The Fox News host of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill O’Reilly, will end his syndicated radio talk show early next year, according to a report by Businessweek.

Apparently O’Reilly is trying to bite off more than he can chew:

In a statement, O’Reilly said the workload has become too much, adding, “I can no longer give both TV and radio the time they deserve.”

In an interview with the New York Daily News, O’Reilly explained further the workload he’s been facing and some of the other reasons for quitting the show:

“The media business is getting more and more intense,” O’Reilly said Thursday. “We’ve got to keep the TV show at the level we have it now, and that means more and more time to keep it competitive and fresh. I’ve been working 60, 65 hours a week and I just can’t keep doing that.”

I’m not sure that O’Reilly has much to worry about, given his ratings, but I can understand the need to spend more time doing one thing.

Although my own experience producing television hasn’t been “in the real world” per se, my work was aired to at least two towns, if not more.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t understand something of what he faces.  Not only did I produce a show, I edited episodes of that show, all while shooting and producing news packages for our weekly newscast, and sometimes more than one at a time.  All that while juggling college and some semblence of a social life.  Yes, sometimes is was a little overwhelming.  Yet, O’Reilly produces two shows five days a week.  So I can understand why he wants to focus on only one of them.

Still, with the already conservative domination of talk radio, losing O’Reilly will be win for the ideological purists.  O’Reilly says he aimed to limit that with his radio show, and I believe him:

He said he also found that radio listeners don’t just want a host who preaches their viewpoint.

“I knew my show couldn’t be ideological,” he said. “Going up against [Rush] Limbaugh, that would be suicidal. Why would a listener who’s already got Rush turn to someone else to hear the same things?

“So I was doing a show that was fact-based. It was more news/talk. And we were very competitive. In some cities, like Boston and St. Louis, we beat Limbaugh outright.”

I know O’Reilly is not a friend of the far right.  They loathe him because he won’t demonize anyone they consider a liberal (which is pretty much everyone to them).  Unlike what a lot of liberals believe, O’Reilly does not hold views that are so conservative as to be insane.  I think he does feel comfortable with many conservative positions, but he has some that are very non-conservative.  He can be loud and sometimes a jerk, but to mistake that for being a member of the far right is wrong.  From what I’ve seen, O’Reilly does mostly give things a fair shake, and that’s a good thing.

So, losing someone like O’Reilly on talk radio will give the ideologues that much more power.  He’s got to do what’s best for him, of course, but it is a bit of a pity that he has to leave.

I suppose it if makes his TV show all the better, it’ll be worth it.