Tom Emmer to quit radio show to focus on 6th District campaign

Tom Emmer/photo by Jeff Wheeler

Tom Emmer's decision to run for Congress means putting his radio career on hold. The conservative talker's last day on AM1130's "Davis & Emmer" morning show will be Friday.

According to the Star Tribune's Rachel Stassen-Berger, Emmer said it's better to leave the program and campaign full-time sooner rather than later.

As Stassen-Berger noted, Emmer doesn't have much of a choice. If he remained on the radio after he legally becomes a candidate by filing papers with the Federal Election Commission, his opponents would have to be granted equal time.

So why did Emmer get two full days on the radio to talk largely about his campaign after he announced his intention to run on Wednesday?

Gregg Swedberg, operations manager for Twin Cities' Clear Channel, which owns the station, said he doesn't believe there is a problem because the campaign has really not started.

"But part of the reason we're not going beyond Friday is that we didn't want to get into that," he said.

Swedberg said the station has not decided how the show will proceed in Emmer's absence.

"This hit us fairly quickly. We were caught by surprise," he said. "We're hammering out different ideas, including leaving Bob (Davis) alone, teaming him up with someone else, or doing something completely different."

Swedberg praised Emmer's contributions during the two years he co-hosted the program, which ranks 11th in the morning-drive competition amongst adults 25-54 and 8th among men 25-54.