Monday, July 14, 2003
John Carlson on 570 KVI announced today in the 5pm hour of his show that Rush Limbaugh would be leaving KVI effective October 9th. Here is the story via the Seattle PI .
Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere Networks, informed the station yesterday that it plans to "sever the relationship we have had for 12 years," said KVI program director Paul Duckworth.
The last Limbaugh appearance on KVI is set for Oct. 9. His new home will be Entercom-owned KTTH-AM (770); the program will air at 9 a.m. weekdays.
Fisher-owned KVI made an offer to keep Limbaugh on the station, he added. "We asked them very specifically if other parties were offering more money or more marketing; they said no," Duckworth said. "We did everything we could to keep him on KVI."
Now strictly speaking as a listener, I can only assume that there is more going on than is on the surface. And in a way, I think that KVI has brought this on themselves. I remember what life was like before KTTH. Seattle was a town with one conservative talk radio station. There was only one place for Rush to be. But in August of 2002 KVI made a decision to replace the highly rated Michael Medved show with Sean Hannity. A totally understandable move on their part since Sean was up and comming. But what was difficult on us as the listener is that they played hardball with Michael Medved and refused to release him from the non-compete clause in his contract. We as listeners were forced to what until January 2003 to listen to the Michael Medved Show. That then gave Entercom the time to develop KTTH with Micheal into the station that it is now. David Boze moved over to help out and Michael Savage also moved into the time slot that competed directly with John Carlson. It was fun to hear the change in quality of both stations as the rallyed to compete with one another. For years there was virtually no competion and now they were going to be challenged.
So it seems that playing hardball has now turned to bite KVI in the butt. As the most highly rated talk show, it will be very hard on them to lose the gravy train that is Rush Limbaugh. But if they go ahead and put Bill O'Reilly into the 9am-11am slot they will gain me as a listener during that slot. I wish them the best as they step into this next phase as a station. You guys are tough, you can do it. Whatever doesnt kill you will make you stronger. Please do not go away. Make the best of the next 3 months.
Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere Networks, informed the station yesterday that it plans to "sever the relationship we have had for 12 years," said KVI program director Paul Duckworth.
The last Limbaugh appearance on KVI is set for Oct. 9. His new home will be Entercom-owned KTTH-AM (770); the program will air at 9 a.m. weekdays.
Fisher-owned KVI made an offer to keep Limbaugh on the station, he added. "We asked them very specifically if other parties were offering more money or more marketing; they said no," Duckworth said. "We did everything we could to keep him on KVI."
Now strictly speaking as a listener, I can only assume that there is more going on than is on the surface. And in a way, I think that KVI has brought this on themselves. I remember what life was like before KTTH. Seattle was a town with one conservative talk radio station. There was only one place for Rush to be. But in August of 2002 KVI made a decision to replace the highly rated Michael Medved show with Sean Hannity. A totally understandable move on their part since Sean was up and comming. But what was difficult on us as the listener is that they played hardball with Michael Medved and refused to release him from the non-compete clause in his contract. We as listeners were forced to what until January 2003 to listen to the Michael Medved Show. That then gave Entercom the time to develop KTTH with Micheal into the station that it is now. David Boze moved over to help out and Michael Savage also moved into the time slot that competed directly with John Carlson. It was fun to hear the change in quality of both stations as the rallyed to compete with one another. For years there was virtually no competion and now they were going to be challenged.
So it seems that playing hardball has now turned to bite KVI in the butt. As the most highly rated talk show, it will be very hard on them to lose the gravy train that is Rush Limbaugh. But if they go ahead and put Bill O'Reilly into the 9am-11am slot they will gain me as a listener during that slot. I wish them the best as they step into this next phase as a station. You guys are tough, you can do it. Whatever doesnt kill you will make you stronger. Please do not go away. Make the best of the next 3 months.
