Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Clear Channel's Premiere Networks, the purveyors of right-wing hate radio, has a problem with advertisers in the wake of Rush Limbaugh's misogynistic attacks on Sandra Fluke last week, and the resulting firestorm. Advertisers are "Rush-ing" for the exits not just from Limbaugh, but from all of Premiere Networks' stable of fire-breathing haters.
As John Avlon of The Daily Beast says, "Rush Limbaugh made the right-wing talk-radio industry, and he just might break it." Rush Limbaugh Scandal Proves Contagious for Talk-Radio Advertisers - The Daily Beast:
[T]he fallout from the “slut” slurs against Sandra Fluke is extending to the entire political shock-jock genre.
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.
Valerie Geller, an industry insider and author of Beyond Powerful Radio, confirmed the trend. “I have talked with several reps who report that they're having conversations with their clients, who are asking not to be associated with specifically polarizing controversial hosts, particularly if those hosts are ‘mean-spirited.’ While most products and services offered on these shows have strong competitors, and enjoy purchasing the exposure that many of these shows and hosts can offer, they do not wish to be ‘tarred’ with the brush of anger, or endure customer anger, or, worse, product boycotts.”
This helps explain why, on Rush Limbaugh’s flagship station WABC, almost of the commercial breaks were filled with unpaid pubic service announcements. You can check out the list of the 50 advertisers who were known to have dropped Limbaugh before this report here. BREAKING: 98 Major Advertisers Dump Rush Limbaugh, Other Right-Wing Hosts | ThinkProgress".
Media Matters has been monitoring national trends along the same lines. Limbaugh's Advertiser Exodus Expands Exponentially | Media Matters.
It will be interesting to see if this trend extends to local advertisers in the Tucson market for syndicated programs from Premiere Networks, and to local hate radio talkers like Jon Justice.
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