There's no question that the intrepid StopRush and FlushRush activists deserve a lot of the credit for this, but Cumulus, America's second biggest radio chain announced that they can't make any money on Limbaugh's show any longer and that they won't be renewing his contract at the end of the year-- making their 40 outlets that have carried him Limbaugh-free zones. And they're dumping Sean Hannity's GOP propaganda show at the same time. Radio Industry columnist Tim Taylor put the good news into perspective for his insider readers:
“Negotiations broke down” between Clear Channel and Cumulus, says Politico’s Dylan Byers. The issue? “The cost of the distribution rights.” Byers says “Cumulus is known to drive a hard bargain on costs, and Clear Channel is known to seek top dollar for big names.” Certainly, CC has not been shy about sometimes repatriating its shows from competitors. We’ve been speculating for over a year about Cumulus dropping Rush and Hannity on historically important affiliates like talk WABC, New York (770). That’s presumably why Clear Channel acquired WOR (710) last Fall, as an insurance policy. But Politico thinks the end-of-year bust-up would affect Cumulus stations up and down the line, not just WABC or Chicago’s WLS (890). The talent shift would be the biggest thing in talk radio in years-- and presumably would let Cumulus feel good about keeping its avails in-house, instead of handing them over to CC-owned Premiere. Lew Dickey might get lower ratings, but (he thinks) a better bottom line. Byers says “in recent weeks, Cumulus has been quietly reaching out to radio talent agents and political insiders about new local and regional station hosts to fill some of the airtime that will be left vacant by Limbaugh and Hannity.” Of course Cumulus has talent like Mike Huckabee and Mark Levin. Another thing-- we know that Rush doesn’t like it when Dickey blames his stations’ revenue woes on the advertiser resistance to Limbaugh.
UPDATE: THE LIMBAUGH SPINAgain, we turn to Tom Taylor's radio industry column and find Limbaugh claiming all the chatter about him being dumped by Cumulus is "just a business negotiation":
So out in the open, it’s Cumulus-versus-Clear Channel, Round umpty-something. Limbaugh says “I want to get something out of the way here at the top” of yesterday’s syndicated show. And that is-- “nothing is going to change.” Reading between the lines, maybe something is, but Rush says “You are going to be able to get this radio program on as many if not more radio stations down the road than it is on now.” Notice that he doesn’t say “the same stations.” He does say that “negotiations have been taken public by one side of this when I thought it was done, I thought it was over with.” One source who’s previously dealt with the various parties tells this NOW Newsletter that “Cumulus can be unpredictable.” The Cumulus-Clear Channel deal for Limbaugh and Sean Hannity isn’t up until the end of the year, so there’s plenty of time for Secretary of State John Kerry to intervene. Just kidding-- this one might take Kerry plus Hillary Clinton plus Henry Kissinger. The Dickeys have to be weighing the future market value of Limbaugh’s show, given the advertiser headwinds, against their situation if they put their own less highly-rated talent on, and keep their avails.
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