Talk Radio’s Advertising Problem

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Feb. 3, 2015 | Hannah Karp

[DeweyCA]

Liberal talk radio (NPR) doesn’t have to worry about ad revenue since they are funded by us taxpayers.

[ontap]

Air America had big advertising problems.....it had no audience and advertisers weren’t interested in subsidizing liberal propaganda with no return on their investment.

[RKBA Democrat]

Too funny! A newspaper, that is presumably looking to sell advertising space, is concerned about advertising on talk radio.

[Squeako]

That must have been the segment in which he came back from commercial, read a commercial, talked about the commercials then went to commercial.

[Elsie]

The real problem is that AM talk radio is fast becoming a bit past its prime, and we seem to have a real lack of new and young talent, mainly because the internet and YouTube are far easier of a medium than going through all of the crap to get a radio show.

Not quite.

We ALL have access to the 'net in a way we'd NEVER have imagined 10-15 years ago!

We can ALL be TALKERS now instead of LISTENERS!

---

Thanks, FR, for making MY butt so FAT!

[Regal]

Keep in mind, also, there is an element of conservative talk radio being a victim of it’s own success. In the beginning there was Rush and not much else. As a result he had all the advertisers and he could charge big bucks as they wanted to get to his audience. As Rush became more, and more popular, other conservative talkers sprung up and offered cheaper rates. Advertisers have become stretched thin over a larger landscape. This may hurt business a bit for each, but for conservatism, it means a lot more discussion and exposure.

[RKBA Democrat]

Bigger picture is that talk radio is losing listeners. Good. With perhaps one or two exceptions, talk radio is just another forum for uniparty bootlickers. I’d rather listen to rap or fingernails on a chalkboard than listen to rush or hannity blabber on about the gop.

[RKBA Democrat]

“If anyone thinks Hannity or Levin will attract new conservatives, they’re nuts.”

Heck, they’re turning off the old conservatrives. I mean how many times can you hear gop talking points and have it be interesting?

[cynwoody]

I expect Rush to “retire” after 2016, the ratings just aren’t there anymore to justify his price.

Here is the Wikipedia's List of most-listened-to radio programs:

Program	Format	Broadcast Time	Weekly Listeners (in millions)
The Rush Limbaugh Show	Conservative talk	Midday	13.25+
The Sean Hannity Show	Conservative talk	East Coast PM Drive	12.5+
Morning Edition	Public news	AM Drive	12.3[12]
All Things Considered	Public news/talk	PM Drive	11.8[12]
Delilah	Adult contemporary	Evenings	8.8[13]
Marketplace	Public news	PM Drive	8.7[14][15]
The Dave Ramsey Show	Financial talk	Midday	8.25+
The Glenn Beck Program	Conservative talk	West Coast AM Drive	7+
The Mark Levin Show	Conservative talk	West Coast PM Drive	7+
The Savage Nation	Conservative talk	East Coast PM Drive	5.25+
Fresh Air	Public news/talk	Midday	4.5[16]
A Prairie Home Companion	Public old-time radio	Weekends	4.3[14]
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!	Public panel game show	Weekends	3.2[17]
Coast to Coast AM	Paranormal talk	Overnights	2.75+
The Lia Show	Country music	Evenings	2+[18]
The Kim Komando Show	Specialty	Weekends	1.5+
The Bubba the Love Sponge Show	Active rock/hot talk	East Coast AM Drive	1.5+

[Buckeye McFrog]

I am really disappointed to learn those NPR shows rank so highly.

[fifedom]

Here is the Wikipedia’s List of most-listened-to radio programs:
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Interesting numbers but several problems:
1. They are based on Arbitron, which according to the article has no coverage in rural areas. Granted there are not that many people in rural areas but their numbers are significant compared with the listener numbers and they probably skew way conservative.
2. The commercial numbers were from Talkers magazine but the NPR numbers were self-generated. Of course they do not have any incentive to exaggerate them /sarcasm

But the numbers are interesting. Rush’s numbers are amazing considering he is not in East or West coast drive time.

The conservative numbers also show how effective the Left’s campaign has been. That is a lot of listeners and most of them have jobs and families and have money to spend. The advertisers should be falling over themselves to place their products in front of this audience but they are afraid of a few boycotters.

[a fool in paradise]

Boycott the homofascists and Stalinists then. They chose a side in the culture war, let them be damned.

[a fool in paradise]

That's because they cave immediately when 5 or more leftist kooks picket their offices. Gutless.

Rush says that 20 tweeters can retweet their rage to make it appear to be the work of thousands.

[cynwoody]

http://www.talkers.com/heavy-hundred/

[CPT Clay]

Does XM have ads per se?

[Auntie Mame]

I totally agree they need to CUT BACK on their advertising. I quit listening to them because once the host goes to commercial, it could be 15 minutes before the show starts again.

As an example, last night at about 15 minutes away from home I tuned in to Mark Levin. I heard maybe 30 seconds of Mark, then he cut to commercial. I thought to myself, “I wonder if I’ll make it home before the commercials are over and he comes back on?” No exaggeration, I was maybe two minutes from home before Mark came back on and then there was the intro music, the intro talk, and then I was turning into the driveway.

If anyone wonders why people don’t listen to talk radio, this is a huge reason. There’s nothing there.

And now, I have a question if anyone knows the answer. Why do all radio stations generally have their commercials on at the same time? Do they all have an agreement to do this?

[cynwoody]

Rush says that 20 tweeters can retweet their rage to make it appear to be the work of thousands.

Google for generating fake accounts on twitter.

[Windflier]

I never hear ads for any of the national brands.

Isn't LifeLock a national brand? They advertise on Rush's show. What about Sleep Number beds? They advertise on Hannity's show.

[redgolum]

As I have said. All talk radio is entertainment.

[redgolum]

But that is supported by the majority in the ad world.

Case in point, there was a show on A&E called Longmire. Most watch show on that network. It got canceled last fall because the women in charge of A&E didn’t like a show with a strong male lead set in the West.

You are not the customer, you are the product. The customers (ad sellers) do not want you or me. They want homosexual transvestites. So they will not support shows that attract straight people.

The funny thing is the ad companies customers are not very happy of late. Seems that the product the ad companies are selling doesn’t want to buy from the stores the ad companies are selling to. Places like Target are starting to ask why their ROI for ads is so horrible. In the end, I suspect the current model of ad paid for entertainment will collapse.