Mutual Broadcasting System - Legacy

Legacy

As of 2012, some programming on Dial Global, which purchased Westwood One in August 2011, can still trace its lineage directly to Mutual. Jim Bohannon remains on the air, hosting a call-in show tracing directly back to Herb Jepko's 1975 launch on MBS as well as a morning news magazine, America in the Morning. The current incarnation of Meet the Press, which launched on Mutual in 1945, has a simulcast on Dial Global. A simulcast of TV's Larry King Live continued to run until the end of 2009. Country Countdown USA, founded as a Mutual program after the Westwood One purchase, continues to air in its original format as CMT Country Countdown USA.

The radio rights to Notre Dame Fighting Irish football were eventually rebranded as a Westwood One product, years before the end of the Mutual network itself. At the conclusion of the 2007 football season, Notre Dame ended its relationship with Westwood One, citing financial reasons, and subsequently announced a deal with ISP Sports.

Mutual founding stations WOR and WLW are now both under the ownership of Clear Channel Communications, who operate a network of their own, Premiere Networks. It has been speculated that Clear Channel may also be interested in acquiring WGN as the result of the bankruptcy of WGN parent company Tribune Company. WGN currently syndicates Orion Samuelson/Max Armstrong farm reports and Chicago Cubs games through the Tribune Radio Network, WOR syndicates some weekend talk programs through the WOR Radio Network, and several WLW hosts have been syndicated through Premiere.

Mutual Broadcasting System LLC, based in Spokane, Washington, uses the Mutual and Liberty names on its two stations, KTRW–Spokane and KTAC–Ephrata. These stations have no connection with the original network. They present adult standards, nostalgia, and some Christian programming, using the Mutual name as part of their old-time radio branding.