DialGlobal, one of the radio industry's largest companies for syndicated formats and special events, has an annual report out that is telling investors to beware. Per Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com:
DG's first 10-K annual report since it folded in Westwood One's Networks division last October is very up-to-date - it acknowledges the effects on the ad market of the Rush Limbaugh controversy. Dial Global says it's dealing with the issues - keeping certain national spots away from controversial programming - by reviewing its internal procedures. While detailing its risk factors, it says "advertisers may decide to exit news/talk programming altogether."
It's one thing that the backlash against Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke rants - a backlash made more powerful by Limbaugh's long history of impolitic utterances - has affected advertising on his show, both nationally and for local affiliates. And there's been other speculation that the controversy will impact not just Limbaugh's show, but advertisers for other inflammatory hosts and for the format as a whole.
But this is the first indication that Limbaugh's troubles may impact investor behavior. In the modern radio industry, controlled as it is in most larger markets by a small number of mostly publicly traded companies, that's what really makes decisions. If companies think having programs like Limbaugh's, or news-talk formats in general, in their portfolios will spook investors or affect stock prices, that's a far greater motivator than losing individual advertisers, let alone the nearly-irrelevant spectacle of angry listeners.
More industry warnings like this and investor behavior, as is so often the case, will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that will affect not just Limbaugh's future, but the viability of news-talk as a whole. Given that news-talk is already dealing with the advertiser-unfriendly problem of aging demographics, this is either the last thing the format needs, or the very thing it needs to shake loose from the paradigm of bomb-throwing political hosts pioneered by Limbaugh over 20 years ago.
Sandra Fluke was a slut! Plus she was too stupid to charge! With all her sexual activity she could have paid for her degree.
Posted by: Mohammy | April 02, 2012 at 06:34 PM
Hey Mohammy - You do know, don't you, that Fluke's congressional testimony was about the medical condition of a friend and didn't have a damn thing to do with her sexual activity? Aside from being a grossly offensive attack on a private citizen, the "She's a slut! She's a prostitute" stuff was invented out of whole cloth. And you, it seems, fell for it.
If I were you, I'd be very careful about repeating that kind of fact-free slander as though it were truth and introducing a phrase like "too stupid." People might get ideas about you.
Posted by: Pete | April 02, 2012 at 06:47 PM
Sandra Fluke spent $3000 on birth control. What else was she but a slut? Why are you so defensive? Is she your sister?
Posted by: Mohammy | April 02, 2012 at 06:57 PM
Posted by: Jerome | April 02, 2012 at 07:00 PM
Assuming your figure is correct (link?), $3000 over what period of time? In the costs of today's pharmaceuticals, $3k is nothing for even one year, let alone several.
Beyond that, what possible relevance is Sandra Fluke's sex life to you, or to anyone, for that matter, other than her boyfriend? And what makes you think you know a damn thing about it? (Hint: you don't.) And do you even know how birth control works? (Hint: You take it no matter how frequently or infrequently you have sex. All Fluke's taking birth control means is that she's sexually active, just like most young American women.)
No, she's not my sister. But women are 51% of our country's population, and I'm sick of misogynist assholes like you gratuitously insulting them when you don't have the faintest clue what you're talking about.
Posted by: Pete | April 02, 2012 at 07:10 PM
don't feed the troll.
Posted by: jameschan | April 02, 2012 at 07:32 PM
Jameschan: Agreed, and my apologies. I do feel that hatred should not go unchallenged. But I've said what I needed to. I'm done.
Posted by: Pete | April 02, 2012 at 07:35 PM
Rush gave conservative talk show hosts a sour name there when he referred to Fluke as he did. If he had referred to something less offensive like a leech or a mooch or just ignored that (doubtful), Ms. Fluke would have been less well known.
The Democratic party would have not had a gimme for the news networks to successfully distract us all from the serious and pressing issues instead of this contrived issue thanks to Mr. Limbaugh that was a several miles wide and an inch deep.
Posted by: KS | April 02, 2012 at 09:22 PM
Where's the fallout for Bill Maher? calling women the C word, etc.
Posted by: Duke | April 14, 2012 at 08:23 PM