At the beginning of his program today Rush Limbaugh announced that he has signed a three year extension to keep his program on Cumulus owned stations across the country. That includes 890 WLS Chicago, 820/96.7 WBAP Dallas, 630/105.9 WMAL Washington, and 760 WJR Detroit.
The one exception to that will be in New York, where Limbaugh will move from Cumulus’ 770 WABC to Clear Channel’s 710 WOR on January 1, 2014.
It is expected that Sean Hannity will depart Cumulus’ stations at the end of the year and be replaced by Michael Savage in the 3-6pm daypart.
More details as they become available.
Hannity is well past his “sell-by” date, and Rush has obviously had his share of problems.
And yet, this STILL cripples WABC. Savage could possibly perform decently in the 3-6 slot, but Huckabee will be a ratings disaster that could drag down the rest of the ship into oblivion. And they have no answer for what happens should Imus retire or pass away.
Other losers here are Johnny Donovan (longtime imaging voice for Rush) and Scott Shannon (like duties for Hannity) who are both still Cumulus employees.
I finally got a chance to listen to Huckabee. Turns out a little weak stick, rim-shot in my area with brokered shows on the schedule runs it. Probably a pay to play deal for Huckabee, too. The show is very Salem-esque. Actually, the Salem hosts do “kinder, gentler” conservatism a lot better than Huckabee. Huck is not ready for prime-time. A good political speaker does not necessarily make a good talk show host. Funny thing is Huck started out as a radio guy but you can’t tell it from his show.
Unless Dr. Weiner changes his act, I don’t see him in PM drive.