Rush Limbaugh’s supremacy fetches him $400 million contract

After dominating the radio for almost two decades, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has been recruited to continue through 2016. Clear Channel Communications Inc. offered an eight-year extension of the contract, in a lucrative deal worth $400 million.

That is an increase of about $14.4 million a year, over his current contract of $285 million-for-eight years, which is set to expire in 2009.

Premiere wouldn't disclose details, but according to The New York Times Limbaugh confirmed that he would be getting a nine-figure signing bonus and would make about $38 million a year.

The influential orator hosts a three-hour show, broadcast from his office in Florida, which is heard on some 600 radio stations across the country. More than 14 million people listen to him at least once a week, according to Talkers magazine.

"This is exactly where I want to be, doing what I was born to do, with an amazing audience and phenomenal support from affiliate stations and sponsors," Limbaugh said in a statement. "I'm having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have."

The deal underlines Clear Channel Communications and its syndication subsidiary, Premiere Radio Networks, belief that Limbaugh’s brand of conservative talk will prosper well into the next decade.

Such money has never been offered to in radio since Howard Stern moved to Sirius Satellite Radio for a reported $500 million in 2004.

“I’m not retiring until every American agrees with me,” the 57-year-old host of ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’ said on air on Wednesday.

Authorities are trying to sustain public’s interest in the radio, as it fades from the threat of emergent technology and rising number of convenient entertainment options. Radio is further razed by a sluggish advertising climate.

In the last decade, there has been a drop of 16 per cent in the total time spent listening to radio, according to data compiled by Arbitron, the measurement firm. This, in turn has repelled advertisers. Nielsen Monitor-Plus, an advertising information service, noted that there was a 3.6 percent decline in national radio spending last year.

Separately, Clear Channel's Premiere is in advanced talks with another conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity, who's a close second to Limbaugh with an audience of more than 13 million each week. The company is reportedly trying to rope him in for an eight-year contract worth about $200 million.