That’s the amusing headline on a story about “Boss” Limbaugh in the current Vanity Fair. Included in the story is the figure that the average age of Limbaugh listeners is 67, and that this audience is dying off.
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews went the other way demographically the other day on “Hardball,” speculating that Limbauigh’s audience was mostly “salesmen in their cars who are frustrated and used to rejection on a daily basis.” I’d add guys going to c0nstruction jobs. The older-demo figure cited in VF may be closer to the truth.
We’re always hearing about how many hundreds of stations carry The Bloviator’s show, and that’s true.
But here’s one of of Rush’s dirty little secrets:
Many stations get the show for free, on a barter bais. That’s why it’s all over the dial, especially in smaller markets.
In a barter deal, the station pays nothing for the show. But it gives away most of the advertising time in the show, sometimes as much as 20 minutes (gulp) an hour. (Think Gold Bond Medicated Powder.)
This has the added bonus (to smaller stations) of paying one less salary to a local talk host. Stations in larger markets pay actual cash to run Boss Limbaugh’s show.
I’ve been told by knowledgeable radio sources (I wrote for radio-exec publication Radio World Magazine for years) that two-thirds of Limbaugh affiliates get the show for free.
You get what you pay for.