Most national, syndicated shows will be dropped at Peak Broadcasting’s KMJ Fresno in favor of successful Central Valley News and Talk programming: The AM, FM and online broadcast has accelerated its commitment to additional live and local programming begun over three years ago. Premiere Radio Networks, owner of the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity Show among others has decided to move their programming elsewhere after a 25 year relationship with KMJ.
This anticipated move has given KMJ the opportunity to more quickly expand its already highly rated local news and talk programming to reflect the shifting wants and needs of listeners and advertisers throughout The Central Valley.
In a move designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of the Fresno County population KMJ will replace the aging talk shows supplied by Premiere with already successful news and talk shows originated over the past 3½ years by KMJ.
Skip Essick, KMJ’s Operations Manager said: “Our local newscasts, sports coverage, and Ag
reports, along with talk shows by Ray Appleton, Chris Daniel, Inga Barks, Alexan Balekian,
and Jennifer Lipp, will insure that KMJ’s connection to our listeners, advertisers, and the
community as a whole, will continue to thrive for many years to come.”
In making this announcement Peak Broadcasting/KMJ Sr. VP/Market Manager Patty Hixson said; “We value program exclusivity and have long anticipated the opportunity to control our own programming locally rather than rely on national talk shows available in so many other places that can be taken from us at the whim of their owners. KMJ’s future lies in its local programming, and we know we have the best people in the business making it right here in Fresno 24/7. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to expand our local programming earlier than expected, as we can now offer our advertisers and listeners even more of the content that makes KMJ the leader in Central California radio.”
Peak Broadcasting expects the expansion of its local programming on KMJ will be phased in over the next 90 days. With the exception of the independently owned Dave Ramsey Show heard on KMJ, the future location of Premiere owned syndicated programming in the Fresno market is unknown.
Rush is the only show I listen to, except when I have insomnia at 3 AM and catch the ghost stories on CTC. Well, adios KMJ. Been listening since we moved to Visalia in 1989. Won’t be anything to listen to now.
This is a low blow! I don’t know what I’ll do without my daily dose of Rush. Always, all my radios, car included, have been set on KMJ, now what? I don’t believe there is another station we can get here in The Valley that carries Rush, whereas KMJ can be heard over to the coast and up to Redding. I’m so damned mad. Nobody can convince me that Rush and Sean just up and decided to pull their shows from this large audience without some pushing, prodding, intimidations, threats or some sort of nonsense. Adios KMJ and I hope you’re sorry.
“More local programming?” Is it going to be like the comcast 5 minutes every hour that I get on CNN? You know where your really into something and 5 minutes before it ends they go to some stupid interview with someone nobody knows at some Museum somewhere? Local people, do it right or don’t do it.
I think politics has a lot to do with this. I think the Obama camp has something to do with this. I think the talk show hosts have become a threat to the bad guys.
Rush and Ray oh no……………. It flows from one to another. KMJ580 is the first thing I listen to before Rush. Even Rush at 0730. Then Ray then Rush and then more Ray and on to Sean. Can you give us a POC so we can call and get them back on KMJ?
I think it has to do with Peak Broadcasting trying to keep their expenses under control; after all, they went in and came out of Chapter 11 this year.
Seems crazy though for a conservative radio station to leave their listeners without Rush and Sean just weeks away from a presidential campaign.
It has nothing to do with Peak. It had everything to do with Clear Channel. They own a good chunk of the Fresno Market. One of their board members decided, why the hell are we letting Peak Broadcasting get more listeners than our stations? That’s when they made the decision to pull KMJ’s plug. Clear Channel being money hungry these days just can’t help but beat other stations down while the dough keeps being trucked in.
I will listen to Inga till Bulldog basketball & baseball bumps her…than I’m GONE KMJ!!! Your local shows aren’t important to the masses that management may think. BYE-BYE
it’s obvious by skip essick’s and ray appleton’s weak explanation and discussion on 10/9 there is way more to this than they’re letting-on. i think they brought it on themselves with stupid moves like moving beck to pit him against limbaugh and moving levin in favor of adding lipp’s morning nuthouse and catering to daniel’s egomania. adios, dunces!
Clear channel was hungry for more money. They started crying when they saw their revenues could be improved.
SAD SAD SAD day. Whether or not KMJ could have avoided this or not it a sad day for the Conservative voice of the valley. Very strange to happen during the Presidential election cycle,. Oh well guess its time to say goodbye to KMJ for me. J
Dittos to the comments above…listener of KMJ since 1988 with debut of Rush, and Appleton’s transition from tunes to talk. KMJ has done a wonderful job through the years with conservative talk, until of late. I saw problems coming after years of Hannity being broadcast, “tape delayed.”. As a Hannity listener, it made it very difficult to participate as a caller. Then when Levin came on, he was “tape delayed.”. This got better when 105.9 joined KMJ and Levin went “live”—but then you had Hannity and Levin competing. For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was putting Beck on delayed. Add in the mumbo jumbo of Daniels and Barks switching all over the place, and now Lipp…you have a real mess. Don’t kid yourself, they are not having fun over there dealing with all the egos of the locals there. I called in to Daniels to relate my 2 cents and when the screener found out it was going to be more negative, I was dumped. My prediction, too, is Premiere will put its shows on a real-time schedule on a Clear Channel station. Let’s what KMJs ratings and revenues are in 6 months…
Ok, I’m going to try this again. Tried once. Didn’t go through, but that’s ok because I have found some additional information that buttressed my original feeling about the change. I agree with Rush. It really is terrifying when free speech is stifled and another blow is taken by the Constitution. We, those who love liberty and are willing to let others have their say, would like to call on the left to really look at what is going on. I have watched the union demonstrations back East and it looked like to me those union picketers were the ones causing the the violent confrontation. So, cave in KMJ. You will have a lot of company from the looks of it. Do we have any feedom of speech left? Doesn’t look like it.
Yes, you probably want to start looking into the school-age resources. You can search this online and get many an idea.
Bye KMJ sorry you whimped out…(it is money,huh Ray)
See Ya KMJ. Extremely disappointed that you have left off the syndicated shows. You’ve lost another listener.
KMJ is being blamed because: “Premiere Radio Networks, owner of the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity Show among others has decided to move their programming elsewhere after a 25 year relationship with KMJ.” I wonder where the programming would be moved. Would the costs of putting the programming on another station be so low as to make it worth the move?
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