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Three Syndicated Conservative Talk Shows May End: Gorka, Bongino, Shapiro

Sabastian Gorka, 3 to 6pm ET on the Salem Radio Network and Dan Bongino, 12 to 3pm ET on the Westwood One Network, may join the new Trump Administration. I don't think they could work in the government and do a three-hour weekday syndicated radio show at the same time. Will Salem and Westwood One hire replacements for these hosts? Will there be an understanding that when their work with the administration is done, they can return? Notice Salem brought back Larry Elder after his unsuccessful bids for California Governor and U.S. President.

And in another thread, we learned Westwood One has already told affiliates that the Ben Shapiro Show will not be offered in the new year. I believe he airs weekdays for one hour at 3 p.m. Originally he had a three-hour show but cut that back to just his one-hour podcast a few years ago. Will Cumulus offer another one-hour show to replace Shapiro? When he reduced his schedule, two other conservative talk hosts got one-hour shows on Westwood One to partially replace Shapiro, Matt Walsh at 4 p.m. and Michael Knowles at 5 p.m.
 
One other name you should add is Dennis Prager, who was hurt in a fall, and hasn't been hosting his daily show:


It's possible that his injury will result in his show going away, and another opening in Salem's schedule.
Will Salem and Westwood One hire replacements for these hosts?
Cumulus has been replacing a lot of its national hosts with their local hosts. For example, KIx Brooks has been replaced by KPLX's Ryan Foxx. So we may see some local names offered to replace Shapiro. They won't hire replacements, but expand the roles of existing staff. I wouldn't be surprised to see more announcements on Monday.
 
IMHO they will find a replacement if the show is billing well. They most likely will try out the producer if he / she has the same the same point of view.

Personally I would try to hire the podcaster with the most followers that has the "correct" politics
 
Sabastian Gorka, 3 to 6pm ET on the Salem Radio Network and Dan Bongino, 12 to 3pm ET on the Westwood One Network, may join the new Trump Administration. I don't think they could work in the government and do a three-hour weekday syndicated radio show at the same time. Will Salem and Westwood One hire replacements for these hosts? Will there be an understanding that when their work with the administration is done, they can return? Notice Salem brought back Larry Elder after his unsuccessful bids for California Governor and U.S. President.

And in another thread, we learned Westwood One has already told affiliates that the Ben Shapiro Show will not be offered in the new year. I believe he airs weekdays for one hour at 3 p.m. Originally he had a three-hour show but cut that back to just his one-hour podcast a few years ago. Will Cumulus offer another one-hour show to replace Shapiro? When he reduced his schedule, two other conservative talk hosts got one-hour shows on Westwood One to partially replace Shapiro, Matt Walsh at 4 p.m. and Michael Knowles at 5 p.m.
Westwood One has also said that the cuts include the Michael Knowles show and the Matt Walsh show from their stations.... I'm not even aware of what stations carry their show.... I think at one point KRVN in Nebraska carried Knowles show. I remember it was announced with Knowles shortly after the first time he filled in for Rush Limbaugh that he would be getting his own show.... Apparently someone was listening and liked what they heard.
 
Dennis Prager already cut his show to 2 hours back in February. Salem offered their other early afternoon show Charlie Kirk to affiliates that lost an hour of Prager. So if his show ends, Charlie Kirk could just replace him for those 2 hours.
 
Looks like Bongino will be gone:

Wow that's bad news for Cumulus. His podcast is one of their biggest shows. Expect their stock to drop. Again.


Triton Digital is releasing its January 2025 U.S. podcast ranker based on weekly average downloads for participating networks. The top four remain unchanged with NPR’s “NPR News Now” at #1, followed by “Up First” at #2, Cumulus Podcast Network’s “The Dan Bongino Show” at #3 and iHeartRadio’s “Stuff You Should Know” at #4.

It makes sense. He comes from the same revenge camp as Kash. Expect all dems to come under investigation.
 
Boo hoo
 
Good….. maybe they can bring in someone who is actually impartial and attract new listeners.
Even if such a person magically existed, it would draw no listeners. Talk radio is not built in any way to be impartial.
 
Even if such a person magically existed, it would draw no listeners. Talk radio is not built in any way to be impartial.
You clearly don’t know what your talking about or anything about the history of radio. The highest listenership in history of spoken word radio was when it was pure news. NPR has talk shows that are largely impartial and they get huge ratings.
 
You clearly don’t know what your talking about or anything about the history of radio. The highest listenership in history of spoken word radio was when it was pure news. NPR has talk shows that are largely impartial and they get huge ratings.
The last impartial commercial talk host that was modestly successful was Jim Bohannon, and he died 2 1/2 years ago. Clark Howard retired and Phil Hendrie left radio entirely and does a podcast instead.

The vast majority of syndicated commerical talk show hosts are pale xeroxes of Rush—who died four years ago—because that's reflective of the AM stations they are on and the listener bases they have. An impartial host would be as much of a flop as Mitch Albom was in syndication 20 years ago.
 
The last impartial commercial talk host that was modestly successful was Jim Bohannon, and he died 2 1/2 years ago. Clark Howard retired and Phil Hendrie left radio entirely and does a podcast instead.

The vast majority of syndicated commerical talk show hosts are pale xeroxes of Rush—who died four years ago—because that's reflective of the AM stations they are on and the listener bases they have. An impartial host would be as much of a flop as Mitch Albom was in syndication 20 years ago.
Jim Bohannon was not impartial:

Clark Howard still does a podcast:
 
Jim Bohannon was not impartial:

Clark Howard still does a podcast:
I remember seeing the promotional materials The Mitch Albom Show put out to try to get stations to pick them up.

Even the picture on the cover of the brochure was dull.
 
You clearly don’t know what your talking about or anything about the history of radio. The highest listenership in history of spoken word radio was when it was pure news. NPR has talk shows that are largely impartial and they get huge ratings.
What are these impartial NPR talk shows that you speak of?
 


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