Enough to Make Your Eyes Bleed

With apologies to Keith Olbermann, that’s the only way to describe The Huffington Post’s embarrassing Rush Limbaugh hatchet piece .  Huffington media blogger Bill Mann claims to reveal the “dirty little secret” that Limbaugh has 600+ affiliates because his show is “free.”   There are so many errors in this story that correcting them is like trying to eat an elephant.  So, let’s start with the heart.  The Rush Limbaugh Show is simply the most successful talk radio show in the history of the format.  Limbaugh continues to win, even dominate, his talk competition in most every market.  WBAL/Baltimore’s 2006 decision to dump Limbaugh sent the entire station into a spin and gave new life to the struggling talk station that snapped him up. That’s why Rush has so many affiliates. 

What’s more,  the Limbaugh show is not free, and never has been.  Every affiliate pays an annual cash fee in addition to the commercial time they barter to Premiere Radio Networks for the right to carry Limbaugh’s show.  In a major market, that annual fee can hover around the $500,000 mark.  And even if stations didn’t have to pony up cash, their commercial time – during what is likely their top-rated show — has considerable value.  If the station is doing passably well, the value of that bartered inventory far surpasses the annual fee.

Mann identifies himself as a veteran print reporter who has covered radio for daily newspapers and the trade publication Radio World.  Alas, this isn’t journalism, it’s  ignorance and misinformation packed as “news” in the service of an agenda.  There is a lesson there for all media, including talk radio.