Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes

[DeanCollins]

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905050007

Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes

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.)

As The New York Times noted last week, "It is too soon to say who will be the biggest loser among media companies in this recession. But Clear Channel Communications is vying for the title."

Clear Channel's fall from business grace remains epic in its proportions. In 10 years time the company has gone from dominating a flourishing radio industry to a corporation that now teeters on the brink. (Clear Channel stock traded for $90 a share in 2000. When the radio company went private last year, pre-crash, the stock was already down in the $30s.) Lots of over-extended, debt-ridden media conglomerates are struggling through today's deep economic recession, but few face a future quite as perilous as the one staring back at the San Antonio radio giant.

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?

And I wonder what those pink-slipped Clear Channel employees -- some of whom spent decades working for the company -- think about Limbaugh as they're ordered out the station door and onto "the beach." (That's radio-speak for unemployment.)

I wonder about Limbaugh and the thousands of his laid-off Clear Channel colleagues, because the dichotomy is striking: Last July, just months before the radio economy went into free-fall, Limbaugh's bosses at Clear Channel, who enjoy deep ties to Texas Republicans and who have been at the forefront of promoting right-wing radio, rewarded the turbo-talker with the biggest contract in terrestrial radio history. The contract included an eye-popping 40 percent raise over his already gargantuan pay, despite the fact it's doubtful any other radio competitors could have even matched Limbaugh's old pay scale.

The astronomical worth of Limbaugh's eight-year pact: $400 million. The amount of money Clear Channel execs have been trying to scrimp and save this year as they lay off thousands from the struggling company: $400 million. Ironic, don't you think?

The simple truth is that Limbaugh lives in the lap of Clear Channel-backed luxury, while Clear Channel employees are being axed with abandon. And those who are lucky enough to keep their jobs are told to do the work of three or four employees.

Would cutting back Limbaugh's salary completely solve Clear Channel's financial woes? No. But there is something bizarre about Clear Channel going out of its way to so dramatically overpay the host while the rest of the company suffers through the throes of a depression. It would be like the bankrupt Tribune Co. paying its Chicago Tribune editor millions annually while the newsroom got decimated by wave after wave of layoffs.

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I heard on the radio today the RL makes more than Leno or Letterman. Man those right wingnuts are really sucking up the hate spew.

[SKINS@THEGOALLINE]

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905050007

Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes

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?

Does Rush feel bad? Of course not, good-old core, conservative values! :doh:

[boofMcboof]

Wow. No wonder Rush is so out of touch with reality, $400 million would distort anyone's perspective.

[Henry]

Why should Rush care? If Clear Channel goes under someone else will give him a show.

I hate his show, but he's the QB of that football team. No one cares if they have to cut a few backup linemen to keep him happy.

[DeanCollins]

Why should Rush care? If Clear Channel goes under someone else will give him a show.

I hate his show, but he's the QB of that football team. No one cares if they have to cut a few backup linemen to keep him happy.

wow! you equate 3,000 people's jobs to "a few backup linemen"?

[Henry]

wow! you equate 3,000 people's jobs to "a few backup linemen"?

It's an analogy. Sorry it wasn't perfect.

I'm no Limbaugh fan but the big stars get paid a lot even when little people are losing their jobs. Clear Channel didn't invent that.

[DieselPwr44]

How is it Rush's fault that his employer gave him a new contract with a big raise.

That's on the employer not Rush.

Just your regular old Rich people are evil article....

[Predicto]

Clear Channel made a big miscalculation when they overpaid Rush, but that isn't Rush's fault. He doesn't owe those other workers a thing. That's the free market at work.

[Bang]

That's show business. He gets ratings.

~Bang

[Prosperity]

There are plenty of reasons for Rush have trouble sleeping at night, this isn't one of them...

[Califan007 The Constipated]

It very well may have been Limbaugh's show that helped keep Clear Channel afloat a little longer than it normally would have. It's like paying Kobe gazillions of dollars even if you end up laying off people working in the concession stands and in the front office: he generates money for the company.

The idea that Rush needs to feel "bad" for becoming a huge success because others are being laid off is asinine.

[USS Redskins]

Obama made a few million last year and there is 10% unemployment... maybe he should be giving a little of that back, too?

[Burgold]

Yeah, this is one of the few things I wouldnt' hang on Rush... On the other hand, Clear Channel is a little bit like Detroit and the Big Three. Conservative Radio was great in the'50's. Now, that clunky dinosaur is just a pile of rust and betrayed dreams. The American public can only be fooled for so long. (Mind you the over under is 300 years) Still, hyperbolic political shock jocks who worship party over truth and ratings over the good of the country ought to see their flocks disappear.

that was fun to write. Mwahahaha

[IONTOP]

I cannot wait for the day Clear Channel is bankrupt and has to sell their stations to local people...

REAL RADIO is coming!!!

[rdsknbill]

Sorry. Can't resist!

[ECU-ALUM]

Yeah, this is one of the few things I wouldnt' hang on Rush... On the other hand, Clear Channel is a little bit like Detroit and the Big Three. Conservative Radio was great in the'50's. Now, that clunky dinosaur is just a pile of rust and betrayed dreams. The American public can only be fooled for so long. (Mind you the over under is 300 years) Still, hyperbolic political shock jocks who worship party over truth and ratings over the good of the country ought to see their flocks disappear.

that was fun to write. Mwahahaha

Agreed as much as I can't stand Limbaugh...he isn't in the board room making the upper-management decisions that led to Clear-channel's demise.

[Lloyd Braun]

Media Matters is reporting negatively on Rush? Shocker.

[Baculus]

To Limbaugh, the folks being fired are "losers." As Limbaugh said at a dinner the other day:

"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. [applause] So I always believed that if we’re going to have a recession, just don’t participate. [laughter]"

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/cheneys-man-limbaugh-mocks-recession-wh

So, here he is laughing it up while people at his channel lose their jobs.

The article also asks, "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?"

I doubt if Mr. "Rugged Individualism" Limbaugh feels a twang or remorse or sympathy for anyone being laid off. He has never demonstrated a predisposition for any sort of empathy towards other human beings.

[DieselPwr44]

I doubt if Mr. "Rugged Individualism" Limbaugh feels a twang or remorse or sympathy for anyone being laid off. He has never demonstrated a predisposition for any sort of empathy towards other human beings.

So if your boss came to you and gave you a 40% raise along with a new contract, you'd immediately turn it down or would you sign on the dotted line and run to the bank?

Where's my waders at?

[ACW]

Why should Rush care? If Clear Channel goes under someone else will give him a show.

I hate his show, but he's the QB of that football team. No one cares if they have to cut a few backup linemen to keep him happy.

Can we get those linemen? :hysterical:

[jnhay]

I'd be willing to bet that they're not overpaying him. Yeah, he makes a ton, but he also makes a ton for the company. It's not his fault that he's one of the few bright spots.

TERRIBLE article btw. You'd think they'd at least estimate how much he makes single-handedly for the company.

[Baculus]

So if your boss came to you and gave you a 40% raise along with a new contract, you'd immediately turn it down or would you sign on the dotted line and run to the bank?

Where's my waders at?

I probably wouldn't turn down the contract, but at the same time, I would not be yucking it up and acting boorishly while people in the company are being fired.

I am usually not oblivious to the plight of other people within an organization (especially if I was in a managerial position, which I have been in the past).

[rdsknbill]

Honestly, Clear Channel has been going down the toilet with terrestrial radio for years. Now people want to blame Rush for that demise? I don't like the guy, but get real.

[Baculus]

I'd be willing to bet that they're not overpaying him. Yeah, he makes a ton, but he also makes a ton for the company. It's not his fault that he's one of the few bright spots.

TERRIBLE article btw. You'd think they'd at least estimate how much he makes single-handedly for the company.

From what I have read, Limbaugh's show is freely provided to some radio channels, so that may be affecting their revenue stream.

[jnhay]

I probably wouldn't turn down the contract, but at the same time, I would not be yucking it up and acting boorishly while people in the company are being fired.

I am usually not oblivious to the plight of other people within an organization (especially if I was in a managerial position, which I have been in the past).

It's odd to me that many people think that Rush Limbaugh really cares about anything but ratings.

From what I have read, Limbaugh's show is freely provided to some radio channels, so that may be affecting their revenue stream.

Don't they get most of their money from commercials anyway?