Geraldo Kicked Off the National Express; Forced to Take the 'Local'

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cumulus Media, Inc., which has nationally syndicated Geraldo Rivera's radio show since 2012, announced that beginning in January 2014, Rivera will be heard only on 77 WABC Radio in New York City, hosting a new program devoted to social and political issues affecting Gotham, Politico reported this week.

Rivera, who still toils at Fox News, will air 10 a.m. to noon on WABC beginning January 1. The 70-year-old Rivera no longer is a marquis name to a new generation of talk radio shut-ins, lacking the national clout and bombast of a Rush Limbaugh.

Perhaps returning to his New York roots will revive the "good" Geraldo, a Peabody Award-winning journalist/lawyer for ABC News in the early '70s, rather than the "bad" Geraldo fighting with Neo-Nazi skinheads on his tabloid talk show and unveiling debris in Al Capone's vault.

Cumulus Citadel Purchase Creates Challenge for Clear Channel

Image via WikipediaThe Wall St. Journal is reporting today that the nation's second largest radio station owner, Cumulus Media, Inc.(CMI), has acquired Citadel Broadcasting Corp., third-largest U.S. radio broadcaster, for a combined $2.5 billion in cash and stocks.

Citadel shareholders will receive either $37 cash per share or 8.525 common stock shares of CMI. Citadel emerged from a December 2009, Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding sparked by the lethal combination of debt and plunging ad revenues with principally the same management team headed by CEO Farid Suleman, but ownership comprised of lenders including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

The Citadel-Cumulus radio conglomerate is poised to challenge radio Goliath Clear Channel Communications, Inc., which boasts more than 800 radio stations in the U.S.