South Lake Tahoe radio station cancels Rush Limbaugh

KOWL 1490 AM has pulled the plug on Rush Limbaugh. The South Lake Tahoe radio station was one of the original affiliates to carry the show, stemming from the host's days in Sacramento, CA.

The nationally syndicated show will be off the air as of this week.

New station owner and GM, Steve Harness, made the decision but stressed it was done for economic reasons and not for political reasons. Harness spent several years as the morning show host on KOWL and was well known as “lefty liberal”. However Harness would often defend Rush Limbaugh on air as having the right to say what he wants to say as this is America and we have that freedom.

"Rush has repelled local, regional, and national advertisers from KOWL costing the stations thousands of dollars in advertisers," said Harness in a press release. "Since KOWL is a small unrated market, advertisers would rather just avoid the whole station then take the risk of being associated with Rush’s increasingly toxic brand."

The Rush Limbaugh Show charges a monthly fee to affiliates, which also contributed to the station's decision.

“I spent a lot of time negotiating directly with Limbaugh’s syndicator," said Harness. "I told them that we didn’t want to lose his show, but that we couldn’t pay him a fee in addition to him loosing us money repelling advertisers and they refused to drop the monthly free. Ironically, they lost the fee anyway and a long-time affiliate. I really don’t understand why they forced our hand like this, it’s now a lose/lose situation.”

Harness has replaced Rush with another prominent conservative broadcast, The Dennis Prager Show, which does not charge a monthly fee.

Prager's show now airs live on KOWL from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday through Friday in the same spot that Rush occupied for over 20 years.

A full schedule for KOWL can be found here: Website.

Any questions can be directed to Steve Harness at: steve@krltfm.com