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Radio News: Rush Limbaugh losing his grip on the nation's top talk stations
Jun 16, 2015 11:20 pm
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Rush Limbaugh in 2009, from Wikipedia.[/caption]iHeartMedia announced that on June 29 a Spanish language station that barely covers the Boston area is switching to a conservative talk format as “Talk 1430” WKOX. Why is this otherwise minor format change news? It is the latest slap-in-the-face for former talk radio king Rush Limbaugh. The 64-year-old Limbaugh has worked as a "DJ" or radio host since he was 16, and has been the leading talk radio voice almost ever since his national network launched out of WABC in 1988. But Limbaugh's days as the unanimous radio ratings king are ending. That Boston Spanish-language station is flipping to a conservative talk format just to give Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity a presence -- any presence -- in the country's tenth-biggest radio market. In Indianapolis, talk powerhouse WIBC has hosted Limbaugh’s radio show for more than twenty years, but just dropped the show. Now Limbaugh is on WNDE, a former AM sports station that has fewer listeners then a commercial-free classical music station in town. In December 2013 Cumulus Media dropped Limbaugh’s show from WABC in New York. Hannity and Limbaugh moved to WOR, owned by iHeart Media. That was after Limbaugh called activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" on his radio show. Since then advertisers and listeners have not been tuning in to Limbaugh in the same numbers as his heyday. Limbaugh himself seems to realize the media landscape has shifted beneath his feet, posting to Facebook earlier this year: "Now that I've outgrown the 25-54 demographic, I'm no longer confident that the way I see the world is the way everybody else does. I've gotten old enough now that there are younger people, generationally younger, who have an entirely different view, an entirely different experience."
Rush Limbaugh in 2009, from Wikipedia.[/caption]iHeartMedia announced that on June 29 a Spanish language station that barely covers the Boston area is switching to a conservative talk format as “Talk 1430” WKOX. Why is this otherwise minor format change news? It is the latest slap-in-the-face for former talk radio king Rush Limbaugh. The 64-year-old Limbaugh has worked as a "DJ" or radio host since he was 16, and has been the leading talk radio voice almost ever since his national network launched out of WABC in 1988. But Limbaugh's days as the unanimous radio ratings king are ending. That Boston Spanish-language station is flipping to a conservative talk format just to give Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity a presence -- any presence -- in the country's tenth-biggest radio market. In Indianapolis, talk powerhouse WIBC has hosted Limbaugh’s radio show for more than twenty years, but just dropped the show. Now Limbaugh is on WNDE, a former AM sports station that has fewer listeners then a commercial-free classical music station in town. In December 2013 Cumulus Media dropped Limbaugh’s show from WABC in New York. Hannity and Limbaugh moved to WOR, owned by iHeart Media. That was after Limbaugh called activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" on his radio show. Since then advertisers and listeners have not been tuning in to Limbaugh in the same numbers as his heyday. Limbaugh himself seems to realize the media landscape has shifted beneath his feet, posting to Facebook earlier this year: "Now that I've outgrown the 25-54 demographic, I'm no longer confident that the way I see the world is the way everybody else does. I've gotten old enough now that there are younger people, generationally younger, who have an entirely different view, an entirely different experience."