Paul Harvey ... good bye?

Suddenly and without warning, WDAF Radio in Kansas City dumped "Paul Harvey News and Comment"  this week. The station, which was an AM giant for years before moving to FM, replaced Harvey with a two-minute comedy bit from Jeff Foxworthy.

What — you've got a problem with that?

Entercom Communications has no plans to put Harvey on any of its other stations in town, including news-talk KMBZ-AM.

I trust this is a temporary situation and another Kansas City broadcaster will pick up the rights from ABC Radio.  But this is the only time I can recall ownership of the Harvey franchise not being handed off smoothly from one entity to the next. This can mean one of two things: either ABC Radio was playing hardball with Entercom and left the Philly radio conglomerate with no choice but to cut and run ... or Entercom just cut and run.

We'll learn the answer soon enough.  (UPDATE: Cindy Schloss, VP/Market Manager for Entercom Kansas City, said Entercom didn't negotiate with ABC. "There was no renewal price to even deal with," she wrote in an email. Since the NAB show is going on this week, it may be hard to get ahold of anyone from ABC Radio for their take on the matter.)

Meantime, Paul is always online.

Comments

[Mark Adams]

Harvey was dropped from CBS-owned WBZ, Boston, the #1-rated news station in the area, late last year. The 50,000 watt station felt he no longer "fit," according to reports. He was eventually picked up by WTTT, a 5,000 watt talker with a signal that gets to the end of the street, on a good day.
'BZ also felt that Harvey was being replaced by his son Paul Jr. too often. The elder Paul has to be in his 80's now - he's been around since sliced bread.

Paul Harvey no longer "fits" because he is pleasant, never shrill, doesn't name call anyone and tries to present all sides of an issue, even while making his personal beliefs clear. Of course he doesn't "fit" in the world of Rush Limbaugh and Savage Nation (that silly savage!).

[T. Hanson]

I know it is not new.. but I really hated how he mixed his sponsership in his reports. GoodDay!

[Aaron]

Former Sen. Fred Thompson was signed in February as the heir apparent. Of course, Paul outlived his last heir apparent (Bill Beutel).

[Mario500]

Mobile has been without the Paul Harvey broadcasts since the news/talk station formerly known as WNTM-AM (and WKRG-AM before October 1994) changed its call letters to WPMI-AM and ended affiliation with the ABC Radio Network in August 2004. WPMI-AM and NBC affiliate WPMI-TV in Mobile are both owned by Clear Channel Communications.

[David]

I know most of Clear Channel's news-talk stations dropped Paul Harvey when they switched from ABC to Fox as their on-the-hour news provider.

[Nate]

Same case with Clear Channel in Milwaukee...it moved from CC's WISN to Journal's WTMJ, where it seems to be a better fit with a larger audience (since 'TMJ has an almost statewide signal).

[Aaron]

I think the Upper Midwest will be Harvey's last stronghold. Agriculture brings out his progressive streak - the latest cow-methane-to-alternative-fuel news is an almost daily feature of his show.

[Mark Jeffries]

In his home town of Chicago, Harvey's been a fixture at WGN for over two decades and is the only syndicated weekday content on that local-and-proud-of-it station. Before then, he was technically on WLS, but the Big 89 only ran his five-minute morning show for a long time, dropping the midday show some time after they went from Prairie Farmer to Top 40.

It's interesting to note that 15 years ago, when ABC's Chicago radio operations moved out of 360 N. Michigan to the building where WLS-TV is on State Street (and where Oprah was still taping her show), Harvey refused to move with them and still does his show from the 4th floor at 360 N. Michigan, next to where the ABC-owned FM station's studios used to be and below the Big 89's old studios.

[Aaron]

High atop the downtown Burger King, as John Records Landecker used to say.

[Mark Jeffries]

Except the Burger King is now a Corner Bakery.