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Why Rush Wins (Talk Radio Is A Business Stupid, Alert)
National Review ^ | 07/19/2007 | Byron York

Posted on 07/19/2007 1:28:56 AM PDT by goldstategop

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To: libstripper
I just wish I’d come up with it.

Feel free to steal it!

61 posted on 07/19/2007 6:53:16 AM PDT by gridlock (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
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To: goldstategop

People forget that radio was on the ropes after the surge of Television in the Fifties. Stations were losing revenue at such a pace that many were in danger of closing—and there were hardly any local FM stations at all.

And programming? There was none other than top 50 music and sports. The few national talk shows were a joke and there were very few local talk shows.

After the ‘Fairness” doctrine was killed at the behest of the stations, the advent of opinionated talk radio changed the landscape—and the profit line—of broadcasting.


62 posted on 07/19/2007 7:15:13 AM PDT by wildbill
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To: SergeiRachmaninov

Bite your tongue, boy.


63 posted on 07/19/2007 7:35:07 AM PDT by twonie (Keep your guns - and stockpile ammo.)
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To: Zechariah11

Do us all a favor here and dry up.


64 posted on 07/19/2007 7:45:19 AM PDT by twonie (Keep your guns - and stockpile ammo.)
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To: lentulusgracchus
The AM station that first brought Rush to Houston (he’s on another one now) and still carries Mike Savage and Mark Levin and others, runs Ed Schultz’s show in the evenings. Good slot, too, 7pm and later. He’s kind of a liberal Rush. A real brawler, and he’s plugged into the labor movement, but not really resource-rich like Rush (in terms of info sources, and so on). I listen to him sometimes, but he’s 90% attitude and doesn’t bring the arguments — just the hortatory stuff, throwing a few names out of liberal candidates who need help, that kind of thing.

I’ve wondered why that station runs his show, maybe some other Houstonians can explain it; they’re more plugged-in to the local AM radio story than I am.

Pinging some Houston/Galveston-area conservatives for possible interest and info.”


As far as I can tell Ed Schultz is not on any station in Houston. According to his website, he is only on in Lampasas and Austin. And I have never heard him here.

The AM station that first brought Rush to Houston (he’s on another one now) and still carries Mike Savage and Mark Levin and others, runs Ed Schultz’s show in the evenings.”

And as far as this, the station you are referring to above is not the station that brought Rush to Houston.

That was Dan Patrick and KSEV 700 AM. This was so successful for Dan that he later bought KPRC 950, the dominant station in the area and moved Rush there because the coverage was better. For a while Dan ran Rush live at 11am on KPRC and then replayed him at 4pm on KSEV. That was great!

Later, Clear Channel, which owned KTRH, the 2nd big AM talk station in Houston, made Dan an offer he couldn’t refuse, and he sold them KSEV and KPRC and stayed on as a executive.

They later sold off KSEV, I believe, because they had too many stations here.

Dan later left Clear Channel, apparently, after many disagreements over programming and management.

He then leased back KSEV from its new owners and went back on the air with many of his all team. Unfortunately since Rush has a longtime contract with Clear Channel, he stayed behind.

KPRC recently moved Rush to KTRH 740 where he still is. But since KTRH also runs the Astro’s games, they move Rush back to KPRC during these day games.

Dan Patrick has once again made KSEV a voice to be reckoned with. He recently bought another station in the Dallas area and running on his conservative and Christian values, was recently elected to the Texas State Senate, winning with over 70% in a four-way race without a runoff. And one of his opponents was an incumbent!

65 posted on 07/19/2007 10:11:52 AM PDT by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: goldstategop
Maybe he's successful because he's telling his listeners what they want to hear...

... and what they hear is that they're not alone in thinking the way they do -- that they're not crazy or weird for thinking things are getting out of hand with blatantly biased mainstream media.

66 posted on 07/19/2007 4:38:23 PM PDT by Finny (Only Saps Buy Global Warming)
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To: leadhead
Imus and Stern are Liberals who made money and held audiences on radio. But, Liberals don’t want to admit that to be a successful Liberal on radio you have to be like a sniggling, nose-picking teenager.

OOOooooh! POW! Right in the kisser! Excellent punch! Because it's true.

67 posted on 07/19/2007 4:40:07 PM PDT by Finny (Only Saps Buy Global Warming)
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To: Zechariah11
... wouldn't mind showering with Cameron Diaz but not for energy conservation.

Another sexually inappropriate comment from this self-satisfied jerk.

Oh, puh-LEEEZE! Lighten up, fruity!

68 posted on 07/19/2007 4:52:27 PM PDT by Finny (Only Saps Buy Global Warming)
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To: SergeiRachmaninov
With all respect, Sergei, I think anger is what's hurting Republicans with regard to the immigration issue. They're so blind as to indignantly call for pardons for a couple of border patrol agents -- law officers -- very likely caught up in a bad shooting, in an incident that has nothing to do with immigration and everything to do with employing officers who respect law and order. I will not be surprised if many Republicans and conservatives are taking a morally wrong position here. If they are, their anger makes them do it. They will look back and cringe.

The righteous anger makes them so blind that they think a fence is going to make a dime's worth of difference in keeping out people who can come here and find:
a) A minimum-wage job that pays the equivalent of a solid middle-class wage or better compared to where they come from, and their American competition consists mostly of ill-educated youths with no career direction or sense of work ethic.
b) A marketplace where heavy-handed government regulations have made it not only tempting, but sometimes necessary for businesses to shirk employment laws in order to stay profitable.
c) A "free" social system filled with government entitlements in education, welfare, and medical care

Republicans can get red in the face and scream all they want, but their anger blinds them to the real causes of what they're screaming at. Republicans must turn away from anger and face the truth that really hurts: the immigration problem is chiefly economic and the result of liberal government policies.

Fighting the policies is a lot harder, but will be a lot more useful, than building a stupid fence.

69 posted on 07/19/2007 5:17:54 PM PDT by Finny (Only Saps Buy Global Warming)
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To: SMARTY
... when I used to listen to NPR they delivered their schtick like ‘see spot run’!

Yes! The comforting drone of "Morning Edition." Now that you mention it, it was a lot like a Sesame Street news show for adults!

70 posted on 07/19/2007 6:40:29 PM PDT by Finny (Only Saps Buy Global Warming)
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To: gridlock
Liberal = Patiotic but misguided
Progressive = Soviet Front

Very well said.

71 posted on 07/19/2007 6:46:56 PM PDT by Finny (Only Saps Buy Global Warming)
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To: gridlock
Great post.

I would contend that there has never been a liberal Rush because subsidies available to liberal talk radio, governmental and otherwise, have made it possible for liberals to be on the radio without treating it like a business. NPR will remain on the air, no matter how boring it gets, because the taxpayer is footing the bill.

Much like disgruntled DMV employees, or public school teachers it doesn't matter how much you suck. You will always have a job.

Having said that, there is another factor at work here which even Rush and Sean have acknowledged. The media market is so saturated with liberal, left wing, progressive propaganda that there is a fertile market for Conservative thought.

Like good capitalists, they see the opportunity and provide the service to meet the market demand. That's not good for Communists.

72 posted on 07/19/2007 8:54:15 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: gridlock

A brilliant (and factual) analysis!


73 posted on 07/19/2007 9:32:38 PM PDT by srmorton (Choose Life!)
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To: Finny
“NPR” = Nonstop Propaganda Radio
74 posted on 07/23/2007 6:00:27 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Stay together, pay the soldiers and forget everything else." Lucius Septimus Severus)
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