Tom Taylor started picking rumors about a week ago that Laura Ingraham was about to become a pioneer – taking her show to iHeartRadio. Now confirmation is coming from affiliates that Laura is either “in negotiations with” or will be leaving Talk Radio Network, which just lost Michael Savage a month ago.
Courts have generally been ruling that “Internet radio” is not “radio” for purposes of non-compete clauses in contracts. That might be the reason for this odd approach. Stay tuned. Can Jerry Doyle, Rusty Humphries and Phil Hendrie keep TRN afloat?
Taylor reports that Laura called a major market affiliate and told them Monday (yesterday) was her last day with TRN. Sure enough, Tammy Bruce is “guest hosting” today. With end of year vacations and holiday distractions, it could be January before people notice that Laura has left the building.
I was really confused this morning when I tuned into one of Laura’s streaming stations. I listened for quite a while, but over the course of an hour, Tammy Bruce never said she was filling in for Laura, nor did the station indicate it was the Laura Ingraham Show. But what I did notice was that the “call in” phone number was Laura’s regular number. I checked several other stations which all produced the same result.
The AP reports that Laura is gone from TRN. Politico.com quotes her as saying that “it was time to move on.” She is looking into other syndication options, according to Politico, and expects to make an announcement about her radio show “in the near future.”
Art, it seems to me, many many moons ago – a little Indian lingo there, that you voiced an opinion that content was the key to radio riches and that station ownership was no longer what it once was. Time has proven you correct. El Rushbo will stand as the ultimate rule for this. Although I stopped listening to Limbaugh during the Bush years his most important and lucrative days may be ahead. Success (content riches vs distribution riches) breeds imitation but I doubt that anyone will reach the altitude of EIB One. Radio distribution is less arcane and dishonest than motion picture distribution.
Rush still doesn’t want to play ball with Sirius/XM. Rush has a string loyalty to traditional radio – the ones that brung him to the dance.
The problem is talk radio may be losing critical mass. Let’s assume worst case and both TRN and dial global leave the format. That leaves you with just Clear Channel and Cumulus carrying their own shows and trying to sell it in markets where they don’t have stations. Salem is kind if a third in that list, but their offerings are stale and will never draw serious numbers. Dennis Prager is no Rush Limbaugh.
If you’re an independent radio station with talk format, what do you do now? You’ve got several really small syndicators – Radio America (Roger Hedgecock), GCN (Alex Jones), USA Radio Network (can’t think of a show they carry), Business Talk Radio, Bloomberg, lifestyle… Is Rush by himself enough to support your station? Or does becoming a CBS Radio sports affiliate look more attractive? Especially if Rush doesn’t bring in as much as revenue.
Radio is built around the idea if the P1 station – most people listen to only one station most of the time – the P1 listeners are your cash cow. If your lineup has Rush, but the rest of the day is infomercials and really weak 3rd tier talent, or things like Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard, will the hard core Rush P1 listeners drift away to something else?
A few years back she got in hot water with the network for trying to negotiate a new deal with another network and was suspended for a few weeks. It will be interesting to see if she does go to IHeartRadio. My local station for conservative news talk has an IHeartRadio function when you listen on the web.
She had worked at Westwood One until 2003 and quit. TRN was the place people (like Phil Hendrie) wound up after they left another job and weren’t necessarily in a strong negotiating position
http://www.rbr.com/epaper/pages/July03/03-133_programming2.html
Yes, but if I recall, sometime later she was off the air for a week or two and it had to do with her trying to negotiate something new behind TRN’s back.
That sounds kind of right – that’s similar to the box Savage was painted into (and Howie Carr) – contracts that say you can’t start negotiating with another radio company until after the current contract has expired (at which point you’re off the air and in a much weaker negotiating position). Savage getting free from TRN probably laid the foundation for Laura following his lead – Mark Masters (the son of Roy Masters and operator if TRN) is probably fed up with talking to and paying lawyers.
TRN has not filled the 9PM – Midnight vacancy still – after shuffling the deck chairs, Savage’s empty slot wound up at 9 PM – for now, they are refeeding the Rusty Humphries show recorded from 3-6 PM – once or twice around the election, Humphries did a live show in the evening.
If I were a radio personality lusting after a network job, if I read what Savage said during his time trying to leave, my lawyer would be triple checking every word of the contract and refuse the “just trust me” clause.
Since we now know Dial Global has actually repping the shows, Dial Global’s financial problems have got to be straining their relationship to the breaking point.
One of the outcomes of the mediation with Savage was TRN was forced to cough up money for legal expenses and I think some additional money to terminate the contract early. Savage may still end up owning TRN if they’re short on cash
I wonder if Jedediah Bila could be lured to radio ? But she is pretty good looking and may not want radio, since you can’t see her ?
Ummm Ummm Good !
Best Regards
Parrott
http://t.co/Eq15MdLp
I don’t own a TV, so it’s been a long time since I’ve seen Lou Dobbs. Can he move any face muscles any more?
Why do men interrupt women when they speak?
“Why do men interrupt women when they speak?”
I don’t know Art. Zimmerman is obnoxious.
Question is: Is it ok to hit on a woman that is 11 years younger?
I would have loved to have been that sweater she had on : )
LOL –> Lou don’t have any face muscles that move !
Is he still on the radio? I tried listening to him a couple times in the past, but he wasn’t hitting on the financial crisis like I thought he would.
‘Jedediah’ what a name, lucky sweater!
Parrott
He does little 1 minute news blurbs, but his “long form” radio show is long gone. He never was able to make traction in getting affiliates