Courtesy DCRTV

(September 9, 2010) DCRTV is reporting the possibility that Daniel Snyder will flip new talk WNTN to sports. DCRTV says they are hearing about it from multiple local programming and advertising sources. Locally-based evening man Jeff Kuhner is even dropping hints about it on the air.

DCRTV hears that there are rumblings that Redskins owner Dan Snyder is planning to drop the righty talk format from WTNT (570 AM) and install a sports format, via a relay of ESPN's national radio network, with Steve Czaban's new national radio show taking the morning slot. ESPN's Mike and Mike would remain in mornings on Snyder's sister Red Zebra sports talker WTEM, ESPN 980. And Czaban's local "Sports Reporters" show would continue in afternoons on WTEM.

If WTNT drops its low-rated talk format, that would mean a host of nationally syndicated righty radio talkers would lose their DC perches, including Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Phil Hendrie, Jerry Doyle, Lars Larson, and Ray Lucia.

There is some talk that some of WTNT's talkers, particularly the DC-based Ingraham and the intense Savage, would move to other area righty talkers, including Citadel's WMAL (630 AM), Salem's WWRC (1260 AM), or CBS's WHFS-AM, The Big Talker 1580.

Also, if Snyder does flip WTNT, he'd be removing "America's Morning News" from its flagship station. The show, launched in mid-2009, had been produced by the Washington Times, but recently syndicator Talk Radio Network has taken control of the program and moved it away from studios in the Times building. WTNT, which was included in the deal when Snyder's Red Zebra bought WTEM from Clear Channel more than two years ago, has never generated significant ratings. And those numbers have dropped even further, we're told, with a recent ratings rise by WMAL, which airs righty talk titans Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

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