KDXE/Little Rock switches to sports

In a move that had been predicted for the past few months, KDXE in Little Rock has dropped its mostly liberal talk format, as the station's lease-management agreement (LMA) with Nova M Radio has ended.

Gone as a result of the switch is the regionally-syndicated Pat Lynch and the co-syndicated "Arkansas AM" with Grant Merrill. Both shows were dropped by the station Tuesday, but will continue on other affiliates throughout the state. Programming from Air America Radio rounded out the rest of the day.

According to Lynch, the owner of the station has assumed control once again, and with the departure of Nova M, returns the station to its former ESPN Radio sports talk format.

KDXE is owned by Simmons-Austin LLC, a division of Salt Lake City-based Simmons Media Group LLC, and has been managed by Nova M under an LMA since last April. Aldous Tyler of Nonstop Radio reported on his podcast in December that there were problems regarding the agreement and other issues, that Nova M would not be renewing their LMA, and the station would be changing formats. Partly because of that, and mostly due to technical problems, the station never carried any of Nova M's syndicated offerings, such as Mike Malloy.

Tyler also claimed that WPYR in Baton Rouge is in danger of being flipped soon, as the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications, had struck an agreement last year to deal the station to another company, Pamal Broadcasting. The station will likely change hands by April. As for the format, nothing is known, but Clear Channel plans to keep the progressive talk format for as long as they own it. When Pamal officially takes over, who knows?

Obviously, right-wing bloggers who don't know any better will crow about this and blame it on Air America's recent issues, but this move is independent of that.

Mike Malloy bringing "truth to power" to more affiliates

The Mike Malloy Show continues to grow, little by little.

As of last week, Malloy is on five affiliates - flagship KPHX in Phoenix, KQKE in San Francisco, KPTK in Seattle, KSAC in Sacramento and WINZ in Miami. This week, he adds San Diego's KLSD to the list, which will air his show live starting at 6PM. The bad news is that they'll only carry an hour of it, since KLSD is also the homebase of Air America Radio night guy Jon Elliot. Elliot's show originates from KLSD, so he is a priority for the station. Nonetheless, San Diego listeners now have the opportunity to listen to Malloy on their radios.

KPOJ in Portland is rumored to be Malloy's next affiliate. This is not official, though. KPOJ currently runs Sam Seder's show from 6-9PM and Thom Hartmann's nationally-syndicated show on delay from 9-midnight. Hartmann currently hosts the station's locally-oriented morning show.

And KDXE in Little Rock, currently operated by Nova M Radio, may start carrying Malloy soon, as they iron out some technical issues. According to Aldous Tyler at NonStop Radio, Nova M may pull out of their deal with KDXE this spring, due to a myriad of technical issues with the facilities. Whether the station keeps its liberal talk format remains to be seen. As always, we'll keep you posted.

Speaking of Nova M, they have recently redesigned their website, and added more user-friendly features such as message boards, and more streaming and podcasting links. You can see it for yourself here.