Madison's Air America affiliate will shut down at the end of the year, ending the city's two-year relationship with liberal talk radio.
On the air since September 2004, The Mic 92.1 will become a Fox Sports Radio station Jan. 1, 2007. Clear Channel Radio, which operates five other Madison area radio stations, announced the shutdown in a statement released Friday.
According to Clear Channel Vice President Jeff Tyler, Madison listeners are increasingly demanding more sports on the radio.
""The need and the appetite for sports in the market have only grown stronger in the past few years,"" he said.
The city already has two all-sports radio stations in place. ESPN radio 1070 AM, also owned by Clear Channel, carries a large listening audience in Madison and Dane County. In addition, Fox Sports currently airs programming on 100.5 FM.
Still, Tyler insisted the move to close The Mic and replace it with high school and minor league sports broadcasts was supported by statistics.
""Our programming decisions are based entirely on audience research and our knowledge of the communities we serve,"" he said.
Clear Channel has made headlines since 1996, when federal radio restrictions were loosened, allowing the company to build a multi-billion dollar communications conglomerate. The San Antonio-based company has been involved in radio since 1972.
Al Franken, Air America's marquee radio personality, has been highly critical of Clear Channel in recent years for its conservative political activities. For example, the company banned hundreds of songs from its airwaves following Sept. 11.
Some of the songs deemed inappropriate included ""Fly"" by Sugar Ray, ""Fly Away"" by Lenny Kravitz and ""American Pie"" by Don McClean.
However, UW-Madison journalism professor Jack Mitchell said despite its history, Clear Channel likely made the call to cancel The Mic based on profits alone.
""By law their goal has to be to make as much money as possible,"" Mitchell said. ""And they must have thought they could make more with Fox Sports.""
