Is the end of conservative talk radio nigh?

I've listened on occasion, but not that much. I'm not in the truck when he is on. He is mostly entertainment. Part of the reason conservative talking heads are popular on the radio is because the mainstream media is virtually all liberal, and someone has to give out the counter-point to all their disinformation.

I really wish the press was still like the old press....wanting to get the truth out, regardless of party. Now they are mostly tools of the democrat party.

I searched that Talker's site to see if they archive older talk radio ratings but I couldn't find anything. That way we could see if Limbaugh has lost much audience in the last year or so.

From what I recall, I think it's more of a matter of Hannity starting to eat into Limbaugh's numbers. I think Hannity used to have about 4 million weekly listeners a few years ago.

I suppose we could just save a copy of the May 2013 numbers and see how things look 6 months to a year from now. That is if anyone really cares about it...

The number that is important is NOT "number of listeners", or "ratings"....It's ADVERTISER REVENUE....And it's dropping...a lot...And the network is saying so...LOUDLY.

LadyJazzer wrote: The number that is important is NOT "number of listeners"....It's ADVERTISER REVENUE....And it's dropping...a lot...And the network is saying so...LOUDLY.

Except the original post was more about numbers than revenue...

It appears that Rush and his ilk are going the way of the dinosaurs.

In general, the more listeners you have, the higher the revenue. But there is one factor that advertisers look for and that is the 25-54 year old "sweet spot" target demo. They are the ones who purchase the most junk so advertisers will pay extra for that demo.

So if conservative talk radio doesn't have many listeners in that age range, and/or fewer women, then that would probably effect revenue more than anything other than number of listeners.

But even if you have an older audience which is mostly male, that can still be targeted to certain advertisers depending on their products.

Insert old white guy slams here______________________________________.

The funny thing is when I listen to liberal talk radio, the advertisers seem to be pretty much the same ones as for conservative talk radio. But I don't listen that much to either of them.

The point is that some people listen to Rush for "comedic relief"...He's funnier than the "Comedy Channel" on XM/Sirius radio. But if you listen to him, to get your daily ration of laughs, and you don't buy products that he advertises because he ticks you off, then the assumption that "generally, the more listeners, the higher the revenue" is a fantasy.

Ask the folks at Snapple... They dropped him because he was killing their business, just by the association.

Good point about the old age demographics. I have noticed the ads on the 5:30 network news also tend to focus on old people products like prostate medications etc.

With so many alternatives out there now like podcasts, the old days of 3 networks and a couple of big time talk show hosts are over. I can pick what shows I like that fit my views and play them when I want. Narrowcasting, not broadcasting. So maybe Rush is no longer a 900 pound gorilla, maybe only a 300 pound chimp.

Yep... The GOTP is running out of "old, angry white guys" (per Lindsey Graham)... And after spending $10 million for a report to tell them what they already knew, they're about to shoot themselves in the foot again with the Immigration bill... Gotta love it...

Oh, and a few months ago, when I was still counting on a daily basis: "The count of lost advertisers is up to 29 this morning... And the bands "Rush" and the artist "Peter Gabriel" have served him with cease-and-desist orders to stop using their music."

I can't remember if the number of 29 lost advertisers included Snapple... I don't think so; because Snapple dropped him several years before that...

So Rush still has hundreds more advertizers than his nearest liberal competition? And still makes million of more dollars than Ed and Alan?

Might be worrying too much about the old guard when up and comers like Dennis Miller are expanding. Radio hosts who tend to still be fiscal conservatives but social libertarians.

The Snapple relationship with Limbaugh ended back in 1994, when his show was probably at it's peak. They advertised on Howard Stern too. So I assume they were in it more for the huge audiences rather than politics. But they did face false rumors about being associated with the KKK and Operation Rescue. There is speculation that may of been due to advertising on Limbaugh's show, but there is no proof.

http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/snapple.asp

Here is a funny story told by a union guy who doesn't like Limbaugh and tried to boycott Snapple from union meetings.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/13/limbaugh-and-the-great-snapple-war/

He does make good point's about Limbaugh's audience numbers, though, not that 15 million listen to his show all at once...

And if you don’t think 14-15 million regular listeners is a significant audience, just look at what the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the total number of labor union members in the U.S. to be. As of 2011, it’s 14.8 million. Those are Limbaugh numbers.

One wonders what the political landscape would look like without Limbaugh. Arguably, with fourteen million people needing to find another braying jackass to serve as their mentor, his absence would have a salutary effect. But Limbaugh ain’t going anywhere. All this fuss about sponsors jumping ship is misleading. With 14-15 million potential consumers waiting to be preached to, there will always be advertisers.

I'm not arguing one way or another...I'm just saying that if you're using "ratings", that has nothing to do with the numbers that are important., (which is ADVERTISER REVENUE).. There will always be listeners for his brand of filth because there will always be bigots and low-intelligence haters.

End of conservative talk-radio?...I doubt it... But it is nice to see his network screaming to anyone who will listen that they are losing business because of him. Losing business over a long period of time is ultimately going to have an impact. Not to me, because the only way I find out about his garbage is in the posted excerpts that show how out of touch he is with reality.