WSB picks up Rush Limbaugh, moves Clark Howard to 8 p.m.
Rush Limbaugh jumps to 95.5FM and AM 750 News/Talk WSB starting at noon, October 1, 2012. CREDIT: AP
Rush Limbaugh, the most popular radio talk show host in America for more than two decades, is moving to AM 750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB.
Limbaugh will take WSB’s noon-to-3 p.m. weekday time slot starting Monday. Oct. 1.
“When you have the biggest talk personality on the biggest news/talk station in Atlanta, I expect the chemical reaction will be positive,” said Ben Reed, Atlanta market manager for Cox Media Group, which includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our listeners will benefit from it.”
Limbaugh has been on news-talk 640/WGST-AM since the late 1980s and consistently has been the station’s biggest draw.
For WSB, Limbaugh’s arrival means several changes to its weekday lineup:
- Syndicated talk show host Neal Boortz, now based primarily out of Naples, Fla., will see his daily stint cut back an hour. He will be on the air from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Boortz is retiring in January and will be replaced by businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who had already planned to do three hours a day.
- Consumer advocate Clark Howard, who has been with WSB radio since 1991 and is now heard on more than 220 stations nationwide, is moving to the 8-10 p.m. slot from his current 1-3 p.m. time period. Howard — who recently began co-hosting an HLN TV news program from 5-7 p.m. weekdays called “Evening Express” — will still tape his Atlanta-based radio show from 1-3 p.m. because other markets will continue to run it live. He explains the changes on his popular website www.clarkhoward.com.
- Syndicated radio and Fox News host Sean Hannity’s program will air live from 3-5 p.m., but WSB will be adding a news program from 5-7 p.m. Erick Erickson, who runs the website RedState.com will be the show’s host/commentator. Hannity’s third hour, from 7-8 p.m., will be tape-delayed (Erickson has been hosting a talk show from 6-8 p.m.).
- Local talk show host Adam Goldfein gets pushed two hours later to 10 p.m. to midnight.
- Syndicated financial expert Dave Ramsey also gets moved two hours later and will start at midnight instead of 10 p.m.
WSB, which ranked ninth in Atlanta Arbitron ratings in August, has lost some steam since All News 106.7 (WYAY-FM) hit the airwaves in May.
“Summer is usually very tough for news talk stations,” Reed said, “so I don’t panic when I have a month that dips in the summer.”
WSB’s new 5-7 p.m. news program will try to counter that.
“Atlanta depends on WSB for news, weather and traffic information, and now WSB will provide even more,” Reed said.
Limbaugh has remained a durable powerhouse in radio despite controversies he has faced over the years. He is heard on more than 600 stations nationwide and draws more than 14.75 million listeners each week, according to Talkers magazine. Hannity is the nation’s second most popular radio host, with at least 14 million listeners a week.
WGST, which was a soft rock station in the early 1970s, went all news in 1977 and morphed into news/talk in the 1980s.
Howard, Boortz, Hannity and Ramsey were all personalities previously on WGST, which was competitive with WSB in ratings in the 1990s but now lags far behind. WGST ranked 21st in the August ratings.
Word is that WGST has laid off several people today in preparation for a likely format change. Right now, while Rusty Humphries is normally airing, WGST is running a Glenn Beck repeat. (He normally airs from 9 a.m. to noon.)
“I think I speak for a lot of people who used to work at GST to say that this is a very very sad day to see this happen,” said Mike Rose, who worked at the station from 1985 to 1998 in roles including producer and program director. “It was a great operation, a family-like atmosphere. It cultivated a lot of the great performers on radio today.”
The two likely formats available are syndicated comedy or Spanish sports talk, said Eric Seidel, who was station manager from GST from 1986 to 1997 and developed Howard and Hannity. “Hannity was a diamond in the rough when we found him and he got his radio legs with us,” Seidel said. And Howard was an accidental talk show host who started covering travel as a travel agent and adjusted into talk show work with Seidel’s help.
The station was ahead of its time when it was simulcast on FM from 1993 to 200 at 105.7 and its ratings were competitive with WSB for a time. Losing that simulcast hurt the station’s power, which slipped steadily throughout the 2000s as its core listeners moved further outside its AM grasp and outside the Perimeter.
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By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk
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305 comments Add your comment
DMA82
September 26th, 2012
4:36 pm
Way to bury the lead there Rodney…..GEEEZ!
Really
September 26th, 2012
4:37 pm
Why would they think we want to listen to Rush Limbaugh. There’s enough vomit coming out of AM750 already. Can you give us a break. Nobody wants to hear a recovering drug addict and that’s what he is. Well if he’s truly recovering, he could still be an addict for all we really know. But I mean really give me a break.
www
September 26th, 2012
4:38 pm
so eric seidel is partially to blame for foisting jack*sses like sean hannity on the world?
what a clown.
www
September 26th, 2012
4:40 pm
AWESOME! another reason to never listen to AM750 again. thanks cox!
Rocketboy
September 26th, 2012
4:41 pm
WSB Radio used to be the grande dame of Southern broadcasters. Now it’s just a cheap tart with a line-up of fools pandering to the gullible. It’s truly sad.
Meli
September 26th, 2012
4:45 pm
People in Atlanta aren’t good enough to hear Clark Howard live from 1-3 every day, while other markets are? Isn’t that sort of like when Comcast refused to air the Cartoon Network in Atlanta, even though it’s based here?
Seymour Light
September 26th, 2012
4:45 pm
That’s Senator Clark Howard. Johnny Isakson isn’t running for re-election in 2014.
Atlanta Radio sucks more
September 26th, 2012
4:50 pm
I am going to miss Boortz, cannot stand listening to Herman Cain. Wish they had tapped Erickson to take over Boortz’s spot. I listen to Boortz, switch to Rush, and back to Hannity. Like Clarke but his voice is like nails on chalkboard.
Atlanta’s radio has been completely overhauled. Shame its going to be change for the worse.
Highlander
September 26th, 2012
4:55 pm
Let’s face it, WGST hasn’t been the same since they dropped The Kimmer. The station lost all of it’s original personalities (who actually had personality!) so their demise in the ratings is their own fault!
And I love all these comments about how hate-filled Limbaugh, Hannity, etc., are followed by disparaging remarks! Pot, meet kettle.
Of course, we all know that only conservatives are hateful. Harry Reed, Nancy Pelosi and President Obama have NEVER said anything hateful about anyone who disagrees with them. No-o-o-o-o-o! (Insert sarcasm emoticon here.)
Chuckie D
September 26th, 2012
4:55 pm
ROHO,
I had no idea you had so many bleeding heart libs following you. Just remember folks, “The truth will set you free”, but only if you open your ears and take your blinders off~~~
I can only listen to Clarkie-Clark’s rehashing of the same things in moderation.
Selah,
sbatcos
September 26th, 2012
4:56 pm
Clark was the only one who didn’t yell at the callers or the listeners. I loved his cheerful, optimistic personality and will miss him during the afternoons.
opssusan
September 26th, 2012
5:05 pm
Yep…time to reset the presets. I could tolerate Boortz less and less the last few years and was halfway out the WSB door anyway. This is the final nail in the coffin!! I don’t know what caliber of ” critical thinkers” you think you’re attracting with this new lineup, but I’m outta here. Clark, sorry you’re not being given the respect you deserve from WSB –
donna fazal
September 26th, 2012
5:09 pm
Atlanta radio has been through so many changes lately (some good, some bad) that if you had been out of town for a couple of months, you wouldn’t recognize the radio landscape anymore. I don’t know who the heck these companies are listening to (consultants who claim to be “experts”), but they have alienated their listeners now for years. Even satellite radio is now screwing up with commercials on paid radio (they lost their #1 selling point when they started doing that- I resented paying nearly $15 a month to listen to viagra ads and dumped Sirius XM).
The major media companies just don’t get it! Folks wouldn’t have turned to their ipods in their cars if you had given them what they wanted years ago! You turned them away! Do any of you honestly know anybody who ever got to do an Arbitron book? Who was getting these books anyway? The unemployed folks who were stupid enough to answer their phone? Those with purchasing power were out working!
The one bright spot I didn’t see coming was All News 106.7- the afternoon shift with Greg Black and Melissa Carter is a home run IMHO. Very enjoyable. I wouldn’t want to listen to all news all day, but for an avg commute time, it’s quite nice. WSB is toast. And when Cox took away Oldies over 10 years ago and didn’t expand the songs you played, you alienated all the baby boomers. Good riddance WGST and WSB. The only one who gets my vote is 106.7 and my mp3 player. You build a station and a format that anyone with half a brain will want to listen to and it will be a hit. Build it and they will come. A little tweaking with some of the other shifts earlier in the day on 1067 and you have a huge winner there for news. But a decent music station in Atlanta is a distant memory.
Dave
September 26th, 2012
5:23 pm
Kirk Mellish’s new tagline: “The Right weather for you!”
AnybodybutLimbaugh
September 26th, 2012
5:24 pm
WSB……………you’ve just lost a loyal listener!!!! I simply can’t stand to the listen to hate spewing Limbaugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a shame!!!!!!!!!!!
David
September 26th, 2012
5:25 pm
Complained earlier about Rush moving to WSB. I’ll never be happy with it, but I do recall a time when I liked WGST more (Boortz making fun of WSB in 1989 when he was on WGST). I guess 640 might be in play if they replace it with something interesting… uh, not Spanish. I laughed about all the FM stations in turmoil because I can get music so much easier in other ways (iPod, etc.). AM radio in Atlanta has always been okay with me and this is the first time I’ve been a little bummed with the changes.
spasell
September 26th, 2012
5:32 pm
What about Jamie Dupree
Rob
September 26th, 2012
5:32 pm
Wow. Nice way to treat Clark Howard, WSB. Lame.
mitt romney
September 26th, 2012
5:37 pm
Yet another legacy talk station run in the ground by the idiocy of John Hogan. You can bet if I was still running Bain Capital, Hogan would be the first person I would fire.
TOM(clearchannel hater)Borgia
September 26th, 2012
5:38 pm
I liked WGST on Fm! Thought it was Kool,but lost the signal outside the perimeter.Sorry to all who lost their jobs,but thats clearchannel for you! Bravo Clearchannel U have ruined the FM dial here in the ATL market! im not understanding the concept of losing 92.9 DAVE-FM,& going to sports.Will they pick up the Braves,So we can actually listen to Rock again on Cumulus 100.5? they say there Atlanta’s Rock station! finding that hard too believe as well! Goodbye FM! hello Sirius id rather pay for it then what they have done to this market in the last few months,such a shame!
Rodney Ho
September 26th, 2012
5:39 pm
@spasell Jamie Dupree will continue to work with Neal Boortz. His update will come on at 11:35 a.m. instead of the noon hour.
Dell
September 26th, 2012
5:46 pm
Glad to hear Jamie Dupree will still be on. The segment with Jamie is the only portion of the Boortz show that I can tolerate. I agree with poster who said Boortz was good when he was just local. He became something of a buffoon after he went national.
Too bad about Clark Howard. He has always been the sensible one. I would listen to him in the 1-3 slot, I will not be listening to Limbaugh.
dale
September 26th, 2012
5:47 pm
Well this looks like the end of WGST, just finishing the job Randall Blooquist started.
gj2001
September 26th, 2012
5:50 pm
I can use two pieces of duct tape to cover AM 750 and 95.5FM News/Talk on the radio dial.
ThE LISTENER
September 26th, 2012
5:51 pm
Wsb…I implore you to think about this decision,you will loose big time,this move will force me to change my presets. So long Scott Slade & news crew your reports was always helpful….all news 106, their lost is your gain.
Steak Shapiro
September 26th, 2012
5:52 pm
Ludlow Porch – seriously !!! for the love of god let it go
Dan
September 26th, 2012
5:54 pm
Hard to figure what sort of a 2 hour “news” program will be hosted by Erik Erickson – my guess is more right wing commentary and very little news – no thanks
Sending Clark Howard into nighttime so WSB can run Boortz (then Herman Cain in 2013)/Rush/ and Hannity for 8 hours straight – pretty hard core with no cleansing with Clark Howard mid-day
The right wing blather has started to bleed into the morning news as well and this is more of the same- since WSB is all in with right wing radio during the day I am all in with 106.7 for good for my local news
chrono
September 26th, 2012
5:59 pm
Somebody above said it – when WGST got rid of the Kimmer and his staff I knew they’d be headed for problems at some point. I assume Beck will end up on 920 after Bill Bennett.
As a aside, I love all the lefties posting here about all the shows they hate that they’ve probably never listened to!
honky tonk man
September 26th, 2012
6:02 pm
Two more blowhards for those who live in a conspiracy world.Gotta get the Black man off the the top the mountain.Hes too smart Rush and Boortz said. Gosh why not put an ignorant black guy in the House like 999Cheater citizen Cain! So he can be your uncle tom patsy.
Tom Hughes
September 26th, 2012
6:09 pm
WGST passed away in 2006. The wake has just taken a long time.
larry robinson
September 26th, 2012
6:12 pm
Enter your comments here If fox news wants to get Rommy elected. they need get Obama picture off the screen, and put rommy up everybody knows obama but nobody knows rommy what is said will mean nothing SO GET ROMMEY PICTURE ON THE SCREEN
BountyHunter
September 26th, 2012
6:21 pm
The changes to 920/640 aren’t anything new. This station has quite a history of missteps. Letting the morning news (Tom Hughes) crew go, letting Neal Boortz and Clark Howard get away. Then there was Planet Radio, Ed Tyll, Freddy Mertz, Brian Wilson, etc. For those who wanted a break from Sean Hannity you had Kim Peterson on the air but he vanished about the same way the current occupant of the 3PM time slot has. The signal cannot be heard OTP, even on their weak FM signal in the NE region of Atlanta.
I wish Neal Boortz well in his retirement and Hope that Herman Cain can get the job done. It won’t be the same for Atlanta radio after January 21.
Should Herman tire I respectfully submit the name of Jim Quinn as a more than suitable replacement. “Quinn and Rose” on Sirius XM.
T
September 26th, 2012
6:22 pm
You know, I haven’t listened to Rush in years, but “hate spewing Limbaugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”?
As usual, no specific example. Usually boils down to “I don’t like what he says. Waa! Waa! Waa!”
As opposed to the always-talking-love to the other side Randi Rhodes, who got a one week suspension for calling for the assassination of a sitting President. Don’t remember that, do you libs? She is a nationally syndicated (liberal) radio host. But when some nobody yayhoo in NC says something like that about the ONE, we get international headlines.
And speaking of international, how about the lovely columnist at the Guardian(?): John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, where are you now? That went pretty much without comment as well.
say what?
September 26th, 2012
6:26 pm
Anc conservatives will STILL call in to these radio shows, and claim how unfair the liberal media is being to their point of view.
Beth
September 26th, 2012
6:30 pm
I’m pretty much done…. Can’t tolerate Cain or Rush…
Was nice for a long time. Such is life!
Infrequent Flyer
September 26th, 2012
6:32 pm
It’s truly unfortunate that a major city like Atlanta has such lousy radio choices. Too bad about Clark; he was the last of the non-political talkers on the dial, and many folks relied on his good advice. I agree with an earlier poster: Erick Erickson should have taken the morning slot. He’s a better choice than Herman Cain, who’ll likely not last a year. I’m thankful for (and support) WABE, and I hope that All-news 106.7 hangs in there long enough to build an audience.
I’ll admit to not listening to any of the music stations much. When I do listen, it seems as if the playlists are very homogenized and repetitive.
Linda
September 26th, 2012
6:49 pm
Too bad we don’t have a way to harness all that hot air on WSB as an alternative fuel. So long,WSB, looks like I’ll be listening to ESPN all afternoon.
Ima Hogge
September 26th, 2012
6:51 pm
listening to Newstalk 1160 WCFO-AM. Like CBS news at the top of each hour.
CA
September 26th, 2012
6:52 pm
Does anyone really care? Get satellite radio. You will hear a lot more of what you really want.
Lisa
September 26th, 2012
7:03 pm
Originally radio played music and had news segments. Everyone had an avenue. Now there are no stations that I can pick up that play big band and WWII music. No oldies. River is okay. DaveFM is going so no adult alternative. I only listen to radio during a commute and want music to calm me, not hate. At least Dave will become sports.
It's been fun WSB!!!
September 26th, 2012
7:04 pm
Wow! Rush over Clark? Valuable useful information from a nice person replaced by hate speech from an idiot! Good bye WSB
Rob
September 26th, 2012
7:19 pm
Poor Atlanta living in the past with media bozos who don’t have a vision of the future. This guy is the past, your stuck there while the rest of the world evolves. The last of the angry white boys who have lost their footing. Thank God for Sirius and the ability for me to I program this station.
General Lee
September 26th, 2012
7:32 pm
Why does Clear Channel CEO John Hogan have vendetta against Atlanta and specifically WGST? Ever since this local boy became CEO, he has done almost everything in his power to run the entire Atlanta cluster into the ground.
Need proof? How about the hiring of Randall Bloomquist? How about the constant format changes?
Gone Fishing
September 26th, 2012
7:35 pm
The Tea Baggers have done in what once was at least someting you could stomach every now and then. An embarrassment for WSB and another black eye for Atlanta. Misinformation peddlers all.! Boortz;Cain; Savage; Hannity; and Limbhurger. Clark Howard outwardly is the only decent show they have going for them. Oh! I forgot. Sometimes it’s best not to go after the ad dollars. What profit does a man gain, e’re he lose his soul
Mike Bell 790
September 26th, 2012
7:37 pm
FIRST!!!!
atl bob
September 26th, 2012
7:54 pm
What a disgrace….replacing a guy like Clark Howard – who actually contributes something to this world helping people avoid scams and save money – with an ego-maniac like Rush Limbaugh who is a walking scam lying to listeners and pandering to their most base fears and prejudices (which obviously sells). Ludlow Porch is rolling over in his grave, WSB.
Atlanta Mom
September 26th, 2012
7:56 pm
Open button on my car radio. Clark Howard was something I could listen to when I had kids in the car. No Rush in my car.
Tom and Angel
September 26th, 2012
7:57 pm
We’ll take WSB radio off our automatic dials, too. We don’t want to hear reactionaries screaming all day. We want more balanced talk shows.
Tim in Atlanta
September 26th, 2012
7:57 pm
The solution is obvious. WGST needs to go progressive and bring on Mike Malloy, Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, and Thom Hartmann. They’re not going to win on right wing talk – WSB has the bucks to buy what they want (the Super PAC of local radio, let’s say). They need to counter punch. And for balance, bring back Kim Peterson to bitch about the rest of the schedule. He was loony, but funny. This would get them back into the game quickly.
James
September 26th, 2012
7:58 pm
Really crazy stuff. Ramsey to oblivion would be a better move, bring C2C over to 750 so you can actually hear it. Folks that wouldn’t care for it aren’t up that time of night anyway. Also think Eric is Neal’s heir apparent. Herman won’t last. Should lose Hannity altogether, he gets enough airplay on TV, and keep Clark on in the afternoon. Anyway, big mess right now.