Limbaugh's Success From This Former Radio Guy's Perspective

I did not see Rush Limbaugh's speech at the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), but I did read some of the transcript. Mehh. Same old Rush, saying things some really love to hear, despite how ridiculous it looks in print.

Thinking of Rush, I get a kick out of his tired old meme about a liberal media. It is terrific marketing, however. Look at it this way: If, by and large, you have a nationally syndicated radio show that gets a 5% market share in the major markets, you will be very wealthy. Regardless of whether the other 95% of the people find you deplorable, laughable, dismissible, or a useful tool to their own cause of rounding up the idiots, as long as you have that 5%, you will be very successful. (The number is admittedly arbitrary, I don't know Rush's actual numbers market-to-market, but they are just a small piece of the pie. The point is, it's a bigger piece than most others' individual pieces.)

So why hasn't liberal radio succeeded by following the same formula? Well, so far, much of liberal radio is dull radio, and thus will not reach Rush's popularity. A huge reason for Rush's success is that from the start of his rise to success, he brilliantly positioned himself against the rest of the media, which he called "liberal." So the rest of the media "wins" with a cumulative 95% share (including music stations), but Rush really wins because he's alone with his 5%. Liberal radio, on the other hand, has struggled largely because its representative voices identify the enemy as right-wing radio (Rush, Hannity, etc.). Simply refuting the lies and B.S. of your foes makes for very boring radio.

Liberal shows like Stephanie Miller's, however, have a good chance because she: 1) is talented, 2) takes the mainstream media to task in some instances, and 3) sometimes takes a few liberties in how she represents the Right's positions (although rarely as inaccurately as Limbaugh does to the Left's). It's all about finding that niche, and you don't even need 5%, either.

I should note that my bias shown above is much more strong than my overall left-leaning bias in American politics. It is simply my disdain for Rush Limbaugh coming through.