![]() ![]() According to RadioInsight, “There’s no way iHeartMedia would’ve placed Limbaugh on an owned Sports station if the company had any other affiliation options in the market. Things have gotten so bad that Cumulus had to scramble shove Limbaugh’s show on to a low rated Indianapolis sports station because they feared a mass exodus of affiliates. Radio stations don’t want Limbaugh’s show because of the combination of low ratings, poor advertising revenue, and declining audience. Limbaugh has already lost his stations in major markets Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. It is widely rumored that Limbaugh is about to get the boot off of his station in Chicago after his ratings have fallen to 24th place in the city with an audience of 121,000 listeners. ![]() Limbaugh is going from being on a top ten station in the city to a station in the bottom three. It will air the same time on iHeartMedia’s WNDE-AM 1260. ![]() IHeartMedia Indianapolis announced Wednesday that it will begin airing Limbaugh live on weekdays on a new local station, 97.5 FM, beginning Monday, July 6, from noon to 3 p.m. “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.The Rush Limbaugh Show-set to be dropped by WIBC-FM 93.1 next month-will continue to be heard on Indianapolis radio airwaves without interruption after being picked up by iHeartMedia Inc. 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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