![]() That was after Limbaugh called activist Sandra Fluke a "slut" on his radio show. Hannity and Limbaugh moved to WOR, owned by iHeart Media. In December 2013 Cumulus Media dropped Limbaugh’s show from WABC in New York. Now Limbaugh is on WNDE, a former AM sports station that has fewer listeners then a commercial-free classical music station in town. In Indianapolis, talk powerhouse WIBC has hosted Limbaugh’s radio show for more than twenty years, but just dropped the show. That Boston Spanish-language station is flipping to a conservative talk format just to give Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity a presence - any presence - in the country's tenth-biggest radio market. But Limbaugh's days as the unanimous radio ratings king are ending. The 64-year-old Limbaugh has worked as a "DJ" or radio host since he was 16, and has been the leading talk radio voice almost ever since his national network launched out of WABC in 1988. Why is this otherwise minor format change news? It is the latest slap-in-the-face for former talk radio king Rush Limbaugh. iHeartMedia announced that on June 29 a Spanish language station that barely covers the Boston area is switching to a conservative talk format as “Talk 1430” WKOX. “I definitely think there are going to be more organized efforts to put the stranglehold on talk radio by attacking their source of revenue,” said Wood.Ĭlick the link below to hear Tony Katz’s full interview with WIBC Programming Director David Wood.Rush Limbaugh in 2009, from Wikipedia. In fact, from Wood’s perspective, the greatest challenge facing talk radio stations in America is not dwindling ratings nor competition from satellite and podcasters such as libertarian Joe Rogan, but the coordinated attack on talk radio’s lifeblood: advertisers. He continued: “Rush Limbaugh’s show attracts an older demographic, and for WIBC, the target demographics that advertisers are trying to reach are 25-54 years of age and 35-64.” “And the decision to drop the show from our lineup was not political, it was a business decision.” “WIBC’s ratings are the highest that they’ve been in 15-20 years,” said Wood. It was a potentially career-ending gamble that ultimately paid off big. Under Wood’s direction, WIBC dropped the Rush Limbaugh show in 2015 as the station began to target a younger demographic. And while some talk stations continue to rely upon syndicated programming to fill the majority of their dayparts, WIBC is live and local from 6 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday. WIBC consistently ranked as the #1 or #2 radio station in the Indianapolis market last year. “And the ratings two years ago were higher than they were two years before that,” explained Wood. Woods noted that WIBC, which no longer carries Rush Limbaugh, is actually enjoying greater ratings success than it was two years prior. “It’s true that some talk stations – primarily AM – haven’t done anything to position themselves to be successful post-Limbaugh, but that’s not representative of the industry on the whole,” said Woods. “If you look at WIBC, WLW in Cincinnati, and a host of others, they’re doing quite well.” As WIBC Program Director David Wood told Tony Katz Wednesday morning, Fahrl’s comments – opinion disguised as reporting – are a vast generalization of the challenges the industry is facing.
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