General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why American and Britain are Self-Destructing [View all]hedda_foil
(16,371 posts)Rush Limbaugh's show was placed on most of those stations for free, for a percentage of ad placement/revenue. Who supported the costs of his show running in the red for what must have been years until enough sponsors could be found to actually pay for it? Who has bankrolled him and more of his brethren than could possibly draw large audiences? Who paid for major stations with nearly nationwide broadcasting power?
Limbaugh lost nearly all of his sponsors due to effective advertiser boycotts a few years back. His syndicator filed for bankruptcy. Nevertheless, he was paid $20 million or so with a likely percentage of ad revenues himself. Who created the right wing noise machine and put all those monsters on the air? Who bought the local stations and replaced all their shows with noxious propaganda and lies? It wasn't done because their show were popular because they weren't. Not for years and maybe not even now. They often replaced programming that was much more popular and the demand for change certainly didn't come from a pre-existing audience.
We know Rupert Murdoch funded Fox News for years while they lost millions each year. Who paid to create Limbaugh and his many clones? It didn't just happen. Nor, for that matter, did the sudden surge of right wing Xtian stations at about the same time.