Rush Limbaugh blame: Rush Limbaugh’s ties with his flagship WABC station are waning over a reported loss in advertising revenues, with a source close to Limbaugh saying he might be forced to leave the broadcaster.
The New York Daily News reported that the parent company of WABC, Cumulus Media, has lost several million dollars after Limbaugh made a disparaging remark against social activist Sandra Fluke last year. CEO Lew Dickey confirmed in August that the top three Cumulus stations lost $5.5 million due to boycotts against Limbaugh over his comments, according to Politico.
Dickey said in March that the company was still having problems with ad revenue.
Capitol One, Geico, John Deere, Netflix, the New York Lottery, and Sears dropped advertising with Limbaugh after Media Matters called for a boycott.
But a Daily News source who is close to Limbaugh said that revenue was “very minimally impacted in the short term” after the host’s comments.
The source said, “Lew needs someone to blame, (so) he’s pointing fingers instead of fixing his own sales problem,” adding that Limbaugh is being targeted.
Limbaugh’s contract with WABC expires by the end of 2013.
Despite the comments, he is still the No. 1 radio personality.
“It’s a very serious discussion, because Dickey keeps blaming Rush for his own revenue problems,” a source close to Limbaugh also told Politico.
The source noted that “Dickey’s talk stations underperform talk stations owned by other operators in generating revenue by a substantial margin. It’s not a single show issue... it’s a failure of the entire station. And trying to blame Rush for that is not much of a business partnership.”
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