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He suffers from what talk radio consultant Holland Cooke calls a “scarlet letter among national brand advertisers.”

Hogwash. Give me specifics of this rather than you just making it up and throwing it out there. I am more likely to believe that advertisers are balking at the ad rate than some comment made years ago. If this crap were true, ad rates would be sliding, not rising. This piece is pretty much unsubstantiated BS.

I read the entire article. It mentions how JC Penny and Sears “refused” to return. Excuse me? JC Penney and Sears can barely pay their own employees much less advertise on a national show. Some advertisers have returned, witness 1800Flowers and Shari's Berries. Never expect much truth from a rabid left wing site such as Politico, just a political ax to grind.

Precisely. Many national “brands” and retailers have avoided talk radio for years—locally and nationally—because they’re afraid of controversy, no matter the station or the host. At the same time, some of the advertisers who have used talk radio have been very surprised by the results, for a couple of reasons. First, the talk audience is by far the best informed/educated of any in radio and secondly, they have more disposable income than any other demo.

With more boomers working into their 60s and 70s and earning comfortable incomes, advertisers may have to re-calibrate their approach. Would you rather go after the “Depends” demo—the audience once ignored unless you’re selling burial policies or Medicare supplements, but the group that actually owns homes and can afford to buy new cars. Or, do they prefer to chase millennials who racked up more than $100,000 in debt on a worthless college degree and are living at home with their parents, because they don’t qualify for any job paying more than $10 an hour.

Radio as a whole and talk radio in particular have proven surprisingly resilient. Sixty years ago, the smart boys and girls were writing radio’s obituary because of the arrival of television. Radio not only survived—it thrived. Likewise, talk radio evolved from a “fringe” format into the most popular on the airwaves. And BTW, Rush Limbaugh is the #1 reason that AM radio survived into the 21st Century and that news/talk became the top format.

It’s hardly Sandra “Slut” Fluke who is doing Rush in. That’s ridiculous! With all the trash that advertisers currently sponsor on prime time, does the word “slut” really offend them?

What advertisers fear most are boycotts from both conservative and liberal viewers. The advertisers are sensitive to boycotts and protests of any political persuasion,not just Fluke feminazis.

Also there’s a huge surplus of programming in the Internet era. Even the supposedly apolitical Fox television runs low-budget cheapo advertising. So do local networks with their boring half-hour long infomercials.

Just because the Limbaugh show runs amateurish low-budget ads doesn’t mean his bottom line is suffering more than anybody else’s. Lack of advertising support is an industry-wide problem then hundreds of channels are begging for ads.