While listening to an NPR story this evening about Rush Limbaugh’s lack of concern over the possibility of losing sponsors, I had a thought: what would a map of all stations carrying his show look like? I had AM station contours sitting around from the Red Sox Radio Rivalry map I made last summer. 526 of these contours matched stations listed on Rush Limbaugh’s site. Only 53 (of over 100) FM stations were then added to the mix; these are based on the FCC’s licensing database. To give an idea of how many people have traditional radio access to his show, I’ve mapped these stations on top of population density.
Mr. Limbaugh claims that losing 28 sponsors to him is “like losing a couple of French fries from the container when they’re handed to you at the drive-thru.” Assuming some diversity in regional advertising, this map (despite being admittedly incomplete) pretty much confirms this analogy.
