reaches an average of 100,000 people an hour...but usually the largest audience was always morning drive (now with Imus) and Afternoons...Rushbo's middays were always a "loss leader"...and by design.

Rushbo chose the midday daypart cause it was the easiest to operate in. It's one of the least crucial dayparts and Rushbo's satellite-delivered show was cheap programming for hundreds of stations. It was easier to hire a minimum wage "board monkey" to run the show than a local host and producer. Eventually the board monkey's job was replaced by computers. Since the overhead was low, any money rushbo brought in was considered a big gain...yet ratings and revenues on his little show never equalled those of major dayparts.

The "People Meter" has been devestating to hate radio...showing what people are actually listening to vs. the guestimates from the old dairy system. Still...the numbers of one listener is extrapolated and "filtered"...weighing some groups (blacks and Latinos) differently than whites...or suburban numbers higher than the city. PPM pissed off some broadcasters that they refuse to subscribe in some markets thus leaving current reports all jazzed up with no certainty to accuracy.

Kudos to Cenk and DKos for finally opening up this big lie and lets see if rushbo dares to address it. My bets are he tries hard to ignore it...or "shoot the messenger" with some red hearing about his detractors. One problem, Cenk...10gs to rushbo is like pocket change. See if Al Gore will up the ante...say to $1,000,000...and then see if Oxy boy bites...

[whopis01]

37. The numbers are not correct

Somehow they are concluding that he is on 5000 stations. That simply can not be true.

There are only about 1700 talk radio stations in the US.