THE GOOD NEWS IS SPREADING

Tom Taylor's NOW radio newsletter leads off with this:

Rush Limbaugh’s in a war of words with Cumulus.

This tempest broke over the weekend, as “a source close to Limbaugh” passed on some inflammatory quotes about how the Premiere-syndicated talker feels about the company that now owns many of his largest (and oldest) affiliates. Call this person the “Rush whisperer,” and here are some of his quotes – “Lew [Dickey] needs someone to blame, [so] he’s pointing fingers instead of fixing his own sales problem” at talk WABC, New York (770). On past conference calls, Lew has mentioned a “residual hangover” of advertiser resistance, following Rush’s late-February 2012 “slut” remark about Sandra Fluke. Rush is apparently tired of hearing about it. The source says “Dickey keeps complaining about falling revenue, but his stations have long lagged behind their competitors in sales by a substantial margin. Rush’s ratings have out-performed every other program on WABC and many other Cumulus stations for years.” Here’s the payoff, per the Daily News - “If Limbaugh leaves Cumulus, which now carries him on 40 stations in 36 markets, the source at his show confirms he would be looking for other stations in those markets.” Many New Yorkers expect Rush to land at Clear Channel’s own WOR (710) when his contract’s up at the end of the year. What the surprise comments from the “Limbaugh source” suggest is that the next few months could be rocky. As it happens, Cumulus reports Q1 numbers tomorrow, giving Lew Dickey another chance to comment about the business of talk radio. Think somebody will ask him?

This story was also the lead on NTS Media Online:

Will Limbaugh & Cumulus Divorce? (Revised)

The blogosphere and mainstream press outlets were all buzzing over the weekend on rumors of a pending split between Rush Limbaugh and a number of his Premiere Networks syndicated show’s longtime affiliates now owned by Cumulus Media. Most reports — including Dylan Byers’ coverage at Politico — cite ‘insiders’ in the Limbaugh camp as the source of the information, suggesting Rush is tired of hearing Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey blaming his company’s ad sales problems on the talk host and the now infamous Sandra Fluke incident. Neither officials at Premiere or anyone inside Limbaugh’s EIB headquarters had any comment on the reports.