from mediaite........
Major Radio Broadcaster Planning To Drop Limbaugh, Hannity At End Of The Year
by Josh Feldman | 9:19 pm, July 28th, 2013» 45 comments
Cumulus Media, the second-biggest radio broadcaster in the country, will be dropping Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from its stations by the end of the year. POLITICO reports thatnegotiations broke down between Cumulus and the conservative hosts’ radio distributor Premiere Networks over distribution rights.
Back in March, Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickeyadmitted that they were still having problems with advertisers over Limbaugh’s Sandra Flukecomments over a year after he made them. As a result, Limbaugh was reportedly considering cutting his ties to Cumulus, around the same timeMediaite learned from an insider that “the vast majority of national advertisers now refuse to air their ads during Rush Limbaugh’s show.”
Whether Limbaugh was still considering to depart or not, Cumulus has preempted any potential move on his part by ending its relationship with the two Clear Channel hosts.
Cumulus has decided that it will not renew its contracts with either host, the source said, a move that would remove the two most highly rated conservative talk personalities from more than 40 Cumulus channels in major markets…As industry insiders caution, Cumulus and Clear Channel have come to the brink before during contract negotiations only to resume talks. But the source told POLITICO that Clear Channel was unlikely to reduce the cost for distribution rights to a level that would satisfy Cumulus.
No one involved in the story (Cumulus, Premiere, spokespeople for Hannity and Limbaugh) has made a comment to POLITICO yet. It was reported in May that 48 out of Cumulus’ 50 top advertisers “exclude Rush and Hannity” from their ad buys (although Clear Channel denied it at the time).
(h/t) Dylan Byers, POLITICO
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