Curtain Coming Down For The Fat Man On Radio? Probably Not

While his show doesn't sound quite like an NPR station yet, almost 100 advertisers have pulled the plug on sponsoring Limbaugh since he went on his latest deranged tirade, part of his never-ending misogynistic hate speech. On Wednesday, Ad Age reported that of 69 spots on his 3 hour program, "more than half were public service announcements." And even one of the organizations getting free PSAs, the American Heart Association, says they want no part of Limbaugh. "It is our practice," says spokesperson Matthew Bannister, "to be a content-sensitive advertiser, and in light of the current controversy, we will be asking [Cumulus-owned] WABC to no longer utilize these unpaid PSAs."

Worse yet for Limbaugh-- and other hate talk radio misfits whose sole appeal is to grumpy, bigoted old men-- advertisers and radio executives are realizing that women buy a lot of stuff.

Clear Channel-owned Inside Radio has a (VERY) unscientific online survey that shows everything's coming up roses for Clear Channel's biggest and most drug-addicted star.

Cable TV talking heads and newspaper columnists have taken their shots at Rush Limbaugh all week long. But ask broadcasters for their take and you’ll get a much different response. More than a third (36%) thinks the controversy will blow over and advertisers will come back to Limbaugh’s show.

"When the dust settles, trust me, they’ll be back; they just don’t want to be in the middle of the storm," says one reader. Few poll respondents expect the pressure by Limbaugh’s critics to last. "A sustained effort to shut him down will lose momentum," one broadcaster predicts. It was the pullback by some advertisers that generated the vast majority of comments, most critical of their decision. "The advertisers are lily-livered chickens and are losing by leaving," was a pretty typical comment. One-in-five (22%) think the brouhaha will help re-energize Limbaugh and his core fan base. One reader says, "This is what he’s about-- secretly it’s what we like about him: he ruffles feathers.”

While Rush has been a hot topic on talk shows, the internet and social media, nearly three-in-ten (28%) of Inside Radio readers think the controversy won’t have a long-term impact. One reader writes, "Jocks and talk show hosts have been saying things like this or worse for 30 years and most of the time there are no long term effects."

Among those responding to our unscientific, online survey, there were those who think Limbaugh could be hurt by the controversy. One-in-five (22%) said it will further narrow the list of potential advertisers willing to buy his show. Nearly as many (17%) think he could see his overall political influence weakened. Says one reader, "I think it will energize women and will hopefully force more advertisers to back away from his crudeness."

A popular thread among the dozens of comments was the thought that broadcasters should have stepped forward and defended Limbaugh’s free speech rights more aggressively. "This is Rush’s ‘Imus’ moment and it shows that free speech is under attack,” one reader writes. Lots of broadcasters also subscribe to the "no publicity is bad publicity” school of thought. "Who in the business didn’t get this is a huge Rush promotion-- he couldn’t buy attention like this,” one reader says.

One broadcaster adds, "For the record, we never received a single complaint call."

This morning, one of the top radio industry tip sheets, Taylor On Radio-Info, surveys the damage Limbaugh has inflicted on himself with his jihad against women. And it's spilling over to Hate Talk Radio in general.

Premiere is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments.” The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway). As you’ll see in the note below, those “environments” go beyond the Rush Limbaugh show –

"To all Traffic Managers: The information below applies to your Premiere Radio Networks commercial inventory. More than 350 different advertisers sponsor the programs and services provided to your station on a barter basis. Like advertisers that purchase commercials on your radio station from your sales staff, our sponsors communicate specific rotations, daypart preferences and advertising environments they prefer. . .They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity). Those are defined as environments likely to stir negative sentiment from a very small percentage of the listening public." That's the question, isn't it? How small is that percentage, and how long will this uproar last? And is there a long-term impact on talk radio as it's currently practiced?

I started working in radio-- if you can call it "work"-- when I was still in college. I played hippie music, mostly live tapes from the Fillmore that Bill Graham was sending me, from midnight to 4am on WUSB on Long Island. A decade later I took it up again-- in the late '70s-- to celebrate the forever revolution with punk rock on KSAN in San Francisco. Eventually I became a record company executive and radio became the main way we sold our music. I was never quite sure it worked-- unless you had a massive hit. It always worked when you had a massive hit. But now I'm always trying to figure how to use the Blue America PAC money most effectively. Cable TV, billboards, field operations, radio, newspaper ads, robo-calls... what works best? Friday, Arbitron released a study on radio formats' political reach. It is estimated that 50% of the $8 billion advertising budget for this year's campaign will be spent on radio and television. Over 200,000 people participated in this study. That's what you call a sample!

The study found that 38 percent of adults 18 and older identified themselves as Democrats (28 percent identified themselves as Democrats and 10 percent identified themselves as independents who lean Democrat). Also, 35 percent identified themselves as Republicans (25 percent identified themselves as Republicans and 10 percent identified themselves as independents who lean Republican). Ten percent of adults identified themselves as independent without leaning either Republican or Democrat and 18 percent did not identify themselves as Democrat, Republican or independent.

"The media landscape has grown increasingly complex since the 2008 election year and political candidates are looking for the most effective ways to reach voters," said Ron Rodrigues, Marketing Manager for Arbitron. "Radio's near universal reach of potential voters and its ability to target voting segments that mirror the national landscape through its various music and talk formats make it a highly effective platform for political campaigns. In addition to talk formatted stations, music formatted stations offer candidates the ability to reach a wider spectrum of voters and enhance 'Register to Vote' and 'Get Out the Vote' initiatives."

Some of the key findings of the study include:

• The format with the most listeners nationwide per week according to Scarborough, Adult Contemporary attracts slightly more Democrats than Republicans, 39 percent Democrat and 34 percent Republican respectively.

• Surprisingly, with the exception of Alternative Rock, all Rock-oriented radio formats attract more Republicans than Democrats. Classic Rock, Active Rock and Album Oriented Rock all attract more Republican listeners.

• All Urban and Spanish-language radio formats attract a decidedly higher number of Democrats versus Republicans.

• Gospel and Urban AC have the highest Democratic listener base, with 64 percent and 61 percent, respectively.


• Religious and News/Talk/ Information formats have the highest percentage of Republican listeners among popular radio formats. The Contemporary Christian format has the highest percentage of Republican listeners at 46 percent; News/Talk/ Information has a listener base of 44 percent Republicans.

• However, public radio tends to skew more Democratic. Public radio listeners who identify themselves as Democrats make up the audience while 32 percent of the audience identify with Republican ideologies.

• Country music, the format carried on the most stations nationally, skews more Republican than Democrat, with 41 percent of its listeners identifying themselves as Republicans. Only 32 percent of Country music radio listeners identify themselves as Democrats.

• The music formats with listeners who characterized themselves as frequent voters includes Album Adult Alternative, Classic Rock and Urban AC, all with more than 60 percent of listeners classified as frequent voters.

I can't believe rock fans have turned into Republicans! No... I can. I guess I knew it was inevitable ever since I met Sammy Hagar and Alice Cooper. But not these guys...