RUSH: That’s right. Here we are right here, right now, at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. Great to have you here, El Rushbo, behind the Golden EIB Microphone at 800-282-2882, and, if you want to send an email, it’s ElRushbo@eibnet.us.
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the program, I got a fascinating email today from a friend thanking me for doing something. You know, it’s good. Sometimes I do need an assist in staying in touch. Now, don’t misunderstand here, the letter, the email thanked me for announcing what the latest audience figures, ratings are on the program, and I did this yesterday. I’ve actually mentioned it twice. But let me do it again just to set up the email.
As you know, for the last 30, 25 years, whatever, we’ve been floating between 20, 22 million people depending on when you take audience ratings. It’s a weekly cume number. Radio does ratings different than TV. We talk about average quarter hour, and that’s how many are listening in any 15-minute sweep during an hour. Then there’s the weekly cume and the monthly cume. That’s the grand total of everybody listening, the cume is. And there is the daily cume. The daily cume number here is up. It’s always been around 10 to 12 million, and that’s up too.
The upshot is that after the election, the audience of this program continued to grow. Subscribers at Rush 24/7 continue to grow. Subscribers at the Limbaugh Letter continue to grow. This is not usual. Now, hang on. I’m not bragging here. I’m setting this up to get to the email I got. And the numbers are just pouring in now for March, but prior to those numbers the weekly cume had been up now to 26 million and climbing.
Usually on a program like this when you have an intense election that features a campaign of a minimum one year or longer, once the election’s over, the results are in, the intensity usually lightens and fades away and audience levels go back to what their historic norms were. Not the case this year on this program. The audience has continued to build. So I mentioned this and the email I got thanked me for doing so.
“It’s good to know that it’s growing. It’s good to know that we can tune in here at noon Eastern time every day and know that like-minded people are still here and in greater number.” Now, I just assume everybody knows this. And maybe I assume too much, but I assume that everybody knows where the program ranks and that nothing has changed. ‘Cause believe me, if it had, that would be the only thing in the news. And so since that’s not in the news, I figured everybody was just up to speed. But that’s a mistake. I shouldn’t assume people know these things. So the emailer wanted to thank me for mentioning this because it was a reinforcement, like a validation.
Ratings are taken now constantly. It used to be they were taken four times a year. Now they’re taken constantly. They fluctuate depending on a lot of factors, which is why I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time talking about them. But I did because what’s happened here is phenomenal, actually, if I don’t mind saying so myself. And I just happened to mention it in passing and got this gratified thank-you email note, so I wanted to repeat that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Scarlett in Scottsdale. Great to have you on the EIB Network. How are you doing?
CALLER: I’m doing great! Thank God for you and answering my call.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: I’ve listened to you since 1990, and I used to live in California, and I took my little friends to Long Beach one time to see you, and I’ve listened to you ever since. And now I’m in Scottsdale, and I listen to a California station ’cause I like to listen early.
RUSH: Well, thank you very much. I remember there was a Long Beach, California, Rush to Excellence Tour stop. I remember it well.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Good to know you were in the audience there. It was a massive crowd.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Thousands and thousands of people out there.
CALLER: Yeah. And, you know what? You’re the only person for that length of time that could be trusted, counted on. And when… Let me tell you this: When I saw Donald Trump coming down the escalator (laughing) in New York to announce, I looked around to… There were some people in the house here, and I said, “He’s gonna win,” and then I got criticized a lot. But I kept it to myself. And no matter what happened, I knew he was the person for this country. And the reason I called is that I wanted to tell you: The reason listenership in your area has gone up is because no one can count on anything else for certain. There’s fake news. There’s fake radio. There’s fake newspapers. And you’re the one person that I can count on for truth.
RUSH: Really? There’s a lot of people out there. I’m “the” person?
CALLER: You are the person.
RUSH: That’s very nice of you to say. I really appreciate that, ’cause there’s a lot of people out there.
CALLER: There’s a lot of people out there. (giggles)
RUSH: Well, look, Scarlett, thank you very much. I appreciate it. You know, this whole ratings business, for the longest time — and I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds here, but I’m gonna be honest with you. I don’t even look at the ratings anymore. We had a meeting with advertisers last fall, and I told them, “You know, I don’t even look at ratings anymore. I just assume if something goes wrong with them, I’ll hear about it, and I never do. But I long ago ceased being a slave to the ratings.”
I’ve always tried to create what I call “ratings insurance,” ’cause they are gonna fluctuate. They’re gonna go up and down. This is why I don’t tie myself to any politician. They’re gonna go up or down, and I can’t control what they’re gonna say. I can’t control what they’re gonna do on their policies, or when they’re gonna change their minds. I don’t want to be the one that has to explain to people why some politician let them down. I told the advertisers, “The way I define whether or not this is working is how well you are doing as sponsors of the program,” and that’s also another metric.
But it is what it is. So when I was told what the numbers are and how they’ve skyrocketed, I’ll admit I was surprised, because it’s so against type. After elections, this doesn’t happen, and it’s happening in every area of our business here. So I appreciate Scarlett weighing in on this — and all of this has come up, again, if you’re just tuning in, because I got an email from somebody today thanking me for mentioning this. Because it’s validating and reinforcing of the decision to tune in here every day, and I just assume everybody is aware of the status of the program.
So that’s that. Again, Scarlett, thanks much.