Rush apologizes, so how come HE doesn't get suspended!!?

But J&K do for the Whitney Houston crack-ho comment!!? :-\

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-limbaugh-apology-20120303,0,6854957.story

Bug on the rug said:

But J&K do for the Whitney Houston crack-ho comment!!? :-\

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Limbaugh's show is not on a single, local station like John & Ken. It's a network show, and it would be up to individual stations to "suspend" the show locally.

Rush's "suspension" would be in the form of local stations dropping their syndication contract with E.I.B. and that very well could happen in some markets, however I'd place my bet that less than 5, hell less than 1 will do so. In the end, Rush gets earholes despite what you may think about him and his politics. For me, Rush was entertaining 20+ years ago. I haven't tuned in for decades but apparently many still people do. Scratch that, a dump-truck load of people still do and as such it makes the stations that air his show a lot of money. In the end, that's all these station owning sluts care about.

There is not and never has been an "EIB". The show is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. Rush owns a good share of the show, so it's not an employer/employee relationship as John and Ken's would be..

borderblaster said:

There is not and never has been an "EIB". The show is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. Rush owns a good share of the show, so it's not an employer/employee relationship as John and Ken's would be..

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Isn't 1530 KFBK Sacramento The flagship station for Rush since he had a short stint as a local host there. I know Sleep Train from Sacramento and San Francisco has pulled ads out from the show.

The flagship is WABC in New York, though it was the KFBK show that launched him on the national stage.

borderblaster said:

There is not and never has been an "EIB". The show is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. Rush owns a good share of the show, so it's not an employer/employee relationship as John and Ken's would be..

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Before Premiere handled the syndication, there definitely was an EIB. I negotiated carrying the show about 20 years ago in Lake City, FL, and there was no Premiere involved... Just EIB, which handled Rush and Dr Dean Edell (although, IIRC, the doctor show came later than EIB's original founding)

EIB is Limbaugh's operation. It, in turn, syndicates via Premier who does station relations, back room operations, technical, etc.

The former company was EFM Media Management (after founder Ed McLaughlin). McLaughlin was a long time ABC exec who took over the syndication of Dr. Dean Edell's show as ABC Talkradio was collapsing. EIB has never existed as a corporate entity.

Most big entertainers have some sort of corporate entity. There's no more an EIB Network (Rush uses the word "network") than there was a Dr. Laura Network or a Howard Stern Network, unless you consider all the affilates of a given syndicated program an individual "network."

Rush has always had a company that handles his syndication. As mentioned above, it was EFM for a while and currently it's Premiere, an arm of Clear Channel. I'm pretty sure Dr. Dean Edell never considered himself an employee of The EIB Network. He never said so on the air. I never saw any company named EIB take out an ad in any of the trades that used to hawk Rush and Edell's programs. (At one time you were FORCED to run Edell if you ran Limbaugh.) Perhaps David dealt with executives who specifically negotiated for Rush's line up of stations. But I don't believe their paychecks ever said "EIB Network." It was always EFM.

Saying he's on the "EIB Network" is one more bombastic claim made by Rush, as is decorating his studio with EIB mic flags and banners. There's an EIB Network all right... with its only client being Mr. Limbaugh's ego.



Gregg
[email protected]

borderblaster said:

The former company was EFM Media Management (after founder Ed McLaughlin). McLaughlin was a long time ABC exec who took over the syndication of Dr. Dean Edell's show as ABC Talkradio was collapsing. EIB has never existed as a corporate entity.

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And there is no company called Ivory Soap, either. Ivory is a product of Proctor and Gamble. You buy Ivory at the distributor level, you get a P&G invoice.

EFM used EIB as a brand. You signed an EFM contract, you affiliated with the brand and with Rush.

I think that EFM, or something it metamorphosed into, is still Rush's shell that deals with Premiere and affords him personal liability protection for his operation.

Ed McLaughlin is long since retired. Jacor bought the show in the mid-1990s, and of course it was folded into Clear Channel and Premiere. Rush no doubt has some corporate shell; he's not an employee who is required to attend the yearly sexual harassment meeting. He has his own studio facility in West Palm Beach and his own employees, including a court reporter who transcribes the calls in real time and puts them on a teleprompter (this because of Rush's hearing loss). The last time Rush Limbaugh was anyone's employee was at KFBK. Dr. Dean Edell was also an independent contractor with EFM.

If you want some "inside history" on the early days of Limbaugh's show (with quite a bit about Ed McGlaughlin's success in keeping Paul Harvey in the ABC fold) see if you can find Paul Colford's unauthorized Limbaugh biography written in 1991 or 1992. Some good radio geek material.

Interstingng thread. I can remember working at one of Rush's earliest affiliates, KMAK in Fresno. He only lasted a week or two at best. Management cut him loose because the station was getting "too many calls!" True story! He's been the cornerstone of KMJ's programming ever since.

Getting back to his "Apology." How sincere is a two line apology (issued on a Saturday no less) followed by a two paragraph defense of his total distortion of the underlying issue, namely, that contraception should be covered by INSURANCE? Never has the issue been about taxpayers footing the bill for people's birth control. It has been about insurance coverage for contraception. Neither has it been about "religious freedom." It's about if you work for a Catholic hospital or a church run university, your insurance company, NOT THE CHURCH, should cover your contraception. What Rush should really apologize for is his obfuscation of the issues. Fat chance of that.

And while we are at it, is there anyone here (besides Channel Flipper) who doesn't believe that Rush's "apology" is soley motivated by money? Sleep Train is a big advertiser. I'm not sure who the others to drop out are but the looming exodus of advertisers is obviously significant enough to spur a "non-employee" like Rush to issue a mea culpa. San Antonio cannot be happy.

Perhaps we are witnessing a tipping point in Talk radio, where the public has reached its limit of how much vitriol, insensitivity and outrageous behavior it can take. Interesting times, to be sure.

No doubt there have conference calls all weekend. This isn't the free-wheeling company that Randy Michaels ran pre-merger. Will Sandra Fluke bring Rush Limbaugh's head to liberals and the Democratic party, (who have wanted it since 1998) thus becoming a hero? I'm gonna say, probably not.

Sandra Fluke starts as an MSNBC commentator when?

borderblaster said:

No doubt there have conference calls all weekend. This isn't the free-wheeling company that Randy Michaels ran pre-merger. Will Sandra Fluke bring Rush Limbaugh's head to liberals and the Democratic party, (who have wanted it since 1998) thus becoming a hero? I'm gonna say, probably not.

Sandra Fluke starts as an MSNBC commentator when?

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While RL's comments were very intemperate, this whole thing is a tempest in a tea pot, just enough for people to not pay attention to the incredible gas prices and the President's remark that the U.S.'s energy needs will be with algae, and his Energy chief saying that high gasoline prices were not the administration's priority.

sdwulfdawg said:

this whole thing is a tempest in a tea pot, just enough for people to not pay attention to the incredible gas prices and the President's remark that the U.S.'s energy needs will be with algae, and his Energy chief saying that high gasoline prices were not the administration's priority.

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Yep, they love a good diversion from the real problems.

Go Rush - based on the people you're upsetting, you must be doing something right!

I think this thread highlights a major problem with syndication. Hosts like Rush and Hannity have their own little fiefdoms. They are islands unto themselves. That's fine when they're new and fresh and on track. But, like an actor with no direction, they can easily drift into patterns that don't well serve the stations that carry them.

"Tweaking" used to be an important part of a good PD's job description. Now they're powerless to do anything with the "plug & play" schedules they're charged with overseeing.

Reports are many advertisers have quit Limbaugh's show already. List reported to include both sleep mattress accounts including Sleeptrain plus Pro Flowers plus Quicken Loans plus Citrix plus LegalZoom plus Carbonite (with critical statements from the Carbonite CEO). More may follow and this could easily cost the syndicators millions in lost ad revenue which is very hard to replace these days. Wonder if they will still have to cough up fifty million a year for this hate speecher.
All the smiley faces on the internet won't cover up the fact that this is a Limbaugh disaster.
Why would anybody call this woman a slut and prostitute when there is zero evidence any of this is so.
Doesn't hurt a guy with over a hundred million in tax exempt municipal bonds and new young wifey number four.
God Bless you Rushbo. You are the greatest.

As opposed to the whole KFI fiasco, in which I documented management's feeble, inept, and in the end, counter-productive response to the John and Ken tempest in a teapot, here is something close to PR done right, from the CC national PR flack:

"The contraception debate is one that sparks strong emotion and opinions on both sides of the issue," Premiere Networks said in a statement emailed Sunday by spokeswoman Rachel Nelson. "We respect the right of Mr. Limbaugh, as well as the rights of those who disagree with him, to express those opinions."

Notice the lack of an "I'm sorry". Maybe Rush apologized, but management isn't and is backing the talent. What, Carbonite and 1 800 flowers, won't be on going forward? Oh, the misery of it all. Next thing you know, Rush will be on KRLA instead of KFI. C'mon, let's get real here. Rush has had hundreds, if not thousands of advertisers over the years. Once this little charade is over, other advertisers will be glad to fill the void by reaching out to an audience of literally millions of devoted listeners, particularly in an election year.

By the way, I will soon be looking for a new online back-up provider (and withholding any more recommendations of their products to my clients). It all goes both ways, Carbonite.

randy chase said:

Why would anybody call this woman a slut and prostitute when there is zero evidence any of this is so.

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The issue of whether contraception is something the government should mandate as a "right" or whether this is an intrusion on issues that are personal and moral and religious. Each side has its points and counterpoints. Discussing them is democracy at its best.

Did Limbaugh go out of bounds? Most would say he did. A free society pardons occasional transgressions like that... red or blue.

Doesn't hurt a guy with over a hundred million in tax exempt municipal bonds

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Good for him. Many of us shy away from munis right now, because of the fear of default as a product of government largesse. Munis and their tax-exempt status were created to encourage investing in bonds that pay for infrastructure improvements around the US; roads, reservoirs, schools and public works of other kinds. Such bonds pay less interest than most corporate bonds, so municipalities benefit from paying less interest.

Would you be snide about an athlete, inventor or entertainer who invested that way?

and new young wifey number four.

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Wow. Ad hominems towards Limbaugh in the process of criticizing him for ad hominems towards the law student.

Anyway, anyone on the talent side of radio who says they have not been fired at some point is a liar. And anyone who says they have not had marital problems including divorce is also lying. It comes with the territory.

randy chase said:

Reports are many advertisers have quit Limbaugh's show already.

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Reports are that these advertisers have "suspended" ... not "quit" ... their schedules on Limbaugh's show. Big difference.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rush take time off and spin it as some kind of suspension. If listeners and advertisers perceive that "something is being done," the ad schedules will be resumed that much sooner.