Glenn Beck And Sean Hannity Dropped From Philadelphia Radio Station

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/19/beck-hannity-philly/#

Yesterday, hate radio hosts Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity had their nationally syndicated radio shows dropped from WPHT in Philadelphia, which is the second radio station to drop both of the conservative commentators. The moves were scheduled back in November 2010, and Marc Rayfield, market manager for CBS Radio in Philadelphia and senior vice president, said that WPHT wants to become “more of a locally based station.”

Just weeks ago, Beck was dropped from WOR in New York, but the most recent cancellation in Philadelphia hurts Beck even more. Beck got his start in Philadelphia, and many of his radio staffers still live in Philly, including Beck’s side-kick Stu. Immediately after being dropped yesterday, Beck dropped all affection for the city where he got his start, saying, “Philly sucks”:

“You know the killing streets right there in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia?” Beck told his producer. “You know how Philadelphia is not a place you want to be?” he added. “I’ll put you on a hidden cam and put you downtown at 6, 7 o’clock at night.” He could not believe his producer would be brave enough to walk around Center City at night. “Philly sucks,” Beck then said.

Last October, Hannity was dropped from KSL Radio in Utah, which is managed by Deseret Media Companies (DMC), a for-profit arm of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to reports, Hannity’s drop in Utah may have been due to a clash between DMC’s “Mission Statement,” which calls for the declaration of “light and knowledge” along with the advancement of “integrity, civility, morality, and respect for all people,” and Hannity’s constant lack of civility.

WPHT reportedly dropped both Beck and Hannity because they wanted more local talk content, but the most recent cancellations may be part of a pattern in which advertisers and broadcasters have become wary over the rhetoric spouted by hate radio. Color of Change reports that, so far, 81 companies have quit advertising on Beck’s Fox News show and Media Matter reports 100, including a list of those who haven’t withdrawn their advertisements.

[babylonsister]

1. Great news! People finally waking up??? nt

[MH1]

62. i live in philly and I'm not sure

some of the local personalities that they've given more airtime to now, are just as bad as Beck and Hannity.

remember Beck 'got his start' in Philly. Maybe WPHT made some money off that and figure they can do the same with one of the other local crazies.

I don't think the content has significantly improved, in fact moving Smerconish to afternoon (he was morning) is kind of a disappointment for me. Smerc is a little too centrist for me but at least he was listenable enough to be interesting at times. In a big picture view, I don't know if it's better to have Smerconish in afternoon than morning. (Even though I disagree with him on lots, he's been one saying Beck and Hannity are over the top)

Anyway, I'm happy not to turn on that station - which also hosts all the Phillies games - and take a risk of hearing Beck or Hannity, but I'm not sure it indicates any improvement in the sanity level.

[GreenPartyVoter]

70. I was afraid it was just a case of trading a nationally known meanie for a local one. :^(

[Oceansaway]

2. K&R...n/t

[snappyturtle]

3. Good. nt

[molly77]

52. Good news. They are irrelevant

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. I hope it was from the 30th floor.

:thumbsup:

[madmax]

6. lol nt

[Kennah]

10. Actually it was only the 12th ...

... and they landed on their heads.

[zbdent]

21. so no real damage, right?

[Oldtimeralso]

23. The Damage Was to the Street! n/t

[RichGirl]

30. That would be the second time they've both been dropped in their heads.

[jillan]

5. Maybe in light of what happened in Tucson, radio stations are re-thinking what they are airing?

Never will happen in my state of Az, tho they really should consider stopping the hate talk in Tucson.

[DCKit]

7. The legal exposure for propagating their hate over the airwaves might be a liability.

That would be a good angle for exploitation. It's one thing to lose sponsors, quite another to be named as a correspondent in a class action lawsuit.

[truth2power]

40. Interesting that you'd mention that. When I read the OP I thought, "deep pockets"...

Not that Beck doesn't qualify in that regard, but it's only a matter of time until some lawyer decides to go for the next level up in a wrongful death action.

IANAL, but I would speculate that these radio stations are legally at risk. Maybe it's not worth it to keep these two-bit punks on the payroll.

[DCKit]

68. Series? Why bother when people really only want to listen to music? nt

[truth2power]

69. I don't understand your response. n/t

[Chimichurri]

8. well, that took a long time. Great news though.

[Erose999]

9. Who are they replacing these guys with though? From what I hear Beck's replacement in NY is just as

bad or worse than Beck himself. He's probably cheaper from terms of programming cost and less repellent for advertisers too.

Some of the local jocks we have on talk radio here in ATL are worse than the syndicated guys.

[MH1]

63. exactly.

I can't recite the lineup but I'm pretty sure they're giving more airtime now to one of the local a*holes that I particularly can't stand.

[superduperfarleft]

11. “You know the killing streets right there in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia?”

:eyes:

Beck, you're a tool.

[Sheepshank]

12. Hmmmm, living here in Utah

I'm not noticing an uptick in civility or refudiating anything Palin.

[spanone]

13. dropped on their heads, i hope

[onecent]

14. Best news I've heard in a week! n/t

[lpbk2713]

15. It was all very scientific.

Beck & Hannity pegged the Arbitron Asshole Meter.

[Scurrilous]

16. K & R

:thumbsup:

[opihimoimoi]

17. As the World turns Smarter....the Becks and Seans will see diminishing Respect and Bankaccounts

as a result,....

Peeps are tired of GOPer Drama

[AsahinaKimi]

18. GREAT....

Maybe if more Radio stations did this, we would have a better world to live in.

[Enthusiast]

47. No question about it.

Hours of daily hate radio does not improve our condition.

[Joanne98]

19. YAY

[femrap]

20. Yippee!!! nt

[elias49]

22. Poor Glenn. His feelings must be hurt.

So now Philly sucks. How loyal!
Friggin' snake.

[dancingme]

24. WPHT moved Smerconish to Hannity's afternoon spot

Michael Smerconish had been the morning "talker" for a while. Smerconish is a moderate, especially on a conservative talk radio station. He supports Obama and usually defends him when the freepers call in. WPHT replaced Smerconish in the morning with a complete right wing nut who sounds like a Hannity wannabe. So the station is staying conservative with Smerconish in the middle for the ratings. Smerconish's ratings have increased in the last few years and his show is now nationally broadcast, but still done out of the local Philly studio at WPHT.

[delightfulstar]

25. No, BecKKK...Philly doesn't suck.

But you do, and so does Hannity.

I'm glad that someone in the media gets it. Kudos to that programming department - I hope other stations follow suit. There's no place for hate on the public's airwaves.

[molly77]

53. Well said.

[purrFect]

26. go philly!

from a punk philly kid ;)

[WillyT]

27. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Metta]

28. Beck's acting like a smacked ass.

Happy karma.

[EJSTES2005]

29. maybe some reporter will ask Romney after his next

hannity interview what he thinks about him being pulled from LDS radio......

[crazyjoe]

31. delete

[PhillySane]

32. Finally

cleaning up some of the trash around here! Seeya Glenn. You suck.

[earcandle]

33. Good. I hope they can take a hint.

[Swampguana]

34. Signs of people smartening up

I think its just great

[donquijoterocket]

58. one would

certainly hope so and this news taken in conjunction with this poll,http://tinyurl.com/4brltnd might offer some hope in that respect but Rupert the Murdoch has deep pockets and has shown a willingness to subsidize losers with the profits from better performing parts of his empire. I suppose it depends on just how much Glennda the Beckerhead and Shun Sannity are costing him and if, in the long run they're not really contributing to Rupe's long range goals.Still just to see these two gone from a couple markets which could not afford to subsidize their brand of inanity, stupidity, and hate has to count as at least a minor victory and good news.

[Jefferson23]

35. I hope they are afraid of lawsuits, if they're not, they should be. n/t

[Tsiyu]

36. They know they face a challenge

in order to maintain their licenses. In exchange for using the airwaves that belong to you and me they have to use their stations for the betterment of their communities. The reason the Fairness Doctrine was revoked was because it was thought to have a chilling effect on the broadcast of subjects of public interest.

Well. La-di-da. What do we have now? It's as if the National Park Service has been taken over by Westboro Baptist.

Out there in Radioland.

And while that may not matter to those of you with lots of fancy audio-visual hardware, please remember that other people - the poor, drivers caught in traffic jams, people traveling, residents during emergencies - are considered a "captive audience" who must listen in order to get information about their communities.

[Sugarcoated]

37. Wow!

Cool beans! I used to listen to WPHT before they went totally wingnut, except during baseball season when they broadcast the Phillies, but it bugged me that I had to give them my business for that. Now I can listen annoyance and guilt free, AND be able to listen to Smirkonish cause he's not airing at the crack of dawn!

[MrMickeysMom]

38. Well.... I wouldn't listen to them. Get some real radio!

With so many options - podcasts of so many great shows, who the fuck wants to listen to these two urine streams anyway?

Good riddance, you fools.

[HEyHEY]

39. Ah so "Philly sucks" cause of ONE business.

There's a some rational thinking. What a tool.

[CubicleGuy]

41. I suppose it's possible...

... that they've just found a couple of local guys who want to do hate radio. If they completely change formats in those time slots, it's really going to jar the listening audience. I'm not sure if cold turkey will work; they'd most likely seek out syndicated hate elsewhere on the dial. Heaven knows there's more than one station one can tune in to in the Sacramento market to get one's Limbaugh fix.

[TxVietVet]

42. Keep boycotting their sponsors or threats of boycott

It wakes them up. I think the shooting in Tuscon woke the stations up. I believe it exposed the hatre and lies put out by Fux Noise. They are losing market share. Wha a f*cking shame!:rofl:

[pitchforksandtorches]

43. waiting for the day they're both dropped from the roof

[lucky leftie]

44. Good job, Philly

Proud home of the hockey fans who booed Sarah Palin, too. That's my town!

[Enthusiast]

Plus one!

Something to proud of. Srsly.

[silver10]

45. I have never been prouder to be from PA!

[Enthusiast]

46. K&R

I'm sure Beck and Hannity will not perish for a lack of media outlets. Teh stupid is strong.

[BumRushDaShow]

48. Oh happy day for all us Philadelphians!

Now if we could only get rid of the rest of the garbage on WPHT (1210) and more importantly, the gasbags on WNTP (990) including Bennett, Prager, Medved, Savage, Levin, etc., and bring some liberal/progressive talkers here like Bill Press, Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, etc. The closest is 900 WURD, which is a black-owned progressive station that only has 1000 watts during the day and a miniscule 24 watts at night! It's sad that I have to pay (XM) to hear liberal/progressive talk. :banghead:

[pam4water]

49. O: Pieces of good news dances!

[upi402]

50. Happy frog butt dance!

:bounce:

[JoeyT]

51. I predict cries of censorship

from the usual suspects that don't know what the word means. Like Hannity and Beck.

Boycotting Beck's advertisers until the sane ones pull out so that his entire audience bankrupts themselves buying gold plated coins and certified genuine authentic collectible reproductions is an interesting political strategy. :evilgrin:

[samplegirl]

54. Alleluia

Now get rid of Limbaugh!

[Action]

55. Comcast/NBC

That's great about Beck and Hannity, but the Comcast/NBC buy is not good at all. Media consolidation only means we have less independent outlets to go to for news.

If our country survives, this time in our history will be viewed as a very dark period for "we the people". Too many of us are tired from working or too upset by not working to realize what we have lost.

[NewJeffCT]

56. Will another station in Philly pick them up?

How many 50,000 watt stations do they have in Philly? I assume WPHT was one of them? Am I correct?

Has anybody in NYC picked up Beck & Hannity since they got canned in NYC?

One difference between RW radio and the far more limited LW radio is that the RWers are often on those 50,000 watt mega stations that you can hear on regular radio. LW radio seems to be on puny 5,000 and 10,000 watt stations that have a range about as far as I can spit, so one would need to go to pay for satellite radio to access LW radio with any sort of clear sound.

[Frisbee]

60. Probably a lot less likely since Becks temper tantrum...

of "Philly Sucks".

[Mira]

57. I am beyond thrilled. Slowly but surely the hate train is leaving the stations. nt

[Mad_Dem_X]

59. Hopefully, this is only the beginning. n/t

[wisteria]

61. Philly radio finally comes to realize that the message Hannity and Beck promote is not good for our

country. I am pleased to read this bit of good news.

[mwooldri]

64. I wouldn't cheer too much just yet.

1) Stations do programming for the advertising $$$$'s, not the listenership.
2) Mr. Limbaugh is still there on the same timeslot 12pm-3pm so obviously he's bringing in enough money for CBS Radio to see him being still profitable enough on that particular station.
3) Clear Channel effectively owns both Rush & Sean and if it's prepared to blow up a low rating station in its area with equivalent coverage to WPHT then expect Rush, Sean and Glenn to be all on that new station, probably called "Rush Radio".

Though I'm having a chuckle, cos I think Clear Channel made a mistake with Rush & Sean locally by not renewing their syndication on a competing station and blowing up a highly rated Spanish language station to put those two knuckleheads on in their place. Ratings just went across from WSJS to "Rush Radio" but... WSJS got re-formatted and other AM stations owned by the owners of WSJS got re-formatted into sports, and the WSJS owners doubled down on the marketing of their FM talk station - more listeners and a better and less toxic advertising base. In the meantime the public stations WUNC and WFDD are taking both Clear Channel and Curtis Media to the cleaners, ratingswise of course.

Mark.

[craigmatic]

65. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend.

[Imagevision]

66. They're both bad for the USA...

[Xenotime]

67. Do they have Rush there?