Beck's radio empire crumbling as 2011 begins

Glenn Beck's new year started a few days late, with a signal that he's hoping that 2011 will be even more momentous than the first two years of the Obama presidency, when his massive resistance to the White House catapulted the right-wing media icon onto the cover of Time magazine and made Beck a millionaire many times over.

"We cannot survive as a nation much longer," said Beck in a New Year's message posted on his website, not unless there is a "fundamental transformation" -- quite an ironic statement since many of Beck's biggest fans turned away from Obama because of the president's use of that very same term.

Added Beck: "We must take a page from our own history at the Alamo and 'draw a line in the sand.' We must decide who we are, what we are capable of and look to the heavens to chart our course...I will not accept that America's best days are behind Her, that there is no such thing as American exceptionalism." To add some meat to his verbal bravado, Beck -- who reportedly earned $32 million in 2009 and certainly topped that last year -- also claimed he was hiring 40 more people to build a new division he called E4 Experiences, for Enlightenment, Education, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship.

The new Beckian blast of bluster could serve one other purpose: Covering up that fact that Beck's most fundamental enterprise -- the radio network that launched the one-time failed "Morning Zoo" jock to national stardom in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks -- is fast imploding behind him.

Today's blow is the most significant and the most shocking: Beck will be off the air in America's largest media market, New York City, in a matter of days:

Glenn Beck may be one of the hottest talk show hosts in the country, but he apparently left New York's WOR cold.

WOR (710 AM), one of the city's two biggest talk radio stations, said this morning it is dropping Beck's syndicated show as of Jan. 17 and replacing him with a familiar New York name: Mike Gallagher.

"The reason is ratings," said WOR program director Scott Lakefield. "Somewhat to our surprise, the show wasn't getting what we wanted."

To call this a major embarassment for Beck is an understatement. After all, he's been based in New York -- where he tapes his nightly television show for Fox News Channel -- for the last four years. And he's not being replaced by some hot new up-and-coming talent, but a lower-priced and unexciting retread in longtime veteran Gallagher -- a clear sign that WOR isn't bluffing or exaggerating to say that Beck's ratings in the Big Apple were truly awful.