Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity may be going to WOR

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity may be going to WOR

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WOR is shaking up its lineup, apparently paving the way for Rush Limbaugh to jump stations.

WOR (710 AM) is clearing the decks for a Rush-and-Sean landing.

    Long-time station mainstay Dr. Joy Browne was dismissed Thursday, along with former Gov. David Paterson and syndicated host Mike Huckabee, as WOR’s new management prepares to roll out a radically different prime-time lineup in 2013.

    In a move that had been rumored for months but didn’t happen until five days before Christmas, the station also laid off a number of behind-the-scenes workers Thursday.

    A statement from Buckley Broadcasting, WOR’s outgoing owner, said: “We thank our employees for their service over the years and wish them all the best. We are providing our workers with a generous severance package, and Clear Channel will absorb a number of the station staff."

    While nothing has been officially announced, the new Clear Channel lineup at some point in 2013 is expected to feature Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, who have dominated city talk radio as the afternoon lineup on rival WABC (770 AM) since Hannity joined the station in 1998.

    WOR was purchased in August by Clear Channel, the radio giant that also owns Premiere, the company that syndicates both Limbaugh and Hannity.

    Limbaugh and Hannity are the first- and second-most popular talk show hosts in the country, and it is widely expected Clear Channel will shift them to the company’s own station.

    “Let’s put it this way,” says Tom Taylor, editor of the radio newsletter Tom Taylor Now. “The whole radio world would be shocked if Clear Channel does not move them to 710. There really isn’t any other reason for Clear Channel to have bought the station.”

    Browne had been with WOR for years, in a wide variety of time slots. Her advice program was among the remaining WOR shows, along with Joan Hamburg, that linked WOR to its long tradition as a “full-service” radio station.

   Hamburg remains at the station for now, along with morning host John Gambling and news director Joe Bartlett â€" though the station’s news reportedly will be handled through another Clear Channel division, Total Traffic.

    The WOR website Thursday listed Gambling’s morning show, Hamburg from noon to 2 p.m. and Dave Ramsey’s syndicated show, 2-4 p.m.

    It had no hosts listed for 10 a.m. to noon or 4 p.m.-midnight. Paterson had hosted the 4-6 p.m. shift.

    If Limbaugh and Hannity move to WOR, WABC could pick up Huckabee, who is syndicated through WABC’s owner, Cumulus.

    “We’re looking at an enormous reshuffling of New York talk radio,” says Taylor. “A lot of presets are going to change.”

    It is not expected that WOR will make an immediate announcements. Radio stations typically downshift their programming during the last two holiday weeks of the year.