According to a report by Inside Radio, Cumulus Media is pulling the plug on Geraldo Rivera’s (semi) syndicated program. Rivera airs on a handful of Cumulus stations, including WABC-AM (New York), KABC-AM (Los Angeles) and WOKI-FM (Knoxville, TN) from 8 to 11 a.m. CT.
Come January 2014, Rivera’s show will be heard as a local program in the New York City market exclusively on WABC.
While Cumulus has not announced a replacement for Rivera’s remaining stations, I’m wondering if Cumulus moves Mike Huckabee’s syndicated program to that slot since his current 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT show runs head-to-head against Rush Limbaugh. With Limbaugh staying put on most of his Cumulus news/talk affiliates, how much exposure does the Huckabee currently get? He would get more exposure on Cumulus stations in the 8 to 11 a.m. CT slot.
At the moment, this story has no implication on WLS-AM 890, the Cumulus news/talk station in Chicago. Assuming Cumulus does decide to replace Rivera with another syndicated talker, it’s not unreasonable to wonder if that person ends up on WLS sometime in 2014.