Limbaugh is drawing new advertisers in 2013. Distributor: Rush doing 'very well'

NEW YORK - Rush Limbaugh’s distributor on Thursday said there is no denying the conservative radio host’s controversial comments about Sandra Fluke hurt advertising last year — but 2013 is apparently a whole different ballgame.

This year, Limbaugh is drawing new advertisers and recovering well after the major boycott he faced in response to his broadcasts on Fluke, Premiere Radio senior vice president and director of talk radio sales Dan Metter told the Talkers New York 2013 conference.


There was certainly a dramatic impact on the advertising sales in the wake of Limbaugh’s comments, Metter noted, but he said that just drove the company to find new sources of ad revenues.

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Metter, who repeatedly referred to the advertising boycott of Limbaugh as simply “the challenge,” said Premiere, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Media, focused its efforts on getting ads on air from entrepreneurial-based companies not handled by major ad agencies, such as LifeLock and LegalZoom.

“They’re not buying an ideology, they’re buying an audience,” Metter said. “And many of whom are advertising with our progressive radio hosts and our conservative radio hosts and everything in the middle. They’re not buying Rush’s ideology or Randi Rhodes’ ideology. They’re buying them because their audience buys tractors, their audience drinks soda, and their audience needs data backup. And that’s the place to get those types of customers. So we’re doing very, very well.”

They’re pacing ahead of this time last year, Metter said — and while January was a bit slow, the second quarter is picking up for the company that distributes Limbaugh and other talkers such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

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“Many of these companies, especially in this economy, need talk radio,” he said. “The endorsement of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Randi Rhodes and George Noory is gold to these guys. That builds their brands, makes their business. So where the challenge has been with regard to the controversy is we did have a little bit of a dip — a great deal of a dip in the second quarter last year after it happened — we’ve refocused and gone out after those entrepreneur based companies. And now, a year later, we’re doing very well.”

While Premiere’s Metter on Thursday said Limbaugh had bounced back substantially on the sales front, Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey has previously blamed the company’s advertising losses on Limbaugh calling Fluke a “slut” because she called on Congress to mandate insurance coverage of birth control, which sparked a major advertising boycott. Cumulus, which has 40 radio stations that air Limbaugh’s program, has a contract with the talker through 2013.

The Rush Limbaugh Program is reportedly considering ending its affiliation agreement with Cumulus Media in response to Dickey laying the blame on advertising losses on the conservative talker. Limbaugh’s program is still the highest rated talk radio show in the country.

Dial Global’s executive vice president of New York Sales John Murphy — which distributes shows from talkers such as Herman Cain, Bill Press and Thom Hartmann — added that advertisers today are simply scared of political talk radio after the advertising boycott. Talk radio has become so frightening for advertisers that even CBS Radio’s longtime talker Charles Osgood has been placed on a “do not buy” list, Murphy noted.

“I’ve seen Charles Osgood’s show on a ‘do not buy’ list — how can that be? How can that be? And if it is, it’s because the agencies become afraid,” Murphy said. “They’ve become afraid to recommend talk to their clients because they’re not educated on the benefits and the right uses of the medium. So we have to go out, and make them aware, and go beyond the 25 year old buyer and get to the CMO’s and CEO’s of these clients.”

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