Rush Limbaugh appears to be the latest victim of cost-cutting at Connoisseur Media’s WJET 1400.

In a response for a request for comment, CM-Erie General Manager David Calabrese indicated that station decided to go in a different direction:

The economy is tough and layoffs are everywhere, Rush is the victim of a slow economy and we decided to lay him off rather than affect someone locally.

Rush’s people were uncompromising with us. We feel that the Dennis Miller decision is a good one for the region and the station.

One can speculate that Rush’s new multi-million dollar contract has come into play with clearance renewals at the local level. Given the margin mandates that the corporate operators live under, the relatively inexpensive Dennis Miller show must have looked enticing.

Miller’s show launched in March 2007 and airs in Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. He seems to take a lot of listener calls, and sprays tons of his intellectual conservative humor throughout the program.

By my calculations, Rush has been a mainstay of WJET middays since 1990 or 1991, when the call letters were WLKK and Tim DeCapua owned 1400 as a standalone AM.