Randi Rhodes Rumors Rampant: won’t be Dial Global
There are two rampant rumors circulating in the talk radio community about Randi Rhodes. One is she’s trying to renegotiate with Air America Radio to take Tom Hartmann’s spot when he is picked up by Dial Global. The other is that she’s negotiating with Dial Global to join him.
Amy Bolton, who runs the talk syndication division at DG, has heard the rumors about both her company and Air America being a landing zone for the Rhodes show. But she says it won’t be Dial Global; her company is not in talks with the Rhodes show to join her stable of talent.
Dial Global now operates the former Jones Radio Network, which syndicates Ed Shultz, LA’s Stephanie Miller, Bill Press and Neal Boortz. It also owns TM/Century, which radio old-timers will remember as the producer of “Tomorrow Radio,” which sagely foretold radio’s future 29 years ago.
Things haven’t been rosy in the talk radio business, no matter what your politics. Shock talk took a hit last Friday in Los Angeles when KLSX–once the SoCal home of Howard Stern–started spinning the hits again. Today, the NYSE delisted Citadel Broadcasting, which is the company of suckers that bought ABC Radio for top dollar only to see its stock tank. It lost five cents in value today. That’s normally not a big deal, unless, like Citadel, your stock trades for nine cents a share. The New York exchange told them to take their stock to the OTC market.
The other rumor is that Rhodes is talking with Air America Radio. Representatives there did not return calls for comment. Meanwhile, her old Palm Beach station, WJNO, has moved Sean Hannity into her old timeslot, and has moved uber-reactionary Mark Levin into Hannity’s.
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By ng12460, February 28, 2009 @ 12:28 pm
At this point, it kind of makes sense for to go back to Air America. No offense to the other current on air (or online) talent, Randi was (or perhaps still is) Air America.
At this rate, though, I doubt she’ll ever be back on terrestrial radio. And with all the financial problems over at Sirius/XM, they must view her too as a liability rather than an asset given that part of her contract apparently involves her employer paying her legal costs.
I don’t know of any employer, in this day and age, that would want to be burdened by someone’s personal issues, not in this climate.
By brasscupcakes, February 28, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
What is all this business about “personal issues?”
Randi was far from the only person who left Nova M — the management was in chaos and they couldn’t make payroll.
As for her liability insurance — which hasn’t even been confirmed as an issue at play here — people in radio and on television get sued every day, of course she’d want them to pay for a policy.
I was in print, for goshsakes, and I was sued on numerous occasions.
There used to be a saying, back when we still a functional fourth estate: if you’re not getting sued, you’re not doing your job.
When you go after the rich and powerful, they lawyer you to death, this is nothing that’s unique to Randi.
It’s only since media outlets have been owned by corporations and are responsible to share holders that they’d settle rather than fight frivolous lawsuits because it’s cheaper.
Publishers and station managers used to have your back when you got sued over an important story.
In book publishing, it’s even worse — authors have to sign a contract indemnifying the publisher rather than vice versa.
But this is an ethics problem for the media in general.
By what labyrinthine logic this gets cast as a personal problem of Randi’s, I can’t imagine, but this is not the first time I have heard it suggested.
You really have to wonder what the motivation is of the people spreading this stuff around and who they work for.
They’re not liberals, I’ll tell you that much.
By PBCliberal, March 1, 2009 @ 1:05 am
We don’t know that they couldn’t make payroll. They may have chosen not to. My understanding is that the payroll checks that were reversed covered a portion of the time she did not appear.
I do agree that the indemnification issue is turned on its head and has been for some time. Media owners seem to want partners sharing every liability but not profit.
But by hiding out and obfuscating the reasons for her disappearance, just as with her alleged mugging that became a mishap, she really takes away from the persona she presents on her show.
It suggests that she wants the truth from everyone else, which is an honorable and sorely missing ethical position, but has no responsibility to provide it when she’s the subject.
Randi Rhodes could end any speculation and stop the “spreading this stuff around” in its tracks by a simple open, straightforward declarative statement about what happened.
She’s chosen instead to doubletalk.