After dittoheads complained to Limbaugh about all the interruptions, the garrulous host got one station in New York to temporarily unplug it. But even Limbaugh may not be able to halt the spread of the system, called Cash, throughout the nation's airwaves. That equals as many as 12 more 30-second commercials. The machine momentarily stores the broadcast of a live show, creating an imperceptible delay. When the rebroadcast airs seconds later, Cash has reduced the pauses between words and shortened long syllables in order to add more space for the ads.
Cash is an attractive technology because of the record amount of radio advertising.
But Cash arrives at a time when commercials are already cluttering the air. The average station runs about 20 an hour today compared with just 10 to 12 during the 1980s. That may alienate radio's devoted fans. World Report Inc. All rights reserved.