Quote:
Originally Posted by Delahanty
Lol, so much for Media Matters musings earlier this year that Limbaughs's radio future looked bleak. They also missed the mark about his ratings, which continue to grow, particularly among the coveted demographics.
It's another long-term contract, too (his last one spanned 8 years). If he's happy, we're happy!
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The 'coveted demographics'? That's a hoot.
iHeart is hemorrhaging money. The corporation is huge, for sure, but it has already sold off some of its plum assets, mostly their largest radio stations, and they're having real trouble selling all the small market stations that comprise most of their portfolio.
Premiere Broadcasting, a division of iHeart, isn't making a profit either, but it is one of the very few assets iHeart has to sell programming independently of their station ownership.
There are still a lot of independently owned radio stations, and many more small corporately owned stations; the corporations typically own around 10 or less little mom & pops, each serving small communities, and often the only station
In town. Individually, few of these stations is very profitable, but when combined, the listenership is enough for the corporation to attract some of the big national advertisers who still spend heavily on radio ads.
Since all radio is cheaper than TV, radio also catches all the companies that are like the late-night ads we see on TV, except smaller. The Miracle Cure, Get Rich Quick, and the Kitchen Gizmo bunch. Too poor for Primetime on TV, but wealthy enough for Drivetime radio.
Live programming costs more money than a taped service, no matter what the programming is. So keeping nationally known talent like Limbaugh is more urgent for iHeart than ever. They're going to go under eventually, but they want the best deal on their small stations as they can get when they do.
Those small towns are all growing old as the kids move away for greater opportunity elsewhere. Lots of them are shrinking as fast as iHeart's finances.
The most desirable radio demographic on radio has always been young women, age 15 to 35. They have always bought the most stuff that is advertised on radio, but now, with the prevalence of cell phones, they are also the first to abandon listening to radio, and the advertisers go where they go.
The internet ads are even cheaper than the radio ads. The same money radio costs can be shotgunned all over the hot spots on the internet, and as they change, the ads can go with the new hot spots instantly.
Rush's audience is elderly white men. The guys who live in the small towns who don't use the internet. Some don't even get cable TV. They are the ones who have been listening to Limbaugh for decades, and now, they are retired or close to it. Most are (or were) blue collar workers.
This demographic buys the least amount of advertised goods of all, and has always been at the bottom of the demographic pile.
iHeart, Premiere, and Limbaugh all know this very well. Rush's massive contract that was written 2 years ago was thought to be capable in late 2012 to be able to plug the hole in the ****, along with Hannity, their 2 biggest attractions, but both have failed, and Sean Hannity didn't cost nearly as much as Limbaugh.
Limbaugh is so deaf now that he can't hear anything without his implants, and he can't hear the live call-ins, which were always the backbone of his career. So nowadays, everything he says is a long string of whatever comes into his mind, and he never knows if anything is landing like intended. So he rambles and rambles, hoping to say something that has the impact it once did.
Even his long time followers are giving him up now. He's become the preacher to speaks too long and loses his followers.
You can take it to the bank this contract is both far less money and for a shorter term.
EIB, Rush's little mini-network, is a one-man show, and Rush cant pitch his show to a station owner he can't hear, so he has to depend on Premiere.
They're both stuck on the same sinking ship, and all the lifeboats left years ago.
Nobody in the radio biz expects either to go under quickly, but the ship they're on is like the Titanic. It's going under slowly, but nothing can save it now. Don't expect your favorite Rush station to be around when it does.
The frequencies they broadcast on are now more valuable for use on 2-way radios than they are as radio stations. So the Rush show and everything else will go to ambulance services, city and county law enforcement, civic emergency outfits, and all the other places where 2-way communication is critical and is currently way over-crowded.
That's why all the television stations went digital. That opened up a lot of sideband frequencies, but not enough to meet the growing need on that part of the broadcast spectrum. Radio is the only place left that's now taking too much of that band up. Sooner or later, any radio station that exists will be going digital, and going to the sidebands that are just lower than TV frequencies.
And AM radio broadcast will be gone forever. It's all going to happen in the next half-decade or sooner, depending on how fast some of our big cities continue to grow.
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