Saturday, August 24, 2013

Rush Limbaugh Inks New 3-Year Deal, Contract 'Really Never in Doubt'

Calling himself America's "Doctor of Democracy" and "America's Truth Detector," conservative talk superstar Rush Limbaugh announced a new three-year deal on Friday with Cumulus Media, which includes a move from WABC to WOR in New York.

"The bottom line is, no change for you," Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Wherever you're listening to this radio show today, you're gonna be able to hear it on Jan. 2, 3, whenever I get back from the traditional Christmas break. There will be no interruption to you. There will be no change. The radio program is as strong or stronger than ever. It will be everywhere you are used to listening to it now."

Politico reported last month that Cumulus Media would not renew "The Rush Limbaugh Show" after negotiations with Premiere Networks, the division of Clear Channel that distributes the program.

"The last month, if you read Politico or anything that linked to Politico or CNN or ABC or anywhere else, you were reading that it was over for me. That I was bad news for broadcast stations," Limbaugh told listeners. "They could not sell advertising and all of this was because of me and the controversy I engender and therefore I wasn't gonna be gone overnight, but three to four years, and that's it. Fini, totala completa, out of there, gone. Once and for all the left would be rid of me."

On Friday, Limbaugh said that the yearlong negotiations ended this week with a new deal, and that "it was really never in doubt, but I don't want to do my own version of negotiating here."

He compared his situation to President Obama's promise that Americans could keep their health insurance.

"If you like this station, you get to keep this station," he said. "I'm not gonna take this station away from you and force you to go to a new one, as Obama's doing with your healthcare. He said if you like your doctor, you like your plan, you get to keep it. No, you don't. You're gonna lose your doctor; you're gonna lose your plan."

Then he dubbed himself the "Doctor of Democracy" and "America's Truth Detector." He attributed the move from WABC in the highly coveted New York market to the fact that WOR is owned by his syndication partner, Clear Channel Communications.

He added, "And as the Doctor of Democracy, the deal you have with your doctor isn't changing. You get to keep your doctor. You get to keep your plan. You get to keep your station. Nothing's changing, and it really never was gonna change," he explained. "These were just public negotiations, which normally don't occur in public. But the media got involved.

"So the point is, the past month in the drive-by media I was over, it was finished," he said. "You better listen while you can because I was gone, I was ineffective, I was a has-been, it was old news, whatever happened on this program."

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