Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Woes Continue, Is His Career About To Be Over?

Rush Limbaugh’s ratings woes are continuing, and left-wing sources are reporting the news with something approaching glee, National Ledger is reporting.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the latest blow to Limbaugh and his talk-radio empire came from Boston, where he was dropped from flagship radio station WRKO. A new Boston station, WKOX, picked up The Rush Limbaugh Show, but it was little comfort: WKOX is described by Media Matters as a “bottom-rung” radio station with just a 0.6 share of the Boston radio market.

But Boston is only the latest Limbaugh woe as far as big-market radio stations go.

“[Limbaugh’s days as the king of talk radio seem to] be dwindling as the Boston fall from grace has previously played out for Limbaugh in places like Los Angeles and Indianapolis. In each instance, Limbaugh exited a prosperous, longtime radio home and was forced to settle for an also-ran outlet with miniscule ratings.”

The New York Daily News writer, David Hinckley, points to a single, defining moment as the beginning of the end for Rush Limbaugh: his controversial remarks in 2012 about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. Fluke had spoken openly about her belief that birth control should be covered by health insurance at private, religious institutions. Limbaugh took umbrage.

“What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception.”

Limbaugh would later apologize, but the damage had already been done. Advertisers began fleeing the show in droves, and Hinckley speculates that the fallout from the Fluke controversy may bode poorly for Rush when his contract with syndicator Premiere expires in 2016.

There may be more at play to Rush Limbaugh’s ratings woes than simply fatigue at his remarks and his brand of conservative bombast, however. As former talk-show host and media blogger Daryl Parks puts it, the talk radio format itself is becoming a victim of changing habits when it comes to listening to radio content.

“Today’s talk radio is fast fading into the sunset because of a format stuck with 1990s rhetoric. [The] constant right-wing political drumbeat no longer resonates.”

Still, rumors of the death of Rush Limbaugh’s radio presence may be premature and greatly exaggerated, says radio-industry watcher Tom Taylor.

“Rush still makes money for Premiere. Through his show and related off-air activities (including the website run by Premiere). But it’s probably not as much as he brought in in 2008.”

In other words, Rush Limbaugh’s ratings woes may lead to a (comparatively) smaller contract after 2016, but don’t count him out just yet.

[Image courtesy of: Getty Images / Bill Pugliano]