Rush Limbaugh looks to no longer be immune from his misogynistic name calling that has polluted our public airwaves for 20 years:
Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”
This is big. According to the radio-industry website Radio-Info.com, which first posted excerpts of the Premiere memo, among the 98 companies that have decided to no longer sponsor these programs are “carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm), and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway).” Together, these talk-radio advertising staples represent millions of dollars in revenue.
While they aren’t singling out Limbaugh, he is in the hit list along with pretty much the rest of right-wing talk radio.
But what Limbaugh did was attack one of his most important demographics:
But this latest controversy comes at a particularly difficult time for right-wing talk radio. They are playing to a (sometimes literally) dying demographic. Rush & Co. rate best among old, white males. They have been steadily losing women and young listeners, who are alienated by the angry, negative, obsessive approach to political conservations. Add to that the fact that women ages 24–55 are the prize advertising demographic, and you have a perfect storm emerging after Limbaugh’s Sandra Fluke comments.
Considering the big money these talkers are paid and the need for advertisers, this could very well be right-wing talk radio heading towards its death bed. Not only that, but the social media age has helped hasten their trip:
An additional irony: just as the technology-driven fragmentation of the landscape allowed partisan media to proliferate, a new technological development is providing the tools to take it down. Social media is making it possible to create a grassroots movement very quickly, voicing grievances very quickly and getting heard at the top of corporate headquarters.
There’s a chance that Limbaugh and many others will refuse to change, but in the end Premier Radio Networks as well as their parent company Clear Channel are in business to make money. Limbaugh is quickly becoming a heavy liability on this company, with a huge price tag and I doubt that they will allow this bleeding to continue. Limbaugh might survive, but he could find himself going the way of Glenn Beck, living only online.