Friday, August 31, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: Drudge Out, WLW's Cunningham In

Premiere syndicated Sunday night host Matt Drudge exits his show after his September 30th show. OMW hears that Premiere says the host "has chosen to depart the radio business" to concentrate on his popular Internet site and "other endeavors".

The Drudge show airs on most Clear Channel-owned talk stations in Ohio, and counts an affiliate base of over 325 stations nationwide.

Replacing him is WLW/700 Cincinnati early afternoon mainstay Bill Cunningham, who starts October 7th in the Sunday night slot.

As far as we know, "Willie" continues in his local WLW weekday time slot, and as far as we know, unlike WLW stablemate Mike McConnell's daily program, that show will continue to focus only on Cincinnati and the Tri-State area.

More details as they develop...

6 comments:

david5258 said...

oa-ne ohio listeners will be in for a treat with intelligient conversation when wild willy starts. willy has been on cincy radio and the big one 700 for almost 20 years. his original air slot was weeknites 9p-mif after trumpy and later chris hosted sports. willy is conservative in his politics and values but will allow those whose opinions differ to discuss them without hangingup on them. sorry to hear drudge is turning off his mic, glad to hear wild willy.--david5258

david5258 said...

followup--no mention on wlw or whlo websites about willie yet--david5258

firebird said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
firebird said...

Is Matt Drudge's contract with Premiere not being renewed or is he just quitting radio altogether. Could he surface elsewhere? Bill Cunningham is good. He's done some fill-in work at WGST/Atlanta before the arrival of Denny Schaffer.

Now, Premiere needs to do something with Coast-To-Coast. Noory and Punnett are 2 of the most boring hosts out there.

Ohio Media Watch said...

Of course, "Willie" himself had a brief run at syndication in evenings, though he had roughly 2 or 3 affiliates at launch - and left for personal reasons not long after.

Perhaps a Sunday night show with a large ready-made affiliate base is a much better syndication option for him, vs. battling with Michael Savage et al. in evenings... and it takes very little of his time.

Two "oddly enoughs" in this: In Cincinnati, WLW sister talker WKRC/550 carries Drudge's show.

And even odder: WLW itself has been running a "Willie Replay" in very nearly the exact same time slot for a few months now - 9-midnight Sunday nights. (Drudge's current live slot is 10 PM-1 AM ET.)_

You don't think...they knew about this a long time ago? :) What many, including this blog, decried as using repeat programming to fill 3 hours of the formerly live/local 24/7 WLW lineup...apparently turned out to be a placeholder!

-The Management

david5258 said...

oa-your sources are ggggoooooodddd. tom taylor on radio info just confirmed your scoop today. btw, 700wlw does indeed show wild willy on sunday nights from 9-12m--david5258.