-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KNX onto … 97.1??
- Thread starter Jstnpspck
- Start date
iHeart's LA cluster is too successful to blow something up. They have the same situation in NYC.
They need the FCC ownership rules to change, and that won't happen under the current administration.
New York’s almost a totally different story. It’s not a market receptive to talk radio, and iHeart bought WOR for vertical integration more than anything else (WWRL was bought solely to clear Black Information Network). Meanwhile, I can’t think of a single FM in their NYC cluster that’s an underperformer by any stretch.
Having The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show on a New York flagship station was a big deal to Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia). In the early 2010s, there was a strong possiblity that the then-Cumulus-owned WABC was going to cancel the shows, so Clear Channel bought WOR. Both shows were transferred to WOR in the beginning of 2014.
You just gotta love the business acumen displayed by Cumulus:
"Nah, we don't want the biggest AM radio personality of all time and another hugely popular personality with his own highly successful prime time cable show on our AM station; let's just hand them to the competition."
KIRO in Seattle moved their news/talk format to FM 13 years ago.
They were the worst of the big consolidators. Only lasting bright spots were the SF/DFW/etc clusters they bought from Susquehanna.
Neither happened. No goodbyes, last shift voice tracked, at 3pm; a NOW sweeper, a little less than the first minute of a song, and KNX cutting in mid-speech.
At the time, the biggest personality had just pissed off the advertising world, and they all wanted their spots dropped from his show. Cumulus didn't want to lose the business.
Cumulus planning to drop Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity
<p>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.</p>
www.politico.com
At the end of the day, the show stayed on the other Cumulus stations except WABC.
I had winter days in laramie where KNX was audible all day... sometimes now mind you, it would be barely have the noise floor at 1pm.. but it was there. It was my best most consistent farthest signal in Laramie.
All of the other station owners were smart enough to see the staged tempest in a teacup for what it was, and quite profitably stood by Rush. The Dickeys stood by Sandra Flucke.At the time, the biggest personality had just pissed off the advertising world, and they all wanted their spots dropped from his show. Cumulus didn't want to lose the business.
Cumulus planning to drop Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity
<p>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.</p>
At the end of the day, the show stayed on the other Cumulus stations except WABC.
Rush went on to cement his legacy as one of the greatest (and most profitable) broadcasters ever. The Dickeys on the other hand, were forced out of their own company just a few years later. Again, brilliant decision making by Cumulus. There should be Harvard Case Studies about how to run a company into the ground at warp speed written about these guys.
Last edited:
The fact is the advertisers who pulled out back then still don't want their spots to air in his show, even though he's been dead for 8 months.
One of the reasons why iHeart moved Rush to KEIB was because the ad boycott was hurting KFI.
The ad boycott didn't apply to all news stations such as KNX, and they became the repository for a lot of agency money.
Well, let's remember that Clear Channel owned his syndication. And "standing by" varied in some markets. In L.A., six months after losing WABC in New York, Clear Channel moved him off KFI and onto KEIB.
Last edited:
Seems to me iHeart made similar moves in several markets in addition to LA. Rush was moved to weaker talk stations. Entercom kicked him off WRKO at this time:
So Cumulus was not the only radio company that made changes with Rush.
Just one last thing about the call letters:. A big reason for KNX-FM calls to return would be to clean up that TOH ID, what a mouthful! Keep it simple. "KNX, KNX HD1 Los Angeles", after dropping the HD subchannels that are no longer needed
A whole lot of handwringing over call letters. In a PPM world, it simply doesn't matter anymore.
I'd agree but I also don't understand why it wouldn't happen. It's a silly thing to debate either way.
Does anybody know what happened to "CBS News on the Hour" ?
As you may recall, Cumulus threatening to cancel Limbaugh was in the wake of the Sandra Fluke incident with advertiser boycotts kicking in), and hey they wouldn't have minded not paying those fees and giving up all that inventory. Cumulus (still under Dickey) launched The Mike Huckabee Show as the "kinder, gentler conservative" against Rush.
It would have to be: KNX and KNX-FM HD-1 Los Angeles as KNX and KNX-FM are legally two separate stations. And right now they still have to mention KRTH HD-2, so it is a mouthful!
- Status