Big talk radio realignment possible

American Thinker ^ | 07/30/2013 | Thomas Lifson

[SeekAndFind]

Hardball corporate negotiations may well end up causing some of the top hosts in the radio world to go head-to-head against each other in the same time slots. The two biggest players in the national radio market, Clear Channel and Cumulus, are clashing over renewal of the syndication arrangements for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the number one and two shows. Dylan Byers writes at Politico:

In a major shakeup for the radio industry, Cumulus Media, the second-biggest broadcaster in the country, is planning to drop both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from its stations at the end of the year, an industry source told POLITICO on Sunday.

Cumulus has decided that it will not renew its contracts with either host, the source said, a move that would remove the two most highly rated conservative talk personalities from more than 40 Cumulus channels in major markets. 

Cumulus, which owns "approximately 525 stations in 110 cities," gained ownership in 2011 of the important, big market, high powered AM talk radio outlets developed by ABC radio in the nation's largest cities. But the acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting, which had purchased the talk radio blowtorches from ABC, was expensive. And Cumulus has been struggling with its earnings, and has blamed Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke controversy for some of its profit weakness.

As Jeff Lord at the American Spectator put it, Cumulus "bit off much more than they can chew."

Among other things, the Dickeys [Lew and John, brothers who control the company] may have overpaid for the stations Cumulus purchased. A decent profit is a problem when, as the Atlanta-Journal Constitution noted, the $2.4 billion Cumulus deal to buy Citadel and its formerly ABC properties meant that

[FatherofFive]

Hannity will get killed going up against Rush.

[DManA]

I heard Beck yesterday call Cumulus a “garbage company”.

[longtermmemmory]

what head to head?

This is a radio network that is too poor to function.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Hannity lost me years ago with his “Good Friend (fill in the blank with any liberal puke) mess” and his fake “shoot outs”.

[Iron Munro]

Hannity couldn’t carry Rush’s water bottle.

[GraceG]

Hannity and Rush would be good to start their own companies like Beck has done...

[Arm_Bears]

Looking at the states in which I’ve lived, and listened to radio, during my adult life (Florida, Virginia, North Carolina)—Cumulus isn’t in a major market in any of them.

I mean, Blacksburg VA?

Cumulus can’t afford to pay the going rate on Rush.

[Alex Murphy]

Cumulus, which owns "approximately 525 stations in 110 cities," gained ownership in 2011 of the important, big market, high powered AM talk radio outlets developed by ABC radio in the nation's largest cities. But the acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting, which had purchased the talk radio blowtorches from ABC, was expensive. And Cumulus has been struggling with its earnings, and has blamed Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke controversy for some of its profit weakness. As Jeff Lord at the American Spectator put it, Cumulus "bit off much more than they can chew."

Can't wait to see what their rate sheet looks like, once they drop their highest-rated programs.

[Nip]

So, let get this straight. The empty heads spent too much money buying radio properties and their solution is to get rid of one of their most popular shows?

The last time I looked the rules-of-the-game said you could charge advertising rates based on the percentage of the listening audience that a particular show drew in its time slot and market.

This act means the company will lose revenue because whatever show that replaces the “loser” will not be able to bring in enough money to replace what the loser was bringing in.

Didn’t these empty heads learn from the collapse of “Air America” a few years ago?

[Don Corleone]

Does anyone else smell a Soros lurking here?

[Buckeye McFrog]

Replace them with what? Huckabee? Savage?
Jim Hightower on his third go-round of trying to become “The Liberal Rush Limbaugh”? Disco Polka?
Morse Code?

[Buckeye McFrog]

Does anyone else smell a Soros lurking here?

Soros would not have done a business deal as stupid as Cumulus.

[Colonel_Flagg]

"Hannity couldn’t carry Rush’s water bottle."

Typical excerpt of a Hannity segment:

"blah blah blah blah BLAH, blah blah blah blah blah BLAH BLAH."

"blah blah blah blah Bill Ayers, blah blah blah blah blah Bernadine Dohrn."

Back after this break with The Architect, Karl Rove, and I'm a Reagan Conservative."

[Squawk 8888]

Disco Polka

[Seaplaner]

You, my FRiend, are a good detective.

[pallis]

I would imagine a lot of Hannity’s listeners are Rush listeners who leave the radio on. Programmers and advertisers know better than to lose money by putting these two on head to head.

[DuncanWaring]

Hannity lost it when he spent the last four years whining about “Doesn’t Obama realize the adverse impact of ...?”.

Of course he realized it; that’s why he did it.

[gov_bean_ counter]

That too.

[Pining_4_TX]

After Rush, I switch over to the Schnitt show instead of listening to Hannity repeat the same things over and over. Schnitt isn’t great, but he’s usually better than Hannity.

Right now, what I am really enjoying is Mark Levin’s nightly roasting of RINOs like Rove and Tom Cole. It’s not a very convenient time to listen, though.