Some industry insiders are wondering if his AM days are over and if Limbaugh’s futures rest with satellite radio, where advertiser indifference wouldn’t penalize him. The problem? His audience is so old. “With the aging and decline of Limbaugh's audience, Sirius may not be as viable an option as it once was,” Darryl Parks tells Media Matters.

So here's where Rush is at. His radio patrons are probably not going to be able to offer any new contract this year, at least not unless Limbaugh is willing to work for pocket lint and bits of string, and there's no obvious new home for Shouty Shouty Angry Man anywhere else.

He used to be a kingmaker, you know. Republican leaders wouldn't dare cross him, and those that looked like they might have would rush to apologize to him lest their careers be ruined by he, the kingmaker, declaring to his audience that those lawmakers had to go.

He used to be big—and he still is, he'll tell you. It's conservative radio that got small. It's all everybody else's fault.