Rush Limbaugh Ratings Tumble (Down 33% since October)

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Rush Limbaugh's ratings have fallen sharply in recent months, according to a new report by Arbitron.

Limbaugh still has the top-rated radio talk show in the country, but his audience has dropped by 33 percent since October. And he's not the only one--Sean Hannity's ratings have also slipped by 28 percent.

A spokesperson for Premiere Radio, which distributes both Limbaugh's and Hannity's shows, told Crain's Business that the company wasn't worried about the ratings dip, since they were still the two biggest talk show hosts in America.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/rush-limbaugh-ratings-tum_n_866022.html

[LetTimmySmoke]

1. The effects of the Ryan Disaster continue to mount.

Edit: And the mission to kill Osama

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Let me just say:

As to Limbaugh & Hannity: :nopity:

As for truth, common sense, reason, civility: :woohoo:

Let's hope that this is the start of trend!

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tarheel_Dem]

4. I think this happens after an election. People want to move on to other things.

Couple that with the fact that Rush's target audience probably got pissed that he agreed with screwing with their Medicare, and you've got a recipe for disaster. That being said, it couldn't have happened to two more deserving assholes. :headbang:

[provis99]

5. they changed how they did ratings.

Cenk Uygur had an explanation of this. They moved away from the crappy write down mail-in surveys that used to track listeners, and moved to a Nielson style system that uses a box to actually track when a radio station is on.

What this suggests, is not that Limbaugh's ratings have recently fallen, but rather that they always were this low, and advertisers have been wasting their money for years on this right-wing radio crap.

[bigworld]

8. true -- people on the right feel persecuted

and will write down "rush limbaugh, sean hannity, Glenn Beck, etc" on their arbitron diaries, to, you know, stick it to the man, even if they aren't listening.

[Kolesar]

16. Good catch...eom

[No Elephants]

20. Very interesting! Thanks to you and Cenk for some factual input.

[titaniumsalute]

27. I worked for Arbitron for years

Most of the top 30-40 sized radio markets had switched to the new PPM ratings well before last October. In addition, the other 250 or so markets are still the crappy system that you referred to in your post. These are legit ratings drops and not a result of the new ratings system.

[Historic NY]

6. another 33% would be great.news.

[sendero]

22. Another 98%..

... would be better :)

[DBoon]

7. Premiere Radio isn't worried about the ratings "dip"

because there will always be wealthy reactionaries willing to finance these shows no matter how low the ratings drop

[kestrel91316]

9. Haw haw haw!!! Suck on it, you disgusting fucktard (Rushbo, not the OP).

[Beartracks]

11. LOL -- Glad to see someone clarifying their post.

Online intentions might otherwise be difficult to figger out. :argh:

----------------

[EJSTES2005]

10. Funny, he claimed today that listeners were growing by leaps and bounds

right after he got done saying he is right 99.6% of the time.......

[badgerpup]

26. Ummm....

'growing by leaps and bounds'...

:wtf:

While continuous weight gain while does make for (technically) a larger audience, I think the sponsors are after a more numerous one.

Then again, ol' Rushbo has never seemed to have more than a nodding acquaintance with Reality (a notoriously Liberal institution)...:shrug:

[Blacksheep214]

12. Day after day

I believe that the daily bashing of a President who is doing a good job representing America and Americans is getting tiring.

Their simply is no basis for the constant negativity and the ratings are showing it.

If this administration can handle the tornado victims better than Bush did Katrina, (if?) then even the Bible Belt will finally support him.

I look forward to the shrinking audiences of Fox and the rest of the full 'o' crap conservative hate mongers.

[OHdem10]

13. Hannity's RADIO ratings down 28%

[bhikkhu]

14. If not for all the government funding, talk radio'd probably be in trouble. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

15. Interesting bit here

There are a lot of program directors whose radio ‘spider-sense’ is tingling… They're thinking ‘this conservative thing is kind of running its course. We're saying the same things from morning 'til night and yes, we've got a very loyal core audience--but if we ever want to grow, if we want to expand, we've got to be doing more than 18 hours a day of ‘Obama is a socialist.’

Who's filling the time slots? More objective hosts who can talk about a variety of topics, says Bloomquist. Tired of bad news, Americans--and, more importantly for the radio executives, advertisers--seem to be asking for "somebody that can connect with people who can do humorous topics, somebody who can have some fun on the air."

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/business/2011/05/right-wing-radio-run-course/38097/

I noticed KDKA in Pittsburgh is down to one local RW idiot mid-afternoon. The morning & evening guy is more middle-of-the-road. And political talk on that station is way down. They used to be almost exclusively local RW Rush wannabees. In fact in the 90's they carried Limbaugh sandwiched between the local RW nuts. We still have another RW station that carries the national idiots.

[mwb970]

17. It's truly hard to imagine the kind of person that would listen to this pompous ass every day.

Sputter, sputter, spew. Sputter, sputter, spew. For three hours every day. What kind of "mind" would consider this swill "entertainment"?

[eilen]

18. It's not entertainment, it's brain washing. nt

[mwb970]

21. True. It's a form of torture that the victims voluntarily submit to.

I assume that people who lack the critical thinking skills to form their own opinions, and who base everything they say and do on emotion (principally fear and hate), are inevitably drawn to Rush's odious, emetic carping and crying just the way flies are drawn to a big stinking pile of horse poop.

[CBHagman]

19. I truly hope the demographics are against him.

The other day I was speechless when I heard a coworker and the African-American deliveryman she was talking to say they were both fans of Limbaugh. One of those Chickens for Colonel Sanders moments.

But I suspect in general the audience for Limbaugh and his ilk is shrinking. It's not that demagogues are going to go away. In fact, we could see worse. But I don't think the general trend is towards Limbaugh fans. More than half the country is female, so that limits his audience. Secondly, Hispanics make up a growing percentage of young families, and that ought to make a difference. Thirdly, there are the millennials who were brought up with more progressive attitudes.

I hope it all adds up to send Limbaugh into obscurity.

[No Elephants]

23. Do our troops have a left winger counterbalancing this blustering blowhard?

[Javaman]

24. I'm sure he still corners the...

oxycoton and ass cyst demographic.

[BrklynLiberal]

25. boo-f**kin-hoo

[Blue Owl]

28. Phlegmbaugh needs the Paul Ryan boost

:evilgrin:

[plumbob]

29. What a shame.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!






Whew! Think I'll lie down now. I'm a little giddy.