Tuesday, April 10, 2012

About That Rush Limbaugh Philly Switcheroo

People have been asking me all day about the news that Rush Limbaugh will be leaving WPHT 1210-AM talk radio in Philadelphia.
Does it mean Rush has been run out of town?
Does it mean there will be no conservative talk radio in Philly?
Does it mean we'll never be able to hear Rush in Philly again?
And the answer is no, no and NO!
Let's take one question at a time:
1) Nobody ran Rush out of town. Rush owned the daily 12 to 3 slot in Philly. Rush pulls in 200,000 listeners. Rush's own distributor decided to pull out and move to an FM station locally.
2) There's plenty of conservative talk radio in Philly and there will continue to be plenty of it because conservative talk radio draws a huge market; yes -- even in Philly. On WPHT you can still listen to Chris Stigall and Dom Giordano all morning, every day. And on 990 radio WNTR in Philly you can hear Bill Bennett, Hugh Hewitt, Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved and much more. In fact, conservative talk radio is thriving in Philly. It's one of the nation's healthiest markets for this type of programming.
3) Rush will still be heard in Philly and is most likely moving to WKDN FM radio 106.9. This is now a Christian station but it was recently bought by news conglomerate Merlin Media and it will become news-talk. Word is that many of your favorites may be there along with Rush including (possibly) Sean Hannity and maybe even Laura Ingraham. So, now there will be THREE conservative news/talk stations in Philly.
Rush was simply not a good fit for WPHT 1210 anymore. The station is stressing local personalities and Limbaugh's show was often pre-empted by Phillies games. It just wasn't working.
Rush doesn't like being pre-empted.
And he doesn't like being odd man out.
Now, we cal all hear him uninterrupted via a new conservative outlet.
And, get this: You can listen to all your favorite conservative talkers during their normal times on your smartphone simply by downloading a new, free app called Conservative Talk Radio. Do it now!
BTW: Here's more from The Daily Caller:
Another source close to Limbaugh’s show told TheDC that although WPHT was “well managed,” it had “never been a top talk station in the ratings” and that Limbaugh’s move to FM make sense because of a different programming plan.
WKDN, Limbaugh’s new affiliate, does have a weaker signal — just 38,000 watts compared to WPHT’s 50,000 watts. After dark, WPHT can be heard all along the Eastern Seaboard. But that is likely of no importance to Limbaugh in the Philadelphia market since his show is broadcast during the day and his ratings in the local market trump all others.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kudos to Rush for doing an end-around 1210. I strongly suspect the day following Limbaugh's departure will mark the beginning of the end for 1210.