They did not have a nationwide audience, mainly because Clear Channel seemed amazingly half-hearted about building and maintaining an affiliate network for them.
Since they became syndicated they had lost Akron, Columbus, Wheeling (a 50,000 watt signal), Lexington, Huntsville, Allentown and Johnstown (John Murtha allegedly had a hand in that one)
Aside from Pittsburgh and Rochester they were left with a handful of really small markets.
My guess is they got scared when Quinn would not back-down on criticizing Muslims and they decided to isolate him on one-kilowatt AM stations out in the sticks.
What better options did they have for a morning show on their talk stations? Bill Bennett? WSJ Report? Bloomdaddy? Doug Stephan?
You are SO CORRECT about the syndication!