The first station to brand itself around Rush Limbaugh has become the final one to eliminate that branding.
Darryl Parks reports that “Rush Radio 99.5” WRNO New Orleans converted its branding to the more generic “News Talk 99.5” as Clear Channel continues to pull away from positioning their stations around Conservative voices. At one point Clear Channel had spread the “Rush Radio” branding to since rebranded Talkers in Boston (now Business), Greensboro, Raleigh, Vero Beach (since sold and flipped) and West Palm Beach.
Parks’ post goes into detail the programming issues surrounding branding a station around one personality.
Clear Channel also used the Rush Radio brand in Boston on a station that’s now leased to Bloomberg Radio.
Branding around a host is silly. I wish CC would update the branding at KTOK and KXXY in Oklahoma City, their current branding at these stations looks dull and boring.
The talk market is dominated by WWL AM/FM, which Entercom has kept it highly local after all these years.
WRNO effectively exists now to clear CC/Premiere talk product. Their talk format is not going to move to a translator.