Monday, January 28, 2013

Opinion: Rush Limbaugh “Gets It”

From Art Morris, Broadcast-Technical Consultant
This is not a commentary on politics.  This is a commentary on radio. 
Back in the early 90’s, I was at the NAB Radio Show in Dallas, looking at the display of solid-state AM transmitters from BE.  I asked one of the salespeople if they were selling any of them. 
“Oh yeah!” he responded, “since Rush Limbaugh came along, we’re moving AM transmitters again.”  
And, he was right.  Since the advent of Rush Limbaugh’s national show in 1988, conservative talk has pretty much ruled the AM airwaves.   Some say, arguable so, that Rush “saved AM radio”. In the latter half the 80’s most music formats had migrated to FM, leaving a chasm on AM.  Limbaugh gave rise a whole plethora of conservative shows that have dominated the band ever since.  These days, some are migrating to FM, but the jury is out on whether that will be success over time. 
What concerns me more, is that many top-tier hosts spend most of their airtime on radio promoting their TV shows and multimedia ventures. 
According to Talkers Magazine, the top conservative talk shows are (1) Rush Limbaugh (2) Sean Hannity  (3) Glenn Beck  (4) Mark Levin and (5) Neal Boortz, now replaced by Herman Cain.  
Others who have sizable national followings include Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, and Don Imus. 
It seems that several of them spend a great deal of time promoting their TV shows on the radio.  Hannity and Beck especially sound more like a 3-hour long promo for their TV ventures. 
How often, by comparison, do they promote their radio shows on TV?  Far less. 
Years ago, that would have been considered ‘paid advertising’ to cross-promote TV or multimedia ventures on the radio. 
Laura Ingraham has made a point in recent interviews that radio isn’t her top focus anymore.  Her television and multimedia internet ventures seem to be her top concern. 
Rush Limbaugh, on the other hand, gets it.  While Rush DID have a TV show back in the early 90’s, it’s sole purpose was to promote the RADIO show.  Limbaugh is the biggest conservative media personality in the country, and it’s almost entirely done on radio, most of it on AM radio.  He doesn’t waste precious show time promoting what’s “coming up on tonight’s TV show”.  His program is about being the best radio show he can produce. 
Regardless of whether you agree with his politics, Rush’s radio show is compelling listening. He is the true successor to 60’s & 70’s Top-40 announcers.  He brings a Top-40 jock’s sensibility to the program.  That’s why it works so well on radio.  And, he knows it.  When he has occasionally strayed into taking himself and politics too seriously, his ratings suffered. 
At least Don Imus, whose program is simulcast on the Fox Business Network realizes that he has millions more listening on radio than are watching on TV.  Rarely does he do ‘visual’ gags that don’t translate on radio. 
So, for people like Hannity, Beck and Ingraham, radio is important enough that they use it to promote their other ventures.  Yet, they rarely promote their radio shows.  If I was running a syndication company, like Premiere, Cumulus or Dial Global, I’d at least have a deal calling for a fair amount of cross-promotion on other media. 
Broadcast radio remains the most vibrant, if not the most taken-for-granted, of all the mass media. 
But, Rush ‘gets it’. He doesn’t need any other platform to remain at the top. 
Too bad not everybody ‘gets it.'
 Art Morris is a broadcast professional with over 30-years experience in every aspect of radio broadcasting.  Everything from on-air to traffic, engineering, and management. His projects include the Missouri Radio MessageBoard.

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