Affiliates of The Sean Hannity Show are being asked to meet some lofty demands when they renew their affiliation contracts for 2009, including the carriage of a new 3-hour "best-of" show on weekends.
The news comes from Tom Taylor in today's edition of his Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter. Affiliates can reportedly air the show anytime on Saturday or Sunday, as long as it's between 6am and 7pm.
This comes on top of other requirements that make Hannity's affiliate contracts look "even more like Rush Limbaugh's," as Taylor described. Affiliates are being asked to air a "Morning Update" from Hannity, which has one minute of network commercials attached to it. And an extra minute of national spots will be airing within each hour of the show itself. In addition to this and another 60-second network-provided spot which must air between 6am-7pm (but outside of Hannity's show), some affiliates will also be asked to pay cash.
Taylor quotes one unnamed GM who calculated Hannity will be on the air for just about 35 minutes per hour, after you deduct time for commercials and newscasts.
The new requirements go into effect December 29, the same day Premiere Radio Networks joins ABC Radio Networks in a joint syndication of Hannity's program. That deal, announced back in July, gave Hannity a nice pay raise to continue the show: $100 million over the next five years. ABC will continue to syndicate the show to Citadel stations (Citadel owns ABC) and Premiere will syndicate the show to all other affiliates.
Locally, the Sean Hannity Show is carried on Newsradio 570 WSYR in Syracuse, WATN 1240 in Watertown, and WHCU 870 in Ithaca.