How Rush built his radio empire.....

[WCGreen]

BAck in the 80's, back when there were still mom and pop radio stations, think WKRP, Rush and his supporters thought of a brilliant plan to nationalize what was a local radio show...

They discovered that a lot of these small stations were clamoring for programing in the afternoon...

The only problem was that it was becoming cost prohibitive to have talent on the air, especially during the least listened to part of the day...

The EIB put together a package that went something like this; we will give you our show for free if you agree to let us, meaning EIB, take say 5 of the 10 commercial breaks...

That way, the station could get an intern from the local broadcasting school to operate the board for minimum wage and still make money by selling those five ad parts...

This all coincided nicely with the elimination of the equal time policy by the FEC...

As soon as they attracted the tipping point of stations, say 150-200, they could go after some of the large national accounts...

FOr instance, Snappe was a big and early supporter of Rush...

It wasn't until the late 80's and early 90's that Rush started to appear in the large markets...

Then, Rush and his allies, pushed hard for deregulation of the airwaves and protected their product by dominating with a 20 million plus audience and hooking up with large conglomerates such as Clear Channel....

The only problem for Rush is that he is not attraction any new people to his show... In fact, he is not even dominating the air waves as literally hundreds of mini Rushes have flooded the market...

The good news is all of these "shows" as well as Faux News are competing for a dwindling audience... And Clear Channel is losing money on it's broadcasting division... A new day could very well be dawning for a truly balanced presentation of news and views...

[LTR]

1. Sounds about right

At the time Rush went national, many AM stations were getting out of music formats. The rise of FM actually killed quite a few AM stations. Some even went off the air permanently, never to return.

For programming, they had to do something, and talk was really the only option left. Along comes Rush, offering his show on a barter basis (as you described) and voila! The rest is history.

And you're right about his show peaking. No way will it rise to the level of listeners it once had.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted sub-thread

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[Riddler]

8. To this day, I won't buy any Snapple products because I still associate them with pimple-ass

And Lush should thank his lucky stars that Bill Clinton won in '92 or he wouldn't have had the central rallying figure for the far right wing whack-jobs and Pavlovian dogs his hatred appeals to.

[Nomad559]

10. If you enjoy

snapple beverages, drink them.

Rush Is also a Mac user, should people stop using Macs?

:)

[silverojo]

17. They should stop using Macs

If they want to actually do anything with their computers, LOL.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Your post gives a very nice historical perspective......

Lots of info concisely put.........

On edit: K&R...

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Richard Steele]

13. What pics are you speaking of? nm

[snowbear]

14. Me thinks our new friend is hallacinating...

I'll be damned if I see her pics... http://eliteleague.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/duh!.gif

[Richard Steele]

15. Or hinting that he's web-stalking our fellow DUer? Vaguely THREATENING, no?

It's just a bizarre & CREEPY comment. I alerted on it.

[Binka]

18. I Alerted Too

Obvious man is getting on my last nerve.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

20. .

Me three. I normally don't post about it, but this poster is so lame and mosquito annoying that I felt compelled. MKJ

[snowbear]

3. On Dec. 11th, Big Eddie moves to the SAME time slot as Limpballs across the U.S. and the reason.....

.... that Jones Radio Network is moving the program to Druggie's time slot, is because Big Eddie's ratings are so much HIGHER than Limpballs in Miami, NYC, Denver, Seattle, and a host of other cities.. (More and more all the time) ~~


Jones Radio Network is incredibly stoked about competing with the racist druggie!!!

Eddie took a lot of flak (initially) when the Jones Radio Network hired the same PR dude who made Limpballs famous, but hey... it evidently turned out to be a shrewd move? :shrug:

Congrats to Big Ed!! ~~~ ~~~


Since Druggie Loserballs is tape-delayed on Armed Forces Radio Network, they'll still =BOTH= be aired on the AFRN schedule. Good thing because Big Ed enjoys a huge amount of support from the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan ~~ :patriot:

[LTR]

6. I, for one, believe liberal hosts/syndicators should enlist proven radio people

One of the main reasons AAR has had problems is that they didn't really go after proven radio people to help run it. And it doesn't matter if these people worked in conservative radio. In fact, I'd consider that a plus. The true successful radio people don't give a shit about politics. They just want to succeed. This is one reason I've been hoping for Randy Michaels (who owns Ed Schultz' show along with Schultz and Stu Crane, who was one of the people behind Rush Lowbrow) to buy them. Michaels has had a lot of success in radio, and even built up one of the most successful radio station owners in the country with Jacor back in the 90's before selling it to Clear Channel.

Imagine if AAR was bought by a radio guy who knows what the hell he's doing. I think that would scare the living shit out of the wingnuts. Even more than some well-heeled liberal who would just throw money at it.

[Common Sense Party]

9. Where can one even FIND radio ratings for different markets?

I keep trying to find how different shows do in different markets, but I never have any luck finding accurate numbers.

[snowbear]

16. Radio ratings...

I know that Arbitron and Neilson are both companies that collects that data..

Arbitron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitron ) is a huge research corp. for radio, but they've had kind of a shady reputation for the imbalanced manner in which they've been collecting the data. Evidently, they're in the middle of changing their system.

Besides Arbitron and Neilson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Media_Research ) I'm not sure who collects radio listening trend data.. but maybe if Fighting Irish drops back in, they'll know?

Billboard Magazine has the ratings listed as soon as Arbitron or Neilson release them.. And you have to be careful reading the info off of blogs, because there's some real wacked out rightie blogs that often skew the info for progressive radio..

We have a LOT of DU'ers who are in radio.. so with any luck, they'll drop in later with much more info!

[LTR]

19. You can find overall numbers here

http://www.radioandrecords.com/radiomonitor/ratings/index.jsp

Be warned that these are just overall ratings (all people 12+). The good numbers are the ones that Arbitron sells to subscribers (stations, clients, etc). They include breakdowns by gender, age group, daypart, county and others, and are rarely published to the public. Therefore, many people, including the wingnuts, skew overall numbers to fit their purposes, when these numbers are really only about bragging rights.

Case in point are the all-sports stations. They often do terrible in overall ratings, but are highly sought after by advertisers wanting to specifically target the type of audience that listens to it (males). WFAN in New York is a good example. They're way down in the middle of the pack in the overall ratings, but they bring in more revenue than probably any other station in the country. They are huge in demographic breakdowns of male listeners.

[eagler]

5. I'd like to believe you're right BUT

Rush's coverage over the huge middle part of the country is still virtually unchallenged and if they see any opening in the democratic agenda they will become a whole lot more popular because without the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE the rightwingers can say anything they so desire,and the funny thing is some people actually listen to that flatheaded moronic scumbag twit and hannity and all the rest. We need the Fairness Doctrine !

[snowbear]

7. Wingnuts are terrified b'cas Democrats (MAJORITY) plan to deal w/ Fairness Doctrine...

If you don't believe me, pull up any of the countless articles covering the topic.

Do a Google search using the keywords Fairness Doctrine Democrats under the LATEST news.

The SOB's are pissing in their Depends; freaking out that Limpballs, Prager, and the other idiots are on the way OUT.

Don't forget who controls both houses of Congress starting next month!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

21. I know, it's a beautiful thing. The MINORITY is this country has controlled the MSM noise machine.

They have nothing left but to get lounder and shriller.

Time to wrest control and let the voices of the MAJORITY of Americans be heard! MKJ

[WCGreen]

12. Even though unchallenged, he still is not increasing his

share of the market...

If he can't increase, the sponsors will start to look elsewhere...

[Morgana LaFey]

22. it wasn't equal time

It was the Fairness Doctrine. Look it up. NOT equal time, not even close.

[WCGreen]

23. I know, but most stations, back in the olden days, tried to

present both sides of an issue...

Those that did not want to even deal with the fairness doctrine did not present opinions...

In name, yes it was the Fairness Doctrine, but in reality, it was equal time...

So yes, I guess I was pretty close...

You, can look it up....

[Morgana LaFey]

26. NO IT WASN'T EQUAL TIME - quit saying that.

and yes, I'm yelling. Equal time means 1 hour of this then 1 hour of that side. In practice, it could be 20 hours of this side and 1 MINUTE of that side.

Those stations that didn't present other sides of a controversial subject were required to grant some access to "responsible" parties or individuals who complained to present the side they felt had been short-shrifted.

That time could be as little as about a minute, aired (in the case of TV) at 5 or 6 am in the morning!

It was probably a bit better on most radio stations, but I'm not sure of that.

Nevertheless, it kept stations from being overly one-sided in their presentations, because they didn't want the hassle and they for sure didn't want challenges to their licenses if they didn't comply.

NOT EQUAL TIME, no where close. Stop thinking it, stop saying it.

And please, educate yourself, okay?

[Eric J in MN]

24. There is no "EIB."

"Excellence in Broadcasting network" is just a phrase Rush Limbaugh uses on the air.

There isn't an actual company with that name.

[WCGreen]

25. I know that but it was better than saying a mess of guys around

Limbaugh....