Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes

[StClone]

Media Matters


http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905050007

Eric Boehlert

Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes
May 05, 2009 11:22 am ET

Even for a pancaked industry like radio broadcasting, which has become somewhat numb to years' worth of mass layoffs triggered by hyper, corporate consolidation, and more recently by an over-the-cliff advertising recession, last week's HR wave of mutilation unleashed by industry giant Clear Channel Communications must have felt like a pile-on.

Drowning under massive debt and desperate to cut more costs, Clear Channel took an ax to its payroll -- again -- and hacked hundreds of radio pros out the door. Program directors, morning show hosts, production pros, news anchors -- all of them tossed over the side. A "bloodbath," one newspaper called it. (In Albany, New York, the entire on-air staff at a Clear Channel music station was sacked; same with a radio outpost in Exeter, New Hampshire)

The most recent blizzard of pink slips (one industry report pegged it at "nearly 1,000") came in the wake of a January purge, in which 1,850 Clear Channel employees were let go. So already this year the company has shed nearly 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce. Also, last week, Clear Channel's parent company announced it was suspending its matching contributions to employee 401(k) retirement programs.

Clear Channel, the conservative-friendly media behemoth with a soft spot for right-wing radio -- and which emerged earlier this decade as the poster child for everything that's wrong with runaway media consolidation (aka "The Evil Empire") -- is now hanging on for dear life. "It's a house of cards," radio watcher and Clear Channel expert Alec Foege recently told me, noting the company's crippling debt payments, which are due at a time when advertising revenues are vanishing. (Foege is author of 2008's Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio.)...

...And yet Clear Channel's most famous employee, Rush Limbaugh, remains oblivious to it all. I sometimes wonder what Limbaugh thinks when he reads about the not-so-slow-motion collapse of his radio employer while lounging in his 24,000-square-foot Florida estate or motoring in his $450,000 car to the airport to ride in his $54 million jet. Does Limbaugh feel bad? Does he feel a little guilty? And does he ever think about giving some of his riches back so that thousands of radio colleagues wouldn't have to be bounced to the curb?...

More at the link.

[gratuitous]

1. Bwahahahaha! "Does Limbaugh feel bad?" Bwahahahaha!

:rofl:

I know that Boehlert is asking a totally rhetorical question, and he knows the answer even before he typed it. But damn, the very notion that Rush Limbaugh cares about anyone except who he sees in the mirror is preposterous in the extreme.

[StClone]

6. This is going to get interesting

If Pig Man's employer goes belly up, and he can not be provided for, who will pick up this toxic pustule's contract?

[gratuitous]

7. I'd bet his overpriced contract is guaranteed

No way Rush is subject to the vagaries of the free market like some common peon. That's for the simpletons who listen to his three hour daily hatefest.

[StClone]

8. Doesn't a Clear Channel bankruptcy

possibly render the fulfillment of contract subject to the bankruptcy provisions? If there is no value how will Pig Whine get his millions?

[gratuitous]

10. Guaranteed by an insurance policy

So even if Clear Channel disappears tomorrow in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and every advertiser blows away, some insurance company somewhere has been collecting premiums and will be on the hook for paying Rush's contract.

[muntrv]

2. Rush doesn't think at all, let alone about his fellow clear channel employees.

[msongs]

3. ad rates on their local station are way stupid high. we don't even consider using them nt

[BrklynLiberal]

4. It would help the company back into the black if they cut Limpballs from the payroll.

Clear Channel had been a tool of the RW for a while....so perhaps they are just reaping what they had sown.

[Happyhippychick]

5. Clear Channel is just as pukeworthy as Rush - glad to see their demise and hope to see his soon.

[Horse with no Name]

9. Somehow, I feel elated at any of these people losing their jobs

after what they did to the Dixie Chicks...maybe the universe is righting itself after all.
Well, that, and providing the daily 10 min of hate with limpballs at the helm. I hope they all rot in hell.

[Initech]

11. Clear Channel could drop a hell of a lot of baggage if they axe Limbaugh.

Why do they pay that asshole that much money? Better yet, WHO is paying that asshole that much money? There has to be some conspiracy that is keeping Limpballs on the air, with the $400 million salary that he's making.

[defendandprotect]

12. Isn't Randi Rhodes supposedly signing on with them ... ????

I thought she was supposed to return sometime in May?

[snake in the grass]

13. In his own words...

...the slug has decided to not take part in the recession. I'm sure he's just fine with the current situation.

[DBoon]

14. sociopaths by definition do not feel guilt

does that answer the question?

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Limbaugh doesn't give a shit, as he said to the Times...

in an interview last year.

He gets about 38 million a year, and his show is the biggest money maker for Premier Networks, the syndication subsidiary for Clear Channel. (Glenn Beck, btw, gets 10 million a year from Premier) I don't know how many of the 600 channels Pigboy is on are CC owned, but Premier syndicates him to some of them, which is a guranteed income. And, CC said last year that its syndication income from Premier is what kept it from sinking already-- its music staion and billboard revenues are tanking.

He got a $100 million signing bonus, but that's already paid and doesn't count as future earnings. Maybe the contract would be voided and save CC 38 million bucks a year to dump Pigboy, but they're making money off him, so why do dat? And, there's merchandising and boocoo other revenues they get out of him.

Rush Limbaugh keeping 600 radio stations alive is simply more evidence that we are indeed seeing the end of civilization.

[TexasObserver]

16. Since Clear Channel is a rightwing propaganda arm.

I suspect their require employees who share their political view.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Not At All...All They Care About Is $$$$$

I have several friends who either work for or used to work for Cheap Channel...and they're definitely not "conservative". If anything, in radio, many keep their political affiliations or preferences to themselves not out of fear of being fired, but because it has no bearing in operating an Urban or Top 40 station.

BTW...Cheap Channel just hired Randi Rhodes and owns a majority of the Progressive talk stations in the country. I suspect Randi doesn't share the same political philosophy as Mark Mayes or John Hogan who run the company.

[Azooz]

18. Here's what Rush thinks about the "Recession"

EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: Limbaugh Mocks Recession During Speech To Wealthy Right-Wing Donors


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/05/limbaugh-mocks-recession/


LIMBAUGH: But during all this growth I haven’t lost any audience. I’ve never had financially a down year. There’s supposedly a recession, but we’ve got - what is this May? Back in February we already had 102% of 2008 overbooked for 2009. So I always believed that if we’re going to have a recession, just don’t participate.

[cascadiance]

19. Speaking of "over the cliff", Cliff Albert of Clear Channel is looking to be fired in San Diego...

You know, the guy that didn't do anything to stop KLSD from getting killed there when it was doing better in ratings for its signal than both prior formats and formats after they went away.

And now it sounds like KOGO, there conservative talk station there is also in big trouble...

From Roger Hedgekock's former producer there..

CLIFF ALBERT TO BE FIRED AT KOGO?

After presiding over the firing of most of the news department and those in other departments at Clear Channels KOGO radio in San Diego, it seems clear that Cliff Albert's time for pasture has come. We're told he retains his title as Program Director, but has little programming to direct and mostly gives directives to his head of promotion who has nothing left to promote. Cliff and his promotion assistant may be dispatched as a team.

And it appears that KOGO may be on verge of boarding up the doors and windows (to ward off vandals) entirely. The Lovely Macarena emails this gleaning from Radio & Records (http://www.radioandrecords.com/rrwebsite20/Members/ShowHeadLine.aspx?ContentID=49040&ContentTypeID=106&Archive=0&FormatId=11


KOGO is now farming out its NEWS(?) to Los Angeles. KFI (CC's LA news/talker) will pick up news reporting in San Diego….and if there are further cuts at KFI, then San Diego news may be covered from CC corporate HQ in San Antonio. (both cities have SAN in their names). But we are told that in the event of a major news event (read: Wildfires, terror attack, Swine Flu expansion, serial killer etc) in San Diego, then KOGO will dispatch one of the two remaining reporters employed by the station, tho that reporter will have to drive his/her own car since the stations mobile units have all been repoed by Drew Ford.

I don't want to sound like an old fogie but it do make me long for the olden days. Back in that day we couldn't renew our broadcast license (TV or radio) unless we could prove on a continual basis that we broadcast in the PUBLIC INTEREST. What, force private enterprise to SERVE? That ain't capitalism. Free enterprise must be free. Well yea except when you are using THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES!!

Don't look now but you own the friggin airwaves. And if a local radio station back then decided to cover local news by remote control from some foreign town upstate you would keep your license to broadcast for exactly 15 seconds.

But hey don't get upset. The good folks in LA will keep you informed as the San Diego wildfire of 2009 consumes your entire neighborhood.

Pay no mind to local radio telling the hometown to "screw yourself," what you need to be mindful of is the effort afoot to SILENCE ROGER HEDGECOCK. Now that's really important. Roger who?

You gotta figure if you are gonna get local news from KFI, why not just tune into KFI? The station pipes in here pretty good. Better yet, go to KNX. They actually staff a person in San Diego to report for KNX from San Diego on San Diego news. How novel is that…a reporter reporting on a town and actually being in that town. Does the FCC know about this?

Macarena has long been saying The End Is Near. I'm starting to believe that gal.