Ratings Gap Between Rush Limbaugh and Liberal Talkers Looms Large

Newswire ^ | 10-26-05

[My Favorite Headache]

Ratings Gap Between Rush Limbaugh and Liberal Talkers Looms Large

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 26 -- According to the Arbitron Summer 2005 ratings survey for New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Mr. Rush Limbaugh beat liberal talkers in the ratings game. In New York, Mr. Limbaugh's Persons 12+ audience is more than three times larger than Mr. Franken's audience. Heard Monday through Friday on WABC-AM from noon-3 p.m., The Rush Limbaugh Show scored, among Persons 12+, a 4.8 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 159,400 listeners. Mr. Al Franken, who airs at the same time on WLIB-AM, has a Persons 12+ share of 1.4 with an average quarter-hour audience of 47,800 listeners.

Mr. Jerry Springer also airs on WLIB-AM and has a Person 12+ share of 1.0 with an average quarter-hour audience of 30,100.

Below are their rankings among all AM and FM programming for Persons 12+ in New York:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Hour Rank (all AM/FM (Persons 12+) (Persons 12+) programming-persons 12+) Rush Limbaugh 4.8 159,400 3 Al Franken 1.4 47,800 23 Jerry Springer 1.0 30,100 27

In Los Angeles, The Rush Limbaugh Show is heard Monday through Friday on KFI-AM from 9 a.m.-noon and scored a Persons 12+ share of 4.8 with an average quarter-hour audience of 112,700 listeners. Mr. Franken, who airs at the same time on KTLK-AM, scored among Persons 12+ a 1.3 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 29,500 listeners. Mr. Limbaugh ranks #1 in his daypart for Persons 12+ and draws 3.5 times the listeners of Mr. Franken.

In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, here are the numbers for liberal talker Mr. Ed Shultz, who broadcasts at a different time:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Hour Rank (all AM/FM (Persons 12+) (Persons 12+) programming-persons 12+) Rush Limbaugh 4.8 112,700 1 Al Franken 1.3 29,500 28 Ed Shultz 0.9 22,900 33

Heard Monday through Friday on WLS-AM in Chicago from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., The Rush Limbaugh Show scored a Persons 12+ share of 5.9 with an average quarter-hour audience of 96,300 listeners. Mr. Franken, who airs at the same time on WCPT-AM, scored among Persons 12+, a 0.9 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 14,900 listeners. Mr. Limbaugh ranked #1 in his daypart and draws 6.5 times the listeners of Mr. Franken.

In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, here are the numbers for other liberal talkers in Chicago, who broadcast at a different time:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Hour Rank (all AM/FM (Persons 12+) (Persons 12+) programming-persons 12+) Rush Limbaugh 5.9 96,300 1 Al Franken 0.9 14,900 29 Ed Shultz 0.9 14,300 31 Jerry Springer 0.4 6,500 42

Known as the media pundit who reshaped the political landscape with his entertaining and informative brand of conservatism, Mr. Limbaugh is also widely credited with resuscitating AM radio by many industry experts.

Source: Premiere Radio Networks

[veronica]

[facedown]

Content, content, content.

[Rodney King]

Have they outsourced their press release writing to Nigeria?

[ClearCase_guy]

"Huh! The people! What do they know? The rabble listen to the propaganda from Limbaugh, while the truth is available from Al Franken! But do they care for the truth? No! They cannot handle the truth! That is why the people need an iron hand to guide them! We will seize power, and ban this Limbaugh fellow and force the peasants to listen to Franken! They will find him quite amusing ... or else." [/Hillary]

[jmaroneps37]

They can never come near Rush. Selling lies is tougher and now they know it. Go Rush!

[Clint N. Suhks]

[veronica]

He's not a Commie. He's a limousine Liberal, and a twit.

[EagleUSA]

They can never come near Rush. Selling lies is tougher and now they know it. Go Rush!
------
If it were not for the big-money liberal fools, like Comrade Soros, AA would never have "resurfaced". Leftist talk radio has ALWAYS been a loser. And with the left continuing to get more radical, it just makes it worse. Such a lost, empty effort.

[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

Last night around midnight, I decided to listen to Air America to see what they had to say about the CIA leak business. There was this fellow named Mike Malloy on (who I had not heard before) and after listening for a couple of minutes of not believing the level of swearing, I rattled off this email:

Dear Mike, You know, an easy way to tell if a rant has a point worth listening to is to count how many swear words and personal attacks are contained in it. The more swear words and personal attacks, the more it becomes apparent that the individual speaking has nothing of real value to say. I’ve never listened to you before but so far in 10 minutes, all I hear you say are swear words and the calling of Bush and Cheney bastards, liars and so forth. Do you have a point – and is it backed up with anything of substance? That’s what I thought – you are mad and frothing at the mouth and are beyond bereft of a rational point of view. XXXX XXXXXX

A couple of minutes later, I received this reply back which says it all.........Note: This form letter is sent as a response to certain emails sent to the Mike Malloy Program, emails that are so over the top, so insane, so full of inane, right-wing horseshit as to render them incomprehensible and not worth asking Mike to read. Your email qualifies you to receive the form letter. Thank you for supporting the Mike Malloy Program. Due to the heavy volume of mail Mike receives, he does not read nor respond to each individual email. However, we do appreciate your taking time to write, especially at a time when the airwaves – both radio and television – are so dominated by Republican thugs and liars, phony “Christians,” and red-state morons who hate America and hate Democracy. Thank you for listening to Mike’s program Staff Mike Malloy Program

[Made In The USA]

What conclusions can be drawn about a lib network that features Jerry Springer?

Also -

How about this clown Ed Schultz though? While traveling I occasionally tune into whatever will come through the radio and have listened.

It sounds very much to me like he's trying to mimic Rush.

Problem for him is that he simply doesn't have the talent or unflinching beliefs that demonstrate conviction in what he says.

Heard him reply to a question yesterday about the fairness of asking 'If you know now what you didn't know then' - he was stumped.

[TexasCajun]

If Liberalism was as popular as Conservatism Randi Rhodes and Ed Shultz would be as rich as Rush Limbaugh!

[EQAndyBuzz]

Actually he is a commie.

Traditional Democrats are now liberals and liberals are now marxists.

Ask a liberal if they would vote for John Kennedy. He was too far to the right for them.

I tried that experiment with my inlaws. I told them everything about Bush then I asked would they vote for him based on those facts. They said no. Then I told them it wasn't Bush I was describing but JFK.

[Peter Libra]

.... more than three times larger than Mr Franken's audience

Isn't this the best news?. As I sit by my trusty portable radio and wait for the elder statesman himself, I do bait my breath.

Of course this Plame business is something that has the El Rusbo firing the heavy artillery. Can it all come right? Rhetorical questions here. Oh,radio news says unlikely indictments today. A bit of a long screed here- sorry.

One more thing. In the early am,a few nights ago, a signal came in on my radio.It was ranting,almost hysterical, liberal. I listened. The station was WCKY and fading. Then a song came eulogising a Mr Franken. Then a strange ,almost alien rant in a foreign language, drowned out WCKY. A harsh man's voice in a stream of words. Ah well. El Rushbo time- gotta go.

[The_Republican]

If I was a horse I would insulted by your post.

[Sthitch]

"Have they outsourced their press release writing to Nigeria?"

The writers of scams coming out of Nigeria are too honest to work for Airless America.

[TNdandelion]

Mike Malloy should be examined for rabies.

[Texas_Jarhead]

You could fit all the members of the Chicago listening audience for Al Franken (14,900), Ed Shultz (14,300), and Jerry Springer (6,500) into the average size basketball arena at one time easily. Now that's funny.

[Izzy Dunne]

The stuff that comes out of a horse's ass is at least useful...

[polymuser]

Where Franken goes, nothin' grows.

[KevinDavis]

Mike Malloy use to be on WLS.. He was not on for a long time.. Somehow I'm not surprised...

[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

Mike Malloy should be examined for rabies.

I think that anyone who actually listens to this drivel and believes any of it has an ounce of truth should be examined for rabies. What is quite astonishing is that there is even one sponsor who is willing to advertise on this program.

[martin gibson]

He's not a Commie. He's a limousine Liberal, and a twit.

uh, veronica, he IS a commie. and an unrepentant, hardcore neo-Stalinist as well.

what did you think? That he was a 'progressive', or a 'socialist', or a liberal or some other such new-speak bullsh*t?

there is a great advantage in this world to be had by calling things by their correct name...and I could really use some help down here in the language war.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

What is hard to appreciate - given the fragmentary reporting on the arbitron ratings - is how huge the gap is in cumulative, nationwide listeners. Not just market share in a given large market - but the aggregate total of all listeners who hear at least part of Rush or Franken during a given weekday. I think that would be staggering. In some markets Air America is below measurable. They actually register a rating, but based on the sampling methodology and its limitations it is impossible to say with confidence that their audience is statistically significant from zero - so they get an asterisk.

Even this article uses awkward phrasing in an effort to reduce the magnitude of the rout Limbaugh has perpetrated on Franken. They say he has an audience "three times larger" instead of saying his audience is "four times the size of Franken's".

[the tongue]

Al Franken, DfA. What does that stand for? Dumb F****** Ass?

[raccoonradio]

I'm on a radio messageboard for Boston and some dolt keeps saying WRKO should drop Limbaugh. Ha! Of course, the libs
would love it for Rush to get dropped but what program director in his right mind would drop America's Anchorman,
the most popular talk host around? (Acc. to TALKERS magazine Rush has about 15 million listeners; Hannity about 14 million. I'd be shocked if Franken had 1 million. Or 100,000.)

[half-cajun]

Uh Oh, This may ruin Franken's Merry Fitzmas day he was so excited about on CNN this morning.

[raccoonradio]

>>If Liberalism was as popular as Conservatism Randi Rhodes and Ed Shultz would be as rich as Rush Limbaugh!

People on the radio messageboard I frequent keep saying,
"Oh, Air America would do so much better if it were on a better signal! They'd get the same kind of ratings the
conservative talk stations are getting!" Actually, no.
A station like WRKO or WTKK gets good ratings for having
the likes of Rush, Howie Carr, Savage, Hannity, Ingraham, etc. but if WRKO were to, say, drop Rush for Franken what would happen?

Their ratings would plummet. Exhibit A: WHJJ in Providence, a very liberal town that surely would embrace AAR, right?
Nope, as soon as they started running Springer and Franken
the ratings had a steep decline. The prog. dir. admits now that "the Air America experiment is over" and replaced
Je-rry, Je-rry and Stuart Smalley with local hosts (not sure
of their political bent, but probably at least further
to the right than the AAR folks...have heard Helen Glover,
who took Springer's slot, may be conservative but haven't
tuned in to find out)

Anyway, AAR would bomb on major signals. The program
directors of conservatalk stations are no DUmmies.
Not just bad radio but bad (or no) ideas.

[Supergrade]

Rush is a great radio announcer to be sure; but what really helped him was that his message was so at odds with the mainstream media. Even though at least thirty-something percent of the population is conservative, nobody in news was, and he became a media outlet where this segment of the population could go and listen to political content without being insulted (like on network news).

Air America does not have this advantage. I can obtain a socialist's story selection and bias on network news. Then, to distinguish themselves from mainstream socialist political commentary (3 networks), they have to go fringe (something Rush is never forced to do) - putting real crazies on.

I deliberately expose myself to Democratic and left-wing talking points so as to know how the average person sees the world. I can get the pulse on 80% of the Democratic spectrum without having to turn to Air America.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[HHFi]

I've worked in radio and radio syndication for over 25 years, and I've been agog from day one at how bassackwards the idiots who set up Air America are. They obviously didn't know the first thing about the radio business, but just assumed that because they are such wise and wonderful folk, all they had to do was blab their genius into any microphone and listeners would toss flower petals into the air and shout, "Huzzah! At last, I can stop listening to that horrible Rush Limbaugh and hear the pure truth from the mouth of God himself!"

Those posters who think a more powerful signal would solve AA's problems are either delusional or need to join that other, more popular A.A. Ask them if they've ever heard of anyone being fired from a station with a clear channel signal like WBAP here in Dallas due to low ratings. Happens all the time, but how is that possible? Why, the signal is so strong, everyone HAS to listen to the show, right?

Morons.