Why I do not believe there are 20 million Rush dittoheads

[Zuni]

20 million is roughly 15 percent of the population. Do you really believe that 15% of the population drops what they are doing between 12-3 to listen to Rush? I don't. Most people are at work between 12-3. And who do you know who sits around during the day listening to te radio?
Most listen to the radio in their cars and I bet a lot more people listen to rock, hip hop or oldies stations in their cars than to Limbaugh.
20 million means that each of us would know many loyal Rush listeners. I can think of one or two who listen to Rush on occasion. Not nearly as devoted as Limbaugh would have us believe.
And I would say 20% percent or more are liberals, listening to the enemy communications, like me when I do listen. I can't deny that I listen to RW talk radio, but it is a perverse pleasure that I only do in my car, alone. It is like watching a sinking ship, a burning house, a derailed train. I cannot help but spy on the enemy.
Others are merely checking it out, kind of like stopping next to a car wreck.

[theorist]

1. Great Point.

Also, one would expect that DU would be flooded after his every utterance of "democrat-underground-dot-com", which does not seem to occur. Unfortunately, though, I tend to believe the stuff about Bill O'Reilly's followers. Thom Hartman mentioned that O'Lielly's call for a boycott of French products is having a real effect.

[Zuni]

6. It wasn't just O'Reilly

a lot of public figures called for boycotting France, probably including Rush

[Myra]

2. Actually you can calculate exactly how many Rush dittoheads there are

Just take the total number of Oxy's produced for
the US market, divide by the average daily dosage,
and normalize by milligrams of active ingredient per unit.

[caledesi]

3. Just wait til the spring, when we have liberal radio.

Big surprise for the felons on hate radio (Rush, Ollie North, G. Gordon Liddy etc). Bye, bye....

[no_arbusto]

4. Hate to nitpick

But that's not even 7% of the US population. I think that even that is a high number though.
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/popclock

[Zuni]

5. oops

Thank you for the correction.
20 million is still way too many. Only Seinfeld had a following like that.

[AlFrankenFan]

7. I sometimes listen

only when I'm with my father. Now all of them on his side and my step-mother listen to him like he's a God. It's kind of weird, considering most of them work.

[roguevalley]

8. Rush says 20m but its waaay less. And O'Reilly too. Better closer to

200,000 for O'Reilly. He can't reach more people than
Fox broadcasts on. He just yells louder than most.

[roguevalley]

9. Rush says 20m but its waaay less. And O'Reilly too. Better closer to

200,000 for O'Reilly. He can't reach more people than
Fox broadcasts on. He just yells louder than most.

[Melodybe]

10. Neilson says that approximately 2.something million watch Fox news

basis. Combined only 8.6 million watch cable news. Puts things into perspective doesn't it. DAMN *BUSH IS GOING DOWN!!!

[monarch]

11. They use the most generous numbers possible.

I think I read someplace that they count "passive listeners." In other words, they count everyone within earshot of a radio playing Rush's show including places where the "listener" has no choice over the station e.g. a store or work area where only one person is listening. I think they also multiply a daily sample by five, ignoring the fact that people who listen at all tend to listen every day.

[forgethell]

12. I don't know how many people

listen to Rush. Two or Two Hundred Million, makes no difference to me. I'm not one of them. but I know a lot of people who do listen to radio during the day, at work. some of them HAVE to be listening to him.

[Lars39]

13. Truck drivers and anyone who has to drive a lot for their job are

two categories of listeners. The two family members I am sure listen to him fall into these categories. They're both male.

[YNGW]

14. From my understanding....

20 million means that there are 20 million tuned on any one day. So 100 people turn off the ignition to get out of the car and another 100 get in the car and crank it up. He loses 100, he gains 100. The total count during the day would have been 20 million who heard him. And then there are those who skip days and don't listen at all. And then there are those who hardly ever listen yet agree with him. So yeah, I'd say 20 million plus would be a fair figure.

Any news on how the purchase of the radio stations to counter-act Rush is going?

[Tripper11]

15. Ratings numbers are easily manipulated.....

and what I mean by that is that you can take the amount of listeners in a quarter hour segment, or various dayparts and massage those numbers as you see fit in order to establish your rate card ($$$ it cost to pay for advertising)
The point I am trying to make is that these numbers are quite erroneous at best. I did a radio survey when I was in college for a station and I would say easily that 75% of the people I spoke to had no idea what the stations frequency was, what their call letters were....they knew the stations catch phrase perhaps, "The Q Rocks" or whatever.
With presets, people tune in to what they want, set it and forget it. So when they are asked to fill out ratings books, they go with what they are familiar with as opposed to what they actually might listen to more reguarly.
So in other words, if the RW radio spew-a-thon in your town has tons of billborads all over the place, the chances someone with a ratings book remembering them are more likely thereby not giving an accurate reading as to actual listenership.

I don't know if this makes any sense, but I hope it helps.