Trouble in the RW Talk Radio World?

[brooklynite]

Two related stories...

Goodbye and thank you, Melanie Morgan

We are sorry to report that Melanie Morgan is no longer with KSFO 560am. KSFO was unable to renew Melanie’s contract because of across-the-board budget cuts mandated by our parent company, Citadel Broadcasting. Other employees have been impacted as well.

Melanie has been a valued member of the KSFO staff since its inception of the “HotTalk” format in 1994. Previously, she worked for KSFO’s sister-station, KGO, as a reporter since 1983. She has reported on the scene from the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon; the Mexico City earthquake; and the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. Morgan’s on-air activism included an effort that removed the MTBE from gasoline in California, launched the historic recall of Gray Davis that led to the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger and most recently, standing up for the Marine recruiting station in Berkeley.

and.....

Sources: John Gambling fired from WABC

Sources confirmed Friday afternoon that WABC radio (770 AM) has fired veteran host John Gambling as part of a company-wide job slash and given his mid-morning slot to Curtis Sliwa.

Sister station WPLJ also seems headed for major changes following a scorched-earth fourth quarter financial report from Farid Suleman, chairman of the stations' parent Citadel Broadcasting.

Could it be that Right Wing demagogues don't pay the bills any more?

[Lint Head]

1. Next?

Limpballs? G. Going Limpy? Bill Dork? Midol Sandwich? We can only hope. :dem:

[musette_sf]

2. OMG, no more "Rambling with Gambling"?

my mother is going to have SERIES withdrawal pains over this!!111

(on edit, geez, it's the spawn of Gambling that got 86'd. i had no idea the old man croaked a few years ago.)

[rurallib]

3. Lord, I would pay money to see Hannity thrown out on his ass

That would be worth a major contribution to some true blue candidate!

[unkachuck]

4. watch it....

....we could be heading for a shortage of knee-jerking right-wing Commie-hunters....

....on the other hand, should you be waxing nostalgic for the Soviet Union,

http://www.soviet-empire.com/ussr/

[KharmaTrain]

5. They Have To Pay Imus Somehow...

Without having Disney's bankroll, many of the former ABC-owned stations, now owned by Citidel are joining the world of cheap, down-scaled radio. Where there were once three people doing a job, one will now do...and those who have big paychecks can either work for what they're offered or try to get that money elsewhere...it's easier to hire some loud-mouth 20-something with no family...as a former employer I had once said...find 'em, use 'em up, get some more.

Radio has been in an economic depression that is not unlike the housing collapse...for years large corporations kept their stock prices afloat with artificially high "stick" or license values. This also kept small competitors away by making it too expensive. But competition with satellite, internet and the proliferation of stations have diluted the earning power of most stations. Revenues have been falling for years and the forecast is even worse times this year.

It's just not Citadel...Sam Zell is cleaning house at Tribune, Cheap Channel continues to cut beyond the bone and CBS barely holds above water thanks to its deep-pocketed corporate parent.

Hopefully the next station Morgan works at will say "Shell" on it. Good riddence to that major source of air polution.

[krkaufman]

6. I'm not sure they've ever paid the bills.

It's very possible that their funders (Scaiffe, et al) are having to direct more of their cash to the campaigns this year, and so don't have as much money to spread around to subsidize Right Wing media.

[spooky3]

7. that's a very interesting idea

I'll bet you are right about that. They have always bought a lot of copies of books to help their mouthpieces make the best seller lists.

[tsuki]

10. I have done some preliminary work on the cost of the GOP bureaucracy.

It is very costly. "Think Tanks" alone must cost them over a billion a year. While the larger ones, AEI, Heritage, Hoover, Manhattan get large donations, there appears to be a "think tank" in every state. Add to that the "book sales," conservative functions like CPAC, sponsored news letters like the Weekly Standard, sponsored web sites, now we are talking real money.

The Sons of Privilege, like Richard Mellon Scaife (3.9 million a month trust baby,) seem to be backing off.

[spooky3]

11. Could there be a better argument for tax reform?

The idea that they have received so many breaks to preserve so much unearned income, which is then used in part to pursue the manipulation of the political process, is really appalling.

Thanks for the info and for your work on this.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. Hate radio has just about run it's course.

Even my repuke friends don't listen anymore. The days of the Rush Rooms and local businesses playing this crap are almost over. Even the repuke fascist kook that owns the tire place up the road now plays music. Until recently, he had Rush, O'Lielly, Hannity and all the other kooks playing all fucking day. He finally noticed that all his black business went away. He fucking just now realized he was cutting his own throat playing that racist crap. These people are SO FUCKING STUPID!

[stanwyck]

12. True. They saturated the market with

too many hate-talkers. Every station had to have their own blowhard. And now, their schtick is old and many in their audience now realize how ridiculous they sound when they repeat their talk radio info. Finally, people are calling the talkers and the listeners on their fake news. Really? Obama is a terrorist? Where do you hear that? Oh, on Fox and Friends. Well, they're wrong. In fact, they just made an on-air retraction. Again. Consider another news source. The more we counter-attack, the better. People should be ashamed of supporting these hacks.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Melanie Morgan having problems with Gambling? Who knew?

:shrug:

[melm00se]

13. it's cheaper

and can be more profitable to have piped in (satellite) programming content than it is to have local talent.

[Mountainman]

14. I think that the right wing talk phenomenon is fading out. They are becoming irrelevant.

They like to think they can control the political tide in this country but McCain is proving them wrong. They will no longer get to go to the White House because McCain or Barrack or Hillary won't have them.

They represent less than 30% of the population. Change is in the air. Who will tell them what to think when BushCo is gone? They will no longer be in lock step. There no longer will be anything to hold them together. No more blast faxes. No more right wing noise machine.