Clear Channel's Continuing Quest to Ruin Louisville Radio

Imagine that a large automaker bought Cadillac from GM. After owning the company for a couple of years, they slowly phased in a line of much cheaper looking and feeling cars, and introduced a bargain model or two. Then imagine that the company sat around scratching its head when customers started to leave, blaming it on market forces and the fact that people weren't spending money on luxury items.

Change the product from cars to radio and you've just explained Clear Channel's entry into Louisville radio.

Clear Channel has been a force in local radio since the mid 80's, when it purchased the 50,000 Watt station WHAS (840-AM), and WAMZ (97.5 FM) from Clear Channel Communications in 1985, when the stations were put up for sale by the Bingham Family. The purchase wasn't unwise, given the stations' dominance in the local markets, with the two stations typically coming in 1st and 2nd in the local ratings books.

For a few years, Clear Channel seemed to leave WHAS untouched. WHAS was Louisville's beacon to the rest of the country, broadcasting award winning news and talk, and even music to the rest of the country. WHAS' news department rivaled many television stations, and was allowed to take up large sections of the drive time programming, with local reporters covering local stories, including expanded investigated and human interest coverage.

Its traffic department ran its own helicopter, which would often stay aloft for long periods after its typical drivetime usage if the conditions warranted it. Weather was provided by the meteorologists of WHAS TV, but the weather coverage remained exclusive, with their meteorologists doing live weather reports, and extended radio only coverage during severe weather.

Since then, the station's been in a slow freefall. The first sign that things would be different was the replacment of local programming with Rush Limbaugh from the noon to 3 PM hour. The next changes appeared in its news department. The number of reporters began to dwindle, the time devoted to news began to shrink, and the long feature stories all but disappeared.