A Challenge to Rush: Prove Your Ratings---"His audience is a myth. He is a paper tiger."

[kpete]

Cenk Uygur Host of The Young Turks
A Challenge to Rush: Prove Your Ratings

How many listeners does Rush Limbaugh have? Well, in the press there are only two numbers you'll ever see -- 20 million or 15 million. Those are large numbers, so that is why Limbaugh is taken seriously and is believed to be influential.

...............

But one thing is for sure -- he's hurt, dog! That's why we see the unprecedented apology from him on Sandra Fluke. When this controversy first broke, I predicted on our show that more advertisers would drop him (at the time, only two had). Advertisers are much more likely to drop a controversial guy if his numbers are already down. They'll ride it out if he's still delivering the goods. This is the same thing that happened to Imus. His ratings were miserable already, so advertisers didn't have enough incentive to stick with him when trouble arose.

So, Rush is in big trouble now as more and more advertisers peel off. He's in a tail spin. Why else would you triple down on the "slut" comments from Wednesday to Friday and then issue an apology on Saturday? He has over-reached (in his offensive comments) and undelivered (in his ratings). That's a lethal combo.

But Rush can easily prove me wrong. So, I'm issuing a challenge to him -- show us your ratings. He won't do it because he's embarrassed by them. He has never produced evidence of his ratings and he certainly won't do it now. In fact, I'll make a Mitt Romney like wager. I'll give him $10,000 if he can show us his 20 million listeners.

THE REST!!!:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/rush-limbaugh-ratings_b_1320144.html

[Richardo]

1. Pretty compelling logic

nicely done, cenk.

[Rincewind]

2. I heard years ago,

I can't remember where, that Pigboy's ratings are based on listeners times hours. In other words, one million listeners per hour, times 15 hours of his program per week equals 15 million listeners. Since a lot of his listeners listen to all three hours, every day his program is on, his total audience is much smaller than his "ratings" would indicate.

[TalkingDog]

7. And if Clear Channel/Bain forces it's affiliates to run the show....

there's nothing to say anybody is listening at all.

[Vadem]

3. Cenk has $10,000 to gamble on a bet??? WoW! n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. Romney will back it up, if rush keeps supporting frothy.

[madokie]

10. Cenk is a smart guy and knows he is safe in this bet

I don't do much tv but the few times I've watched him I was/am impressed.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Every potential listener in the markets carrying Rush are counted as listeners.

The metric used is not in any way accurate or even based in reality.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. A quick looksee found he lost a third of his audience...

in the period from October '10 to May '11. That still left him as #1 on the radio with a 3 share according to Arbitron. Hannity was #2, but his numbers went down by 28% in that same period.

Notice that time period-- right around the election of '10 he lost a boatload of listeners, and it's tough to tell if he regained any due to Obama Derangement Syndrome, or lost even more because he's an asshole on the wrong side of history.

Until the next public Arbitron comment, anyway. Arbitron has its flaws, but is still the best way to judge radio audiences. It costs big bucks to get those numbers, though, and not everyone who wants to can get them. They may come out with some public numbers again sometime soon.

You could try signing up for their free service at www.arbitron.com and see how much you get, just like Cenk could've. But, although Cenk probably has access to the numbers already, anyone looking at them has to agree not to repeat them.

[longship]

9. Huge Cenk fan here

Is Cenk great? "Of COURRRSE!"

That guy is as entertaining and insightful as any of our friends in the media. He can put on a good rage one minute and get serious and calm the next. All this in an apparently unscripted format. He's quite the artist.

[exboyfil]

11. He is on during the middle of the day when most folks

have jobs that don't allow them to listen to radio. I could not imagine what my employer would say if I was listening to anything while I worked even music. We are not allowed to have headphones to listen to music. My office is pretty typical.

If you work with your mind, trying to listen to a broadcast and devote full attention to your work is very difficult (really impossible for most). Even individuals with technical trades should really be focussing on their task and not trying not to follow a conversation.

I got to suspect his biggest listeners are those who drive a significant amount of time for their occupation like truck drivers. I can't think he would be particularly popular with mail carriers. I know of some who catch him at lunch.

Retirees? College students? What other demographics?

[lunatica]

12. .