Limbaugh to Leave AM Station in Philadelphia

NY Times ^ | 4/9/12 | Brian Stelter

[raccoonradio]

“The Rush Limbaugh Show” is leaving the dominant conservative talk radio station in Philadelphia, one of the biggest radio markets in the country.

In its place on the station, WPHT, will go “The Michael Smerconish Show,” hosted by Mr. Smerconish, a native of the city.

snip

It is unclear when the change will take place in Philadelphia. The company that syndicates Mr. Limbaugh’s show, Premiere Radio Networks, declined to comment.

But Premiere has indicated that it will be moving Mr. Limbaugh to a new station in Philadelphia. Radio-Info.com reported on Monday that it might be WKDN, a Christian programming station that is expected to be turned into a news-talk station soon.

To the untrained eye, it would appear to be a step down for “The Rush Limbaugh Show.” WKDN, with a 38,000-watt signal, is a smaller station than WPHT, which has a 50,000-watt signal. But WKDN is an FM station, while WPHT is an AM station, and Premiere has shown interest in moving its talk radio shows over to FM stations lately.

The owner of WPHT, CBS Radio, said in a statement on Monday afternoon, “Premiere recently notified WPHT they will be syndicating Rush Limbaugh on a new station in Philadelphia. As a result, we are pleased to be able to now showcase Michael, who is a well-known and acclaimed broadcaster in the market, in this new time period.”

Mr. Smerconish is a relative rarity on radio: a moderate.

[Texas Eagle]

Heard of Smerconish. Don't know much about him.

On the political spectrum, is he closer to Al Sharpton or Rush Limbaugh?

Why doesn't WPPPPHHHHT replace Limbaugh with NPR?

[raccoonradio]

FM is a combination of power and tower--you can have lower power but a high tower and get good coverage. Here is the WPHT 1210 coverage map (if you ever want to see a station's coverage go to radio-locator.com and enter in call letters then click View Coverage Map)

AM radio by the way can be affected by such things as having to point the signal away from another station to avoid interference (some FMs are directional too). In Boston AM 1200 has to point the signal from the Newton transmitter due east after dark (as it turns out, toward Boston itself) to avoid other signals on the same frequency. WRKO AM 680 in Boston has to point the signal north and south after dark to avoid stations in Toronto, Baltimore, Binghamton, Raleigh, etc.

Rush should do fine. I did a yahoo search about WPHT dropping him; Daily Kos was ecstatic (and there was at least one site urging WPHT to drop Rush--they got their wish but he'll wind up on a powerful new FM station)

And speaking of power, Rush's new FM station in Fargo is a mere 96,000 watts!

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

[Mr. Smerconish is a relative rarity on radio: a moderate.]

LOL! Now we have the “Moderate” option.......Like Huckabee is not “Moderate”. That market is already dead and they will learn that the hard way. Conservatives are what resurrected Conservative talk radio, and are the only ones who care enough to actually listen and support the stations that air it.

Moderates are brain dead and watch Oprah and Phil Donahue for their political and mental “stimulation”

[Cheburashka]

But if they're stupid enough to drop Rush, then they deserve to fall into the waste pile of history.

---

They may be dropping Rush, and they may not. Rush might be dropping them, due to ongoing preemptions for baseball. Or a better deal at the new station.

In any case Rush will be heard by the people who want to hear him, and will continue to make oodles of money, as will the station he is transferring to, whomever that is.

The station he's leaving, well, good luck to them. It is possible to make money without airing Rush's show. But it is more difficult.

[mickie]

I listen to Rush on 580AM in the Philly area.

[mickie]

I listen to Rush on 580AM in the Philly area(Chester County).....comes in clear.

[Texas Eagle]

That's the part that cracks me up. In large markets like Philadelphia or where I live, in Sacramento, we can listen to Rush on 4 or 5 different stations.

The only losers here are the salespeople for WPPPPHHHHTTT!

[raccoonradio]

WPHT is owned by CBS, which does have some noted news or talk stations in different cities. Yeah, at this rate you’d think they’d pick up NPR but they allegedly want to make money.
(Not from taxpayer funding... :))

In Boston CBS’ WBZ is a powerful all-news station by day but then goes to talk with conservative Dan Rea followed by
liberal leaning Steve Leveille overnight. I’m not sure
if CBS is known for liberal talk, maybe some conservative.
(In many places they are doing well with sports, like
WBZ’s FM sister station in Boston)
Smerc. is said to be a moderate—went for Obama in 08 though was said to be conservative leaning before that.

[raccoonradio]

Entercom, owner of WRKO and sports WEEI, shifted the Sox to WEEI (and started to simulcast WEEI on FM) to better
compete against a new FM sports station in town. Thus probably no Sox pre-emptions on RKO, but sometimes there
are conflicts. Tonight for example while EEI has Sox-Blue
Jays, the Celtics are bumped to RKO with coverage starting
at 6:30 pm. Thus Howie Carr’s flagship has to bail out
at 6:30 (you’d think they’d put the Celts on WEEI AM
and Sox on WEEI FM but they’d rather have Sox on both...
similar conflicts may land some Sox night games on WRKO
while WEEI carries Celts playoff games)

There are some day games this time of year—Sox are
at 12:30 pm tomorrow, for example. Also some stations
like WVMT in Burlington VT are subject to sports
pre-emptions, in their case the Yankees.

[daler]

Yes, I can visualize it now...nearly all of Philadelphia literally shuts down as families huddle around their AM radios in anticipation of what Michael Smerconish has to say./s

[raccoonradio]

Talk radio does tend to work best with hosts who are solid conservative or, God help us, solid liberal. Moderates don’t cut it as much. Admittedly the slogan for talk host Alan
Nathan— “we want the Republicans out of our bedrooms, the
Democrats out of our wallets, and BOTH away from our First and Second Amendment Rights!” may appeal to moderates or
libertarians (Dennis Miller is the same way, liberal
on social issues—though he does half decent and may be exception to the rule).
But you’ll note Alan Nathan’s moderate stance means he’s
fairly unknown. (He also is nicknamed The Militant Moderate.)

I’ll bring up again that in liberal Boston the successful talk hosts tend to be conservative and the only reason
libtalk (commercial) is on in Boston is because someone
PAYS a station to have it put on. (Though admittedly
WTKK does have a couple moderates: Jim and Margery,
and Smerconish)

[Think free or die]

"Many people aren't very pleased with Michael A. Smerconish. "

He sets my teeth on edge. No 'there' there.

[raccoonradio]

Do you mean 94.7 out of Newark? Looked up on Wikipedia
and saw the following info:

>>On January 6, 2012, Family Stations applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change the license of WFME from noncommercial to commercial. This move followed the sales by Family Radio of stations in the Philadelphia (WKDN) and Washington-Baltimore (WFSI, now WLZL) markets, and quickly prompted conjecture from radio industry monitors that WFME would be sold next.] The application was approved on February 7, 2012.
WFME’s programming was also heard on two translator stations: W213AC (90.5 FM) in Hyde Park, New York; and W247AE (97.3 FM) in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. As a result of the license status change, the translators can no longer legally rebroadcast WFME’s broadcast signal and as a result both translator stations are currently silent of February 2012.

---

(Translators must be licensed to a non-comm. station I guess, and if WFME does indeed go commercial they’d be unable to rebroadcast)

Oh: and this radio-info.com thread said WFME is being
sold to...ESPN

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=209602.20

[raccoonradio]

more this time from Radio Ink
>>Does Randy Have A Conservative Trifecta Plan For Philadelphia?

4-10-2012

>>Much is being speculated about what Randy Michaels plans to do at WKDN-FM (106.9) in Philadelphia, especially after the announcement that CBS owned WPHT-AM lost Rush Limbaugh. Most syndicated agreements with affiliates include a 90-day opt-out and it appears that’s what happened at WPHT. The CBS Corporate office provided Radio Ink with this statement last night, “Premiere recently notified WPHT they will be syndicating Rush Limbaugh on a new station in Philadelphia. As a result, we are pleased to be able to now showcase Michael, who is a well-known and acclaimed broadcaster in Philadelphia, in this new time period.” When Smerconish is moved to the new time period is “to be determined.”

>>Smerconish was already airing on WPHT after Rush’s program. It’s also important to note that both Sean Hannity and Glen Beck are not on in Philadelphia. Both left the market in late 2010. A likely scenario for WKDN-FM, following a local morning show, could be for Michaels to land the conservative trifecta of Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck on his Philly FM. The move puts Limbaugh on an FM signal in Philadelphia which, little by little, is where a lot of news and talk stations are migrating to try to draw in the younger demos. This also guarantees the show would not be bumped by any Philadelphia Phillies games.
Michaels would only say to us last night that more details about the station would be coming “soon.”

http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=2431998&spid=24698

[mikelets456]

Smerkonish and his crew bash Christianity and are left wing hacks. I used to listen to him, but he is like listening to a rational and calm Ed Schultz. He’s a Philadelphia lawyer...what else is there to say?

[ak267]

Radio, much like tv and newspapers, better wise up. I now get my Rush on-line at work and through my car’s console computer. Keep playing games and many such as myself will go on-line permanently.

[brityank]

I glanced down the replies, but didn’t see that anyone else noted Rush is returning to his perch on FM. He used to be carried by WWDB-FM 96.5 until they got bought out and flipped to music; the line-up of WWDB moved over to WHTP thereafter. Hope WKDN builds itself up as the area’s Conservative Talker.

Ping.

[denydenydeny]

I can’t stand that phony Smerconish. He presents himself as a principled moderate free from the “crazy” positions of the “extreme” wing of the Republican party, even though I don’t hear him denouncing any Democrats in similar terms.

He always frames his political segments in ways that can only hurt Republicans, while of course presenting himself as an honest broker. His standard political segment runs something like this:

MS: Our question today is: Do Republicans kick dogs? As usual, we present both sides of the story and let you decide. Bring on our guests.

Democrat shill: Well, at this point it’s well known to everyone that Republicans do kick dogs.

Token Republican: No, Republicans do not kick dogs.

MS: Well, there you have it. Let’s see what the listeners think.

Caller: Hey Michael, Andrew Breitbart has video of a Democrat kicking a dog...
MS (furiously) DON’T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!!!

[Incorrigible]

Thanks! Yes, WFME was the station I was thinking of.

Kinda strange but even though Harold Camping used to bash Catholics on occasion, I still enjoyed listening to the Open Forum. Too bad he let hubris get to him.

So it looks like it’s going sports. WABC will continue to rule the AM airwaves. What’s nice is that WABC is broadcast on FM95.5 HD3 so the signal is nice and clear in the suburbs. But it’s on a nearly 5 minute delay.

[Land of the Pilgrims Pride]

Naw, schmerconish is far from a blue blood, no matter what kind of money his Huddled Masses and Wretched Refuse parents spent on his edumakation.

A blue-blood is one descended from royalty - an aristocrat. He is descended from central European immigrant coal miners who did the “movin’ on up” thing from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania to the vaunted Quaker Main Line.

Believe me, I know about this. My truly blue-blooded mother married the grandson of an immigrant coal miner, albeit that man ventured to America for reasons altogether different from Smerks’.

Also, if you are inclined to dismiss his blood lines, which would be rather ironic, the Main Line where I live, is not about money but about class and breeding, a point missed by the nuveau with their funny ethnic names.

They are ordinary in most regards, not ostentatious, not surly, and very moral and traditional. Smerk is fascinated with bling, hookers, drugs, mafioso, gambling, drink, slimy all around. He is the antithesis of the Main Line but the living image of “Jersey Shore”.

I mean really, his only claim to fame was working for Reagan as a young man. It really means nothing today except as a story of the type he enjoys to tell out of school.