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.