Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

Talk Radio didn’t need Lew Dickey dumping on it a few years back when he publicly denigrated the format as being too old and then picked a fight with talk’s biggest star, Rush Limbaugh.

But that’s nothing compared to what Clear Channel has planned.

It’s one thing for a dinky outfit like Cumulus to play mindf@#k with talk radio but it’s quite another when Clear Channel moves to replace talk.

I know.  I know.

Clear Channel owns Premiere and Premiere has contracts with the two biggest talk radio stars – Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

But friends like Clear Channel and Cumulus, talk radio doesn’t need.

Now we are beginning to see the exit plan from the format for both of the two talk giants left standing.

And it isn’t going to be pretty.

You just know that seventy-something Michael Savage is not the Cumulus answer.  He seems like a placeholder at best until Cumulus can get the next act ready.  And the next act isn’t a talker.  It’s a cheap new replacement format.

And even Premiere is staring down the end of Rush Limbaugh’s days when his $400 million eight-year contract renewal ends in 2016 that included a $100 million signing bonus.

By 2016, talk will be dead and buried along with many of their remaining avid baby boomer listeners.

That’s bad enough, but what’s coming is worse.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

1. The go-to replacement format for talk radio at both Clear Channel and Cumulus.
2. Clear Channel’s Plan B for Rush Limbaugh.
3. Which stations get converted first.
4. The temporary roadblock that has slowed down Cumulus’ exit from talk.
5. The second replacement format for talk radio – just in case.

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