SYRACUSE -- Nationally-syndicated talk show host Michael Savage will be absent from News Talk 106.9 and 570 WSYR and hundreds of other affiliates across the country until further notice, after the California-based host won a long-running lawsuit with his former syndicator, Talk Radio Network.
National radio industry trade sites broke the news yesterday: Savage had been battling with TRN since 2010, about whether or not he was free to move his show to another syndicator, after his contract with TRN had ended. With Savage getting the victory in court, his relationship with TRN ended immediately.
Local ABC affiliate NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV, which was once, but is no longer affiliated with WSYR radio) spoke with WSYR operations manager Rich Lauber today. He says he hopes to bring Savage back to WSYR, if and when Savage strikes a new syndication deal. In the meantime, it appears WSYR will stick with a yet-to-be-named replacement provided by Talk Radio Network. The identity of the new host will be revealed Monday.
Outside of Syracuse, Savage's show was also carried by Geneva's Finger Lakes News Radio (WGVA).
According to NewsChannel 9's story, Savage had been averaging about 8 million viewers a week, making him the third most-popular syndicated talk radio host in the nation, behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Other reports say Savage's show had about 300 affiliates nationwide.
Savage's show aired on WSYR from 10pm to 1am weeknights, often joined "in progress" after Yankees games, and sometimes pre-empted entirely on nights where the Yanks are on the west coast.
Savage signed with Cumulus and returns to air 10/23 on at least 22 stations, will run live 9pm-midnight eastern. Unknown if WSYR will have the show, but it's interesting that instead of running TRN's offered replacement of Jerry Doyle, they've just been repeating Hannity - shades of when they repeated Beck in that slot for a few weeks before the Regent-era WFBL flipped from talk back to music (that has since gone back to talk). They found out about his return the same day, same way everyone else did, via the news release. If WSYR picks the show up, they'll be able to run at least two hours live if they want, as they did before Regent pulled him to WFBL, with the third hour delayed until after.
Yes, I've been aware of Savage's new deal. The lack of information from WSYR is the reason I haven't posted a new story yet. WSYR operations manager Rich Lauber was contacted via email within minutes of the national trades reporting Savage's new deal. No response yet, and no changes to the WSYR website, either. The trades say Cumulus is trying to get Savage on as many of his former affiliates as possible, but I'm sure that's not an "instant" process, as stations need time to review and sign contracts (a process that could be further delayed depending on how many "layers of corporate" need to approve), and in some cases, stations might need to have Cumulus ship them a satellite receiver if they don't already have one capable of receiving the feed. Will post a story if/when anything develops. On a side note, WFBL was never owned by Regent; it was owned by Buckley prior to being sold to its current owner, Leatherstocking.
Should have posted this here, but Bob Lonsberry announced around 3:30 today that WSYR has Savage back live at 9:00 PM. Hannity moves up to 6:00 PM, the local hour at six is gone, not sure yet what will run between midnight and 1:00 AM.
I'd forgotten all the details of that Buckley/Regent deal -