When Randi Rhodes returned to the air today, now syndicated by Clear Channel’s Premiere division, she didn’t get her old timeslot back at her old hometown WJNO.  Sean Hannity replaced her when her relationship with now-defunct syndicator Nova-M radio blew up.

Hannity’s numbers in her old timeslot at the station where she actually originated her show are beating her, according to John Hunt, market manager for Clear Channel West Palm Beach.  So Rhodes will return, timeshifted to 6-9 PM, where uber-reactionary Mark Levin was previously heard.

But Rhodes will be live again starting June 1 on another Clear Channel AM station, according to Hunt, who won’t make the formal announcement for a couple of weeks. This new station will have a better signal than WJNO, Hunt added.

South Florida progressive radio took a hit when 940 WINZ, Miami flipped to The Sports Animal 940.  Clear Channel owns one other AM facility in Palm Beach County, 1230 WBZT now programming business and variety talk. WBZT’s signal is superior to WJNO‘s.

Premiere Radio Networks announced today that Randi Rhodes will join the Clear Channel-owned-syndicator’s lineup of radio talk programing which includes Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Casey Kasem, Ryan Seacrest, Glenn Beck, Bob & Tom, Delilah, Steve Harvey, Blair Garner, George Noory, John Boy and Billy, Big Tigger, Dr. Dean Edell, Sean Hannity and others.

Her show, which was previously produced at Clear Channel’s WJNO’s studios in West Palm Beach and syndicated by the now-defunct Nova-M networks, will begin May 11th, 2009. It will originate from Washington D.C. and be carried on most of her long-time affiliaties.

Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix NewTimes blog is reporting that, at least last night, the offices of flagship station 1190 WNUV, Tolleson, AZ were padlocked.

I’d been tipped off that KNUV 1190 AM, formerly the flagship station of the liberal Nova M radio network, and briefly, the home of Nova M’s successor network, On Second Thought, had been padlocked. So I had to see for myself…  — New Times

We went through a period in the 80s where stations went dark, including some pretty big hitters in the top 20 markets. Get ready, radio, history may be about to repeat itself.

The New Times blog has done some excellent work on the whole mess with Nova-M, the Drobneys, Randi Rhodes and the John Manzo suit. When old-line journalists lament the demise of “real” journalism, they should look to blogs like Phoenix’s New Times for solace.

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.

Nova-M Radio, the radio syndicator for Randi Rhodes, crashed and burned to the great delight of a gaggle of right wing talker fans everywhere. Moe Lane at Redstate took mock credit for its demise, claiming an appearance by “our own Mark Impomeni…shut it down cold.”

The #tcots on Twitter were all a-twitter too. Free Market At Work, they crowed. And they’re right, but its not because there’s a lack of appetite in the country for liberal ideas or thoughts, it just there’s a lack of demand for it over old delivery methods.

The correct paring of medium and message was one of the main reasons for Rush Limbaugh and neocon-talk radio’s rise in the first place. When Limbaugh began doing his brand of political talk, old pickup trucks still had AM-only radios.

Let’s digress a moment, and quote Wikipedia’s entry on buggy whips:

Though similar whips are still manufactured for limited purposes, the buggy whip industry as a major economic entity ceased to exist with the introduction of the automobile, and is cited in economics and marketing as an example of an industry ceasing to exist because its market niche, and the need for its product, disappears. — Wikipedia on Buggy Whip & Coach Whip

The buggy whip didn’t disappear overnight. There was this period where whip manufacturers were failing, and those most successful in staying in business hewed to markets where their product was still in demand, and they did what they needed to be premier in that market.

It would be as if a smart buggy whip manufacturer would identify the Amish market and do what ever it took to best serve their needs. Even naming themselves—in a not so subtle nod to their remaining market—Ordnung, the German word for order.

Ordnung, if you’ve been keeping up with your Mennonite apologetics, is the Amish name for their set of rules for living. What a great name for a whip, if you’re Amish!

So take no joy in watching libtalk radio go over the cliff, righties. It was just the weakest buggy whip company in the business: it deserved to die. But the lesser Rushbos aren’t far behind.

Radio Equalizer has just published a document purported to be from Randi Rhodes’ attorney Robert V Gaulin claiming that Nova-M radio has shut its doors.

Eric Reinert, general manager of Nova-M’s flagship station in the greater Phoenix market, acknowledges that he is familiar with the letter from seeing it on the web, but refused to confirm nor deny the rumors. The office phone is no longer answered as Nova-M radio.

Pressed for details Reinert added, “Its not that I can’t confirm or deny, its that I won’t.” It will all become clear over time, Reinert said.

More information is emerging about the technicalities of the word “technical” that are being used by Anita Drobny and Nova-M radio as an excuse for Rhodes absence from her nationally syndicated show. “It is not an NSF issue,” said a source familiar with the situation at WJNO, where Rhodes originates her show via ISDN connection to the greater Phoenix Nova-M facilities where it is satellite uplinked to affiliated stations.

The new information confirms that Premiere (the Clear-Channel owned syndicator that distributes Rush Limbaugh) will not be involved in distributing the Rhodes program. It contradicts an earlier report that Rhodes will return as a Clear Channel employee hosting a local program. Radio & Records is reporting that the “technical” dispute is a contractual issue, which is echoed at the LTR blog: “Negotiations are reportedly completely amicable with both sides determined to get Rhodes back on the air as soon as possible.”

Her studio in the West Palm Beach Clear Channel cluster is available and unused, writes a knowledgeable source, “Whenever [Rhodes] and Nova-M decide she can put her ass in the seat, it’s waiting for her.”

UPDATE

Less than a year after Randi Rhodes broke with Air America, returning to Palm Beach County to move her national show to the Nova-M network, she is again off the air, her show being guest hosted, often at the last minute, by Nancy Skinner. Rhodes and WJNO are preparing to relaunch her show as a local program from the West Palm Beach studios of the Clear Channel cluster, according to sources inside Clear Channel knowledgable about the preparations.

Is this the Randi Rhodes channel?

Rhodes and Nova-M have been blaming “technical problems” for the interruption of The Randi Rhodes show, but when pressed, a spokesman at Nova-M’s flagship station in Phoenix responded that “technical problems” could have a lot of different meanings. The many definitions of “technical” was echoed by sources at Clear Channel in West Palm Beach, who said there were no Clear Channel technical issues, and that the assumption that a technical problems had to do with equipment or transmission wouldn’t be correct.

Over the last few days, according to those familiar with the situation in West Palm Beach, WJNO has been making preparations for Rhodes to return to WJNO as a Clear Channel employee hosting a local show from their facilities. Though Clear Channel owns Premiere Radio Networks, the radio syndicator that distrubutes Rush Limbaugh, it is not believed her show will be syndicated when she returns.

Rhodes seems to be doing her best to become the liberal counterpart of Rush Limbaugh: a deeply flawed spokesperson for an ideology. Its still not clear how a mugging with political overtones in New York which Air America reported squares with her ultimate story that she left an Irish Pub after several hours of drinking and isn’t sure what happened next.

The whole transition from Air America to Nova-M leaves more questions unanswered than nailed down. And now comes statements from Rhodes and Anita Drobny that make so little sense her supporters are shaking their heads in disbelief. Rhodes has depended upon the intelligence of her listeners to call bullshit on the Bush administration and have it resonate with those within the sound of her voice. There comes a responsibility when you appeal to the intelligence of your listeners to respect that intelligence when you speak about yourself.

UPDATE