Left Wing Commercial Talk Radio Disappears in NY, LA, SF in 2014

 

Lefty talk radio is set to be purged in 3 major markets in 2014 in what is probably the beginning of a nationwide trend.And they are all solid Blue cities under Democrat rule.

In New York, WWRL 1600 AM is changing its format to to Spanish-language music and talk, which means that Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and Alan Colmes are going to be tossed off the air. In Los Angeles, KTLK 1150 will be dumping Stephanie Miller, Rhodes, Bill Press and David Cruz in favor of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. In San Francisco, KNEW 960 is getting rid of Miller, Hartmann, and Mike Malloy.

KTLK's Lefties survived for a very long time because of another station, KFI, which features shows like Rush Limbaugh, John and Ken, Brian Suess and Bill Handle. Both stations were owned by Clear Channel, and for a long time if you bought spots on KFI you also got spots thrown in on KTLK "as an extra". That arrangement appears to have changed.

This isn't just industry consolidation. Lefty talk radio simply doesn't get anywhere near the ratings conservative talk radio does. KTLK was ranked #41 in the market in November 2013, and WWRL's market share in the New York Market is practically non-existent. Even in terminally Left wing San Francisco, KNEW registered just an 0.4 in December 2013, placing it #31 in the market.

Why Lefty talk radio gets such horrid ratings is apparent if you ever listen to it for awhile.

When Air America first debuted in my local area, I was actually looking forward to it. I expected that there would be the same spirit of debate and give and take you find on Limbaugh, Hannity or Mark Levin's shows, and I wanted to see how the likes of Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes and the others of that genre would express and defend their ideas.

Instead, what I got was a deadly dull echo chamber repeating Leftist talking points and in Rhodes' case, actual calls in her abrasive Brooklyn bray for our troops in Iraq to desert and for President Bush to be treated like Fredo in the "Godfather"..."you take him out fishing and badda bing,badda boom, it's all over."

And yes, I actually heard her say these things on the air personally. And neither one got her fired or even suspended,nor did the media go crazy over them. It took her calling Hillary Clinton a whore to do that.
A FOX host talking like that about shooting Barack Obama would not only have been thrown off the air but brought up on felony charges.

And Ed Schultz makes Rhodes look positively genteel.

There wasn't any give and take of the sort that makes conservative talk radio sparkle,and you would never see a guest from the other side on these shows, let alone an intelligent caller who disagreed allowed in. Even Stephanie Miller, who used to have a really funny talk show long ago that combined satirizing politics in general with her own brand of racy humor succumbed to the boring, monotonous tone, either because her ideas changed or because she wanted the gig really badly.

So apparently the market place is speaking.What's left is MSNBC if they can manage to get a spot or government-sponsored NPR and Pacifica in a lot of major markets. I suppose you can decide for yourself if it's the ideas, the toxic personalities or a blend of both.

(h/t, Truth Revolt)

DNC Head Wasserman-Schultz Makes An Absolute Idiot Out of Herself - Again!

This one's too good to be buried. Head of the Democrat National Committee Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was being interviewed by KABC talk radio host Doug McIntyre on his morning show and the discussion turned to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who's tenure has been, shall we say, questionable.And whom Wasserman-Schultz is shilling for.

For what it's worth, McIntyre is far from some far Right conservative. But he does know a few things about ex-MeCha member Villaraigosa's record as mayor.

Ed Schultz Accuses FOX Of Going Easy On Republicans - While He Accepts $200K From Unions

MSNBC blowhard Ed Schultz is not known for his civility or reasoned discourse, fo rgood reasons. His usual demeanor is that of an angry hyena whose prey just escaped - and that's an insult to hyenas.

One of Ed Schulz's common themes is the evil of FOX news, just possibly because their audience makes his look positively miniscule. In the above clip, Ed accuses FOX of going easy on Republicans - namely Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in this case - because Fox's parent NewsCorp actually had the temerity to exercise their First Amendment rights and make a donation to the Republican Governors Association.

Funny thing about that. It appears that Mr. Ed got paid almost $200,000 in 2011 from various union sources, most notably the Communications Workers of America. For “representational activities" according to the union.

Now, Mr. Ed's people claim he gave all that money to charity, and he'd never lie, now would he?
In any case, I have no objection to his making hay by legal means while the sun shines..after all, it may not shine forever.

But his hypocrisy in ranting about FOX and Scott Walker for essentially doing the same thing is the sort of disgusting hypocrisy and double standards lefties like Mr. Ed seem to immerse themselves in as almost a compulsive habit.

Pot, meet kettle.

Rush Limbaugh Shows Why A Few Sponsor Cancellations Won't Take Him Off The Air

With all the attempts to destroy Rush Limbaugh by the Obama Administration and the Left, one thing they seem to have forgotten is the basic nature of how a syndicated radio show works. El Rushbo explains it here:

RUSH: I want to ask if you will indulge me for just a brief few minutes for some inside baseball stuff before we move on to our review of the issues of the day, politics and so forth, Super Tuesday, the results, and where we are. The reason for this is, once again, so much misinformation about this program and advertisers is in the mainstream media. People are reporting things that, A, are not true, and B, I don't even think the people reporting it have the slightest idea what they're talking about, nor do they have the ability to understand it.

But I know that many of you are spending a lot of time -- God bless you -- on the Web doing what you can to express your support for the program. And judging from the reaction of my own brother, who sends me a note last night, "You really lost 28 sponsors?" No, we have not lost 28 sponsors. "Well, how can they say it?" Because they lie and because they don't understand how it works, and that's what I want to try and explain. In fact, folks, we have three brand-new sponsors that will be starting in the next two weeks. Now, obviously, I'm not gonna tell you who they are today, but we've got three brand-new, full-fledged sponsors starting in the next two weeks.



Two of the sponsors who have canceled have asked to return. We are being very careful about that. Not gonna give you any names here. One of them is practically begging to come back. Everything is fine on the business side. Everything's cool. There is not a thing to worry about. What you're seeing on television about this program and sponsors and advertisers is just incorrect. And let me try to explain how this works. Let's take the claim that we've lost 28 sponsors. Sponsors on this program are both local and national. We deal with the national sponsors on this program. We have 600-plus stations. They sell their own commercials. We don't have anything to do with those sponsors. We don't get paid by those sponsors. We have no idea who those sponsors are.

Let's make up a company, ABC Widget Company. And let's say that ABC Widget Company says, "We are no longer going to appear on the Rush Limbaugh Show." Well, ABC Widget Company isn't on the Rush Limbaugh Show. What happens is, advertising agencies order advertising buys on a series of local stations from market to market to market. A controversy like this erupts. They put out a notice to the stations, "By the way, for the time being we don't want our commercials run when Limbaugh is on." But they are not canceling their advertising on the station. They're just saying they don't want it running on my program during the local affiliate's commercial time, not ours.

So this 28 or 32 -- and I don't even know if that number's accurate, numbers are coming from Media Matters. There's no way anybody could know this, but I'm gonna put it in further perspective in just a second. What it means is there have been -- let's use the number 28 -- 28 advertisers who none of us are aware are even advertising on our local stations who had sent out orders that their commercials are not to run on my program. But that is not revenue to us. They are not our sponsors. They are not even canceling their advertising on the local station. They're just saying for the time being they don't want it run from noon to three. And let me tell you, this happens every day. It's been happening for 23-plus years. And it's not just to me. There are clients, advertisers, that tell stations, "I don't want this to run in Beck's show. I don't want it to run in Hannity's. I don't want it to run in Howard Stern's." It's all part of the business.

But because there's a focal point on this in trying to dispirit you and trying to present a picture of this program that doesn't exist and that's untrue, they're trying to make it sound like this is unprecedented -- that it's never happened before, it's at an all-time high -- and it simply isn't the case. We have not lost 28 national sponsors. There are not 28 advertisers who were paying us who aren't anymore. They are local commercial buys. Many of them may not even be running in my show to begin with. The advertisers are just saying, "If they are, pull 'em. We don't want 'em in there for now," but they're staying on the local stations. These advertisers are not abandoning EIB affiliates.

Nobody is losing money here, including us, in all this. And that is key for you to understand. They are not canceling the business on our stations. They're just saying they don't want their spots to appear in my show. We don't get any revenue from 'em anyway. The whole effort is to dispirit you. It's to make you think the left is being successful in its campaign when it isn't. In fact, the left is so fed up, they can't see straight. They thought they had me. They thought I would be off the air by now. They can't understand why I still am on the air. There is also another rumor going around that I am going to be suspended for a week. It is utter BS.

Read the rest here:

As I said previously, 23 milllion daily listeners have a force all their own, and the majority aren't going anywhere because of the Left's kabuki outrage over a left-wing agitator like Sandra Fluke. In fact, the current controversy will probably increase Limbaugh's ratings. I speak from personal experience here...I first started listening to Rush Limbaugh after the Clintons attempted to demonize him, just to see what all the fuss was about.

The latest move by the Left, spearheaded by cartoon character Gloria Allred is to try to criminalize the matter. ( h/t, Rhymes With Right). Apparently, there's an old defamation statute in Florida where Limbaugh lives that provides that '“whoever speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree."

First of all, since Ms. Fluke has already provided the numbers on the amount of contraception she cliams she needs for her apparently active sex life, the 'falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity ' part falls apart. And secondly, she is what the law terms a 'semi-public figure', and the SCOTUS has already ruled pretty decisively on that.

Just another excuse for Allred to try and milk a few headlines...pathetic.