So Cumulus Radio would replace one blowhard (Hannity) with a BIGGER Blowhard (Savage)

[alp227]

34. You are indeed right. However, Savage has recently moved to evenings.

During the TRN era (the 2000s up to Oct. 2012) Savage was during the afternoon drive time in the West Coast, 3-6pm PT/6-9pm ET. (Used to be 4-7pm before around 2005 or so.)

Under Cumulus, Savage moved to 6-9pm PT/9pm-midnight ET.

I should have organized my list better instead of a haphazard "past/present" list by station.

So let's break it down...Savage has affiliates in the big market areas (let's say the Top 25 markets as ranked here) but does have some notable omissions and is usually on the lower-rated, weaker-signal stations. (I know this from my times sneaking a peek into Savage's show and the wonders of the TuneIn app!)

The TRN era:
- Atlanta: Used to be on the powerhouse WSB until Jan. 2011 when the station replaced him with RedState.com editor and perpetual misogynist Erick Erickson; Savage then moved to WGST, whose weak nighttime signal hardly gets outside downtown Atlanta. WGST briefly changed to sports in fall 2012 but restored its RW talk format earlier this year without Savage.
- Baltimore: WCBM (the local Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity affiliate whose ratings are competitive with 50-kW rival WBAL)
- Boston: WRKO (an Emmis station with a 50 kW signal; popular local host Howie Carr used to be the lead-in to The Savage Nation)
- Chicago: WIND (a Salem station; dropped the show in 2011) then WJJG (Savage moved to this weak-signal brokered-time station WJJG later renamed WCKG that's got a weak signal in downtown Chicago for the remainder of his TRN days. WCKG wrote this long open letter to Savage after he left TRN. EPIC awesomeness.)
- Cleveland: WHK (a weak signal Salem station that dropped his show in '08 after the autism remarks) The GM at the station called Savage a "knucklehead"! As a result Savage's show could only be heard from a Canton station inaudible in downtown Cleveland.
- Denver: KLZ (a three-letter heritage station whose ratings have been in the toilet)
- Houston: KPRC (guess who KPRC has now in Savage's former timeslot? Former Twin Peaks star JANINE TURNER! Yes Janine Turner is a right wing crank.)
- Los Angeles: KGIL (which changed to music in 2009; Savage hasn't had an LA affiliate since then)
- Miami: WFTL (I understand their ratings & signal situation yet the station boasts about serving Miami - its website says "Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach" under its logo. Yes their ratings suck.)
- New York City: WOR (three-letter powerhouse station)
- Pittsburgh: WPGB (an FM station owned by Clear Channel)
- San Diego: KFMB
- San Francisco (his home market): as a Bay Area guy i'll tell ya, it's a loooong story:
--Savage got his start in radio filling in for the liberal Ray Taliaferro's overnight 1am-5am show one day in 1994 on the 50 kW blowtorch news/talker KGO (then owned by ABC Radio, I think that's what Cumulus Media was called back then).
--Then in 1995 he became a local host on KSFO (KGO's sister station), which converted to all conservative talk all the time.
--By 2000, Savage signed a syndication deal with Talk Radio Network. He continued to broadcast from KSFO.
--In 2003, KSFO dropped his show over a contract dispute. Savage's new Bay Area affiliate is Clear Channel-owned KNEW 910 (the call letters have now gone to AM 960).
--KNEW dropped his show in 2009, after which the show moved to sports station KTRB, another 50 kW blowtorch.
--However, KTRB went bankrupt the following year, and Savage had no proper Bay Area affiliate, even though his show could be heard on Sacramento station KSTE whose signal reaches the area pretty well.
--In 2012, Savage signs a new deal with Cumulus and is consequently returned to KSFO.
- Tampa: WWBA (whose signal shrinks to 1 kW at night and this station never really was that popular anyways)
- Washington, DC: WTNT (seriously...its signal shrinks to 25 WATTS at night!!! No good fo a 6pm ET show start.)

Cincinnati isn't in the top 25 markets, but a fun fact? In Jan. 2012, Clear Channel-owned WKRC replaced Savage with the lighter financial advice show hosted by Dave Ramsey. Savage got a triple sucker punch as a result:
- His new station WQRT played his shows on an 18-hour delay in the noon to 3pm timeslot already dominated in the area by RUSH LIMBAUGH AND BILL CUNNINGHAM - and the station folded into a Christian format just months later.

In the Savage Nation's Cumulus era, Savage has yet to have an affiliate in these areas among the top 25 PPM markets:
- Atlanta
- Boston (WRKO is keeping Jerry Doyle, the former Babylon 5 star and Savage's TRN replacement, in the time between Mark Levin and Coast to Coast AM)
- Charlotte
- Chicago (whose Cumulus talk station WLS instead carries the last hour of Sean Hannity and first 2 hours of Mark Levin during the 8-11pm CT time when Savage is on)
- Denver
- Los Angeles (whose Cumulus talker KABC chooses a delayed presentation of Mark Levin in the 6-9pm PT slot)
- Minneapolis (seriously Savage does NOT have any affiliates in the entire friggin' state of Minnesota!)
- Nassau and Suffolk Counties, NY (WABC's signal gets weaker in eastern Long Island)
- Pittsburgh
- Portland, OR
- Puerto Rico (yes it's counted in the PPMs)
- San Diego
- St. Louis

(Source: http://www.michaelsavage.wnd.com/wp-content/themes/savage-theme/affiliatesmap.php)

Baltimore (WCBM) and Detroit (WJR) delay the show to the 11pm-1am snooze slot.

New York City (WABC) gets to hear only the first 2 hours so that WABC can carry at least half of its locally produced John Batchelor show. After WABC picked up Savage WABC could no longer play all 4 hours of the syndicated Batchelor.

Savage's affiliates in Houston (KSEV) and Phoenix (KFNX) don't even show up in Radio-online's PPMs!

And I had NO IDEA KLIF's ratings were THAT bad - 0.1 - in DFW! But news/talk is getting less popular as a format; Savage's Cumulus affiliates KSFO San Francisco, WABC NYC, and WMAL DC have 2-2.5 shares on average. In their markets NPR or "all news" stations are more popular!

And he's about to lose Philly now that his Philadelphia affiliate WWIQ is going to revert to corny "Christian contemporary" music (believe it or not Savage is actually an agnostic now, Google it!)

As the Chicago radio GM suggested to Savage: "Broadcast earlier in the day so stations can run your show ANYTIME." If Savage does replace Hannity on the Cumulus Radio Network, Savage would get the East Coast afternoon drive time 3-6pm ET thus a ratings advantage like he used to have in his TRN days as his show was live 3-6pm PT.