Bonneville Broadcasting Pulls Plug, Ending Kornheiser Deal

Bonneville Broadcasting Pulls Plug, Ends Relationship With Kornheiser

Less than a year after launching talk radio station WWWT, Bonneville Broadcasting Corp. is "pulling the plug and giving its signals to Federal News Radio," according to Jeff Clabaugh of the WASHINGTON BUSINESS JOURNAL. The move "ends Bonneville's relationship" with Tony Kornheiser. Also, Nationals games and other sports programming currently carried on the stations "will be broadcast on 1500 AM, and will be heard on 107.7 FM through the fall 2009 season"(BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/11). In DC, Paul Farhi reported Bonneville "declined to renew Kornheiser's contract after his program's ratings declined substantially this spring." Kornheiser "had been expected to resume his radio program on the station in January" (WASHINGTON POST, 8/13). MEDIAWEEK's Mike Stern wrote the "avaliability of Kornheiser and potentially several play-by-play franchises may be very appealing" to Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder's Red Zebra Broadcasting, which purchased DC sports talk station WTEM-AM in June and owns a "portfolio of [DC] area stations" (MEDIAWEEK.com, 8/11).