In a major shakeup for the radio industry, Cumulus Media, the second-biggest broadcaster in the country, is planning to drop both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from its stations at the end of the year, an industry source told POLITICO on Sunday. 
 
 Cumulus has decided that it will not renew its contracts with either host, the source said, a move that would remove the two most highly rated conservative talk personalities from more than 40 Cumulus channels in major markets. 
 
 (UPDATE: Limbaugh: Don't worry about Cumulus) 
 
 The decision comes after negotiations between Cumulus and Premiere Networks, the division of Clear Channel that distributes Limbaugh and Hannity's shows, broke down due to disagreements over the cost of the distribution rights, the source said. Cumulus is known to drive a hard bargain on costs, and Clear Channel is known to seek top dollar for big names. 
 
 As industry insiders caution, Cumulus and Clear Channel have come to the brink before during contract negotiations only to resume talks. But the source told POLITICO that Clear Channel was unlikely to reduce the cost for distribution rights to a level that would satisfy Cumulus. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: 15 little-known Limbaugh facts) 
 
 Cumulus declined to comment for this story: "Cumulus is not in a position to comment about negotiations with talent under contract, no matter what the rumor of the day might be," a spokesperson told POLITICO. 
 
 But in recent weeks, Cumulus has been quietly reaching out to radio talent agents and political insiders about new local and regional station hosts to fill some of the airtime that will be left vacant by Limbaugh and Hannity, industry sources said. Cumulus is also expected to move some of its existing talent -- which includes Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage -- into one of the slots. 
 
 (WATCH: Rush Limbaugh tells caller not to watch Fox News) 
 
 Premiere, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday night, is expected to carry Limbaugh and Hannity on stations in many of the markets where they are currently signed with Cumulus, should the negotiations not go through. A spokesperson for Limbaugh was not immediately available for comment; Hannity did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Back in May, a source close to Limbaugh told POLITICO that the host was considering ending his affiliation agreement with Cumulus because CEO Lew Dickey was blaming the company's advertising losses on Limbaugh's controversial remarks about Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown law student. On an earnings call two days later, Dickey reported a $2.4 million first-quarter decline in revenue related to talk programming, which he attributed, indirectly, to Limbaugh's remarks about Fluke. 
 
 Dickey is expected to hold another earnings call this week, though it is unclear if he will address the contract negotiations. 
 
 (WATCH latest edition of "On Media" - Scaborough vs. Hannity) 
 
 UPDATE (Jul. 29, 12:12 p.m.): Premiere spokesperson Rachel Nelson emails: 
 
 It’s our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation. 
 
 Follow @politico 
 
 Read more about: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Cumulus 

 Rush Limbaugh and Cumulus Media, the company that distributes the influential conservative's talk-radio show in some 40 major markets, are headed for divorce, says Dylan Byers at Politico. 
 
 Citing "an industry source," Byers says that Cumulus — the No. 2 radio network in the U.S., behind Clear Channel — won't renew either the contract of Limbaugh or fellow conservative talker Sean Hannity at the end of the year. This is "a major shakeup for the radio industry," Byers adds, and it's hard to argue with that. Limbaugh and Hannity have the biggest and second-biggest talk radio shows, respectively, in the country. By a lot. 
 
 That also makes Limbaugh and Hannity very expensive, and this reported move by Cumulus to dump the two stars is about money. The two radio talkers are represented by Premiere Networks, a Clear Channel division, and Premiere reportedly wants more money than Cumulus thinks Limbaugh and Hannity are worth. Cumulus declined to comment on the rumors. 
 
 Limbaugh and Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey have been effectively negotiating in public since May, when Limbaugh threatened to leave Cumulus because Dickey had blamed Limbaugh's 2012 on-air insults of Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke for driving advertisers away and costing Cumulus millions of dollars. Now, Limbaugh critics are calling this apparent breakdown in negotiations a win for the post-Fluke boycott. 
 
 Eric Boehlert at Media Matters, one of the boycott's lead proponents, is practically giddy: 
 
 it appears Limbaugh may learn the same painful $$$ lesson Glen Beck did: hate programming doesn't pay. #mmfa — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) July 29, 2013 
 
 "The boycotters did it," agrees Jason Easley at Politicus USA. They got Cumulus to dump not only Limbaugh, but also Hannity. "Without the public pressure, bad publicity, and shame that the boycott brought on to his advertisers, Rush Limbaugh and Cumulus would probably still have a happy marriage." 
 
 If Politico's report is true, "Limbaugh's contentious and seemingly inevitable divorce from Cumulus Media and WABC has moved another step closer to reality," says David Hinckley at the New York Daily News. But that doesn't mean that Cumulus is dumping Limbaugh. "New York radio observers have been expecting for the past year that Limbaugh and probably Hannity would leave WABC, which is owned by Cumulus, for rival WOR," recently purchased by Clear Channel. 
 
 That's an important distinction, says Hinckley. And if Limbaugh goes to Clear Channel, it's not like he'll be off the airwaves. His legions of fans would just have to change the presets on their radios. 
 
 And Cumulus wouldn't drop conservative talk radio altogether — it would just switch personalities, says Byers. In recent weeks, "Cumulus has been quietly reaching out to radio talent agents and political insiders about new local and regional station hosts to fill some of the airtime that will be left vacant by Limbaugh and Hannity," he says. "Cumulus is also expected to move some of its existing talent — which includes Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage — into one of the slots." 
 
 "Cumulus has already tried to position Huckabee as a 'safe' alternative to Limbaugh," says Adam Martin at New York: "A conservative commentator who wouldn't call people 'sluts' on air." Huckabee doesn't have a huge following, according to Talkers magazine's most recent analysis, but Savage and Levin do. 
 
 Readers should take Politico's entire report with a healthy grain of salt, says Radio Ink. "A story like this always seems to pop up around the quarterly earnings call," and it's most likely a negotiating tactic as Cumulus and Premier haggle over a price. For what it's worth, "a source tells Radio Ink nothing has been decided and a deal could even be worked out in the next month or so." 
 
 Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. But my guess is that Limbaugh and Hannity have the upper hand. If Premiere asks too high a price from Cumulus, Clear Channel can't really then pay Limbaugh and Hannity less than its subsidiary was demanding. But even if neither Clear Channel nor Cumulus are willing to pay up, Limbaugh has a large fan base that would follow him to satellite radio or the internet. Glenn Beck seems to be making a tidy sum on his own. 

 Rush Limbaugh's contentious and seemingly inevitable divorce from Cumulus Media and WABC has moved another step closer to reality, according to a published report Sunday - and Sean Hannity may be leaving with him. 
 
 New York radio observers have been expecting for the past year that Limbaugh and probably Hannity would leave WABC, which is owned by Cumulus, for rival WOR. 
 
 WOR was purchased last year by Clear Channel, which owns Premiere Networks, which syndicates the Limbaugh and Hannity shows. 
 
 "Cumulus prefers to use its own talent, and Clear Channel is happy to bring Premiere talent in-house," said Robert Unmacht of iN3 Partners, a media group. 
 
 Politico reported Sunday that talks between Premiere and Cumulus had broken down over the cost of renewal rights for the conservative hosts, who have the two most popular radio talk shows in the country and have anchored WABC afternoons for more than a decade. 
 
 Their Cumulus deals reportedly expire at the end of the year. 
 
 This report follows an indirect, but sharp exchange this spring between Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey and Limbaugh over Limbaugh's value to Cumulus stations. 
 
 Sean Hannity may also leave WABC for WOR, according to a report. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images for WSB Radio) 
 
 Noting that advertisers had left Limbaugh's show after his controversial remarks about birth control advocate Sandra Fluke, Dickey said Rush had cost Cumulus millions of dollars. 
 
 Limbaugh fired back that Dickey was blaming Rush for the shortcomings of his ad sales department. 
 
 Politico's report suggested that if Cumulus does not renew Limbaugh and Hannity, that could leave their shows unavailable in some 40 cities. Many of those have a Clear Channel outlet that would be happy to have new brand-name hosts. 
 
 Speculation about possible replacements at WABC for Limbaugh's noon-3 p.m. show and Hannity's 3-6 p.m. show has focused on Mike Huckabee and WABC evening hosts Mark Levin and Michael Savage, who signed with Cumulus last year. 
 
 While Cumulus has noted that Savage has strong ratings, he has also made some controversial remarks that could present their own challenge in ad sales. 
 
 A Limbaugh spokesman could not be reached for comment Sunday and a Cumulus spokesman said, "Cumulus is not in a position to comment about negotiations with talent under contract, no matter what the rumor of the day might be." 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! 

 Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
– Politico is calling it a "major shakeup," while the New York Daily News paints it as a "seemingly inevitable divorce." America's No. 2 radio broadcaster intends to give Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity the boot by year-end, per an industry source. Money is apparently the root of this problem: Cumulus Media's move is said to be the result of an impasse it reached with Premiere Networks over the cost of distribution rights, with the latter refusing to drop that cost to a number Cumulus is happy with; Premiere is the Clear Channel arm that syndicates Limbaugh and Hannity's shows. What does that mean for Limbaugh and Hannity, who have the No. 1 and No. 2 radio talk shows in America by a landslide? Not much, maybe. They'd be wiped from more than 40 major-market Cumulus channels, but they'd likely shift to Clear Channel stations in those markets. And, writing for The Week, Peter Weber thinks Limbaugh and Hannity "have the upper hand," because if they do move to Clear Channel, it can't really pay them anything less than it was demanding of Cumulus. Politico points out that Limbaugh was rumored to have soured on Cumulus following a March earnings call in which CEO Lew Dickey said the company was still losing money because of Limbaugh's "slut" comments. Sources say Cumulus has been talking to other personalities, and will likely fill one of those holes with its current talent.