Less than two weeks after Bill O'Reilly announced his plans to leave radio "sometime" in the first quarter of 2009, Fox News Radio is hoping his affiliates will sign up with another Fox News personality, John Gibson.
Right now, Fox offers Gibson's show live from 6-9pm. But according to Tom Taylor on radio-info.com, Fox will begin offering the show live from noon to 3pm, effective January 19th. Fox hopes the new timeslot will be more convenient for stations looking for an easy drop-in replacement to O'Reilly.
Locally, it won't matter -- O'Reilly's affiliates in Utica (WIBX) and Watertown (WTNY) already carry Rush Limbaugh live from noon to 3pm, meaning O'Reilly is aired on a tape-delay. If either station happens to take Gibson's show, we presume he'll also be aired on a delay.
Despite Fox mentioning Gibson will move his timeslot January 19th, that doesn't mean anything for Bill O'Reilly's end date. O'Reilly's show is syndicated by Westwood One; Gibson by Fox News Radio.
Talk Radio Network apparently added or hyped a noon reair of the previous night's The Savage Nation as a potential O'Reilly replacement, per comments from Savage a few weeks back.