Hannity FINALLY learns about corporate radio consolidation

[alp227]

stumbled upon this bit of the Feb. 7 Sean Hannity Show (the radio one not TV) where Ins...sorry Hannity commented on how corporate radio consolidation is ruining the industry and tying it to Jay Leno's retirement and Scott Shannon (the Top 40 DJ who also is the show voiceover announcer) moving from WPLJ to WCBS-FM. Excerpt, from the 1:30 mark:

...you've got these dumb owners in radio and TV, You've got these dumb managers. They are clueless about the connection a talent has with their audience. They do not get it, I mean you got radio companies gutting and splitting and cutting...all the things that used to be done to make radio successful...It is very frustrating. They do it for a quick, quick buck and end up killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

from the 4:30 mark. Hannity says the reason why Jay Leno was successful was because his humor related to "Middle America" not just the Coasts:

There is this growing mentality I can tell you in media that you got guys sitting in offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco... they think they know better and they have no clue about what people in 48 other states think about and how they live their lives and what their daily lives are really like.

At 6:30:

You know what happens with a lot of these guys? They end up driving their companies into near bankruptcy and pocket millions on the way out with their golden parachutes. And to hell with any investor that puts money into these companies.

Scott Shannon is currently the morning drive host at NYC's oldies station WCBS "101.1 CBS FM" and has been a mainstay of NYC top-40 radio for decades, previously as morning host at 95.5 WPLJ since the '90s. Wow...did you know that he also is the voice of the Sean Hannity radio show?

And Sean didn't say it, but if you've followed the industry you know he was talking about Cumulus in his rant. In a statement quoted by the American Spectator two weeks earlier, Hannity stated:

Despite all the spin and propaganda it was my decision to fire Cumulus at the end of my contract and partner with Premiere and other great radio stations around the country. It was extremely difficult working with Cumulus… and to watch them literally destroy many heritage talk stations… such as KGO, WLS, KABC, and many others… and fire some of the best and brightest managers and PD's in the industry.

I live in the KGO listening area and went through Cumulus purging all the weekday local talk shows from KGO and replacing them with a generic news format already used by a competing station.

NOW Insannity wants to diss the radio industry business model that propped up guys like him, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and that whole string of 2nd and 3rd rate right wing propagandists? really?

[Jenoch]

1. Hannity is part of the problem of the homogenization of American radio broadcasting.

Actually, he is the result of the consolidation of ownership of radio licenses. Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 a broadcast licensee was limited to 25AM and 25FM station with no more than three in the same market. The total limit was removed entirely and one company can own up to about eight stations in any market (it depends on how many stations there are). Cumulus, Clear Channel, and other companies now own many stations that used to be owned by small companies. It's the worst thing to happen to radio broadcasting in the U.S.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. Hannity expects to inherit Limbaugh's audience....

Trouble is, Limbaugh's audience is dying off faster than Limbaugh.

Hannity will be lucky to get a couple of old guys in Florida listening on an old dial radio....



....while playing Canasta.

[W T F]

3. Wow! Listen to that Communest criticize the "free market" :-)