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Limbaugh: Don't worry about Cumulus

Rush Limbaugh has responded to POLITICO's report about negotiations with Cumulus Media by telling listeners not to worry and hinting that a move away from the broadcaster could mean wider reach for his program on Clear Channel and other syndicators.

"You are gonna be able to get this radio program on as many, if not more, radio stations down the road than it's on now, and what you're being treated to is just a public business negotiation," Limbaugh said on today's program.

Cumulus Media, the second-biggest broadcaster in the country, is planning to drop both Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from its stations at the end of the year, an industry source told POLITICO on Sunday. The move that would remove the two most highly rated conservative talk personalities from more than 40 Cumulus channels in major markets.

(Also on POLITICO: 15 little-known Limbaugh facts)

Limbaugh's remarks on Monday were in part an effort to counter concerns that Cumulus's decision would take his show out of major media markets. Indeed, should the contract not go through, it is likely that Clear Channel would license the rights to other radio broadcasters or put him on their own channels, industry sources said.

"I am totally confident that they will put Rush and Sean on equal if not better stations on the markets where they have stations -- and in places where they don't have a station they will have other radio companies that are chomping at the bit to get them," Michael Harrison of industry trade Talkers Magazine told POLITICO.

Harrison also cautioned against interpreting Cumulus's decision as a political one and criticized liberal groups who thought this sounded the death knell for Limbaugh and Hannity, the two most powerful talk radio hosts in the country.

"This is a financial decision. It's not political," he said. "Everybody might be better off for it. Limbaugh and Hannity are better off with companies that are happy to have them and sell them the way they should be sold; Cumulus will be happy to take its own position and find a course more compatible to its business model."

(WATCH latest edition of "On Media" - Scaborough vs. Hannity)

Another industry source put it this way: "Clear Channel is stuck because of rich legacy contracts with these big names they own. On the other side of the equation, Cumulus can be more nimble as the renter -- and make decisions purely based on the economics."

On Monday's program, Limbaugh said that while he'd love to discuss the ongoing negotiations, he would issue "proper business restraint."

"There was another POLITICO story that ran last night on this program and the radio stations that it is on, and is going to be on, in the future. And someday, someday I am looking so forward to being able to detail all of this for you, but suffice to say nothing is gonna happen that you will notice. Nothing is going to change," he said.

"You are gonna be able to get this radio program on as many, if not more, radio stations down the road than it's on now, and what you're being treated to is just a public business negotiation," he continued. "Negotiations have been taken public by one side of this. I thought it was done. I thought it was over with. And folks, I would love... I mean, I love inside baseball stuff, and I would love to pass this on, but I must use proper business restraint here."

"But I just want to assure you, everything's cool, and as always, what's on the table for this program is growth," he said."