Tuesday, May 25, 2021

The Radio Industry is Strange

Earlier I posted, and a few moments ago I deleted, a rant about how I had wanted to listen to the debut of the Dan Bongino Show as a replacement for the Rush Limbaugh Show and I missed it, blaming neglect of the website/app for iHeartRadio.

I had expected it to hear it yesterday on AM 1150 The Patriot KEIB, which was literally formatted around the Rush Limbaugh Show. But when I listened yesterday morning, it was a (repeated, I assume) guest host on the late Rush Limbaugh's show. I couldn't figure out why the website wasn't streaming Dan Bongino, and why the Twitter account for KEIB, an iHeartRadio station, didn't explain what was happening.

Turns out even though Bongino is replacing Limbaugh pretty much using the infrastructure Limbaugh built, in the Los Angeles market, his show is running on AM 790 KABC, a Cumulus station. So yesterday, KABC listeners tuned in and heard Bongino speaking fondly of Rush Limbaugh, who didn't air on KABC. I realize the show is national, but it still seems strange it wouldn't air on 1150.

So now I have to wonder what's going to happen to The Patriot, which airs Hannity in the afternoon. How much longer will they run "Rush Limbaugh"? Is the entire format going to flip soon? Or will they try to fill that slot with a local show? Some other national show? Maybe they'll just give up and run paid infomercials.

UPDATE May 27, 2021: OK, it makes sense now. I fell for some radio marketing hype BS that said Dan Bongino was replacing Rush Limbaugh. That wasn't true, at least not literally. Bongino's show might be replacing the Rush Limbaugh Show in some markets, but he's not taking over Limbaugh's actual show or even his place (as we've seen in the Los Angeles market).

Today, the news broke that Premiere Networks, which is an iHeartMedia subsidiary, announced Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will be the actual replacements of Rush Limbaugh.

There may be some markets which carried Limbaugh which are opting to go with Bongino instead of Travis and Sexton, but Travis and Sexton are the actual heirs to the Rush Limbaugh Show.

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