No Rush on WPHT?? Wow.
Please update us if you find out what happened... I hope that Rush wasn't dropped from the station.
WHERE ARE THE OATHKEEPERS?
"Please update us if you find out what happened"
Well, here's what happened!...
Limbaugh, in Philly, just yesterday Monday, moved from 1210am to 106.9 FM. Here's the background...
106.9 FM signed on the air on December 31, 1959 as WKDN-FM. In 1966, the station was airing a MOR music format. The station was co-owned with WKDN (800 AM), which changed calls to WTMR after the two stations were sold to separate owners in 1968. Family Stations, Inc., the holding company for stations run by Harold Camping's Family Radio religious ministry, acquired WKDN-FM for $500,000 on July 23, 1968. Under Family Stations' ownership, programming on WKDN (the "-FM" suffix was dropped from the call sign in June 1986) consisted mainly of Christian music and teachings from Family Radio, along with some public affairs programming on weekends.
On December 6, 2011, Merlin Media, LLC announced it would acquire WKDN from Family Radio,[1] a sale that was completed on March 6, 2012. After the sale, Family Radio continued to program WKDN through a local marketing agreement while Merlin constructed new facilities for the station.[2]
Family Radio programming ceased on WKDN at precisely Midnight on the morning of April 16, 2012; after about a half-hour of dead air, a continuous playing loop of "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. began, likely a play on Camping's infamous rapture predictions. After 12 Noon on April 16, the station changed its stunt to round-the-clock airings of The Sean Hannity Show (live airings and repeats), complete with the branding of "Hannity @ 106.9." With this "all-Hannity" change, the station also adopted a new call sign, WWIQ.[3][4] (Family Radio would move the WKDN call sign to its State College, Pennsylvania station on April 23.)[5]
Early speculation after Merlin's purchase had WWIQ being converted to an all-news format, replicating Merlin-owned stations in New York City and Chicago.[3][6] Merlin, however, would go instead with a combination of news and talk radio for the station, an approach confirmed on May 7, 2012. The station, branded as "IQ 106.9," plans to go after CBS Radio's mainstay stations in Philadelphia, KYW (all-news) and WPHT (talk), with a combination of news, information, and conservative-leaning talk that at times will have an irreverent, us-against-them tone. "IQ's" approach was confirmed by both a welcome statement on its website and by a YouTube video posted by one of its local hosts, former Philadelphia TV anchor Larry Mendte, who took aim at other Philly media outlets (namely the "definite agenda" of CBS with KYW and WPHT) and called WWIQ "a fresh new voice in the city of Philadelphia, an important alternative."[7][8]
The "IQ 106.9" schedule features "Philly's Morning News," a combination news/talk show (5AM-9AM) hosted by Mendte and Al Gardner, the latter a radio veteran and Philadelphia native whom Merlin hired in December 2011 to program the station (Gardner moved from a morning host position at WBT/Charlotte).[9] The daytime schedule also features the nationally-syndicated Sean Hannity Show and Glenn Beck Program. Both Hannity and Beck are distributed by Premiere Networks, as is The Rush Limbaugh Show, which will join "IQ's" lineup on June 25, 2012. Limbaugh's move to "IQ" had been widely speculated after Premiere announced in April 2012 that it would pull the show from WPHT. In addition the Mark Levin Show will begin airing on WWIQ on July 2, 2012.
WWIQ FM 106.9, formerly WKND one of the Harold Camping "Family Radio" stations, launched recently as a conservative talker "IQ 106.9". Hannity, Beck, etc. came aboard. Yesterday was Rush's debut on IQ 106.9. Mark Levin comes aboard on July 2.
IQ 106.9 lineup
5-9 am Larry Mendte, Al Gardner
9-noon Glenn Beck
12-3 pm Rush Limbaugh
3-6 pm Sean Hannity