The voice of doom has come to the land of radio. Its owner? Ryan Seacrest.

Besides serving as the country's reigning king of smarm and emcee of "American Idol," Seacrest hosts a syndicated daily music show. It's heard in cities across the country, including San Diego, where it airs on Star 94.1.

Syndicated radio shows aren't new, of course. But now, across the country, nationally broadcast hosts like Seacrest are snatching up time slots once manned by local disc jockeys. And that means more DJs are out of work. It's a sign of the times.

And as the economy continues to struggle, there's going to be even less live and local radio on the dial. San Diego radio hasn't been affected that much, but just wait. Just as in the newspaper and television industries, radio is suffering from cutbacks in advertising, and that inevitably leads to layoffs. (Star 94.1, for one, sacked its afternoon disc jockeys, Rick Moorten and Jen Sorensen, earlier this fall.)

"There's no question that change is going to be in the air," said Charlie Quinn, program director of soft-rock station KyXy and an executive with CBS Radio. Nighttime radio shows are going away and disc jockey teams are turning into solo operations, he said. "These are tough decisions people are making in a real scary time."

KyXy is the only music station in town that's live and local 24 hours a day: There's always someone in the studio on the air. But Julie, the evening host of a love-song show, just left the station. The station plans to replace her with a prerecorded host or a syndicated show, Quinn said.

Syndicated shows are entering the picture more than ever before because they're cheap. In most cases, a radio station can air a syndicated show at no cost. It just has to give up commercial slots to the syndication company. That can cost a station money, but only if advertisers are already buying commercials to fill those slots.

Could this trend mean the end of local radio? Stations have already spent the last decade cutting costs by getting rid of live and local DJs, turning instead to canned programming by hosts who prerecord their between-song patter. Now, even that may cost too much. Gabe Hobbs, a Tampa, Fla.-based senior vice president for programming at Clear Channel suggested that local programming is overrated. While he manages news and talk stations instead of music, it's fair to say his views are common across the radio world.

"I have a very simple philosophy … put the very best product you can on the air, regardless of origin. When I work with stations and talk to a (program director) when they're trying to make a decision, I try and remove the emotion: Let's look at what is the best show."

In some cases, local shows are sure to survive. Morning shows, in particular, are almost always locally based. But even they may be trimmed. A top radio morning show in a market like San Diego can cost $4 million to $5 million a year, Quinn said. In fact, some local morning hosts get seven-figure salaries. (Think about that the next time you hear one of them talk about shopping at Costco. These people definitely don't need to save by buying mayonnaise and toilet paper in bulk.)

So don't be surprised if your favorite morning show loses a cast member or two. They may even end up going to Costco like the rest of us.

Quickies

Sister stations KyXy and Sophie@103.7 continue to be for sale. Their owner, CBS radio, is trying to dump dozens of stations. There's no word on possible buyers. As everyone knows, this is not a great time to be selling anything, whether it be a widget or a radio station. KyXy and Sophie appear to have been well-run under CBS, so it might be for the best if they don't get sold. … As my North County Times colleague John Maffei reported this week, Joe Tutino and Bill "Philly Billy" Werndl are out as talk-show hosts at XX Sports Radio (1090 AM). John Lynch, CEO of the station's parent company, told Maffei that he expects to stick with lots of local programming, but there will be fewer duos and more solo hosts. In other words, he's trying to save money just like other radio stations. Lynch said he hopes to have a final lineup in place by January. … Liberals will soon lose one of their favorite punching bags -- on the radio, at least. The ever-blustery Bill O'Reilly will step down from his weekday radio show sometime during the first three months of next year. "The O'Reilly Factor," his highly rated nightly show on Fox News, will continue. Locally, O'Reilly is heard from 6 to 8 p.m. on KFMB-AM. … Speaking of local programming, talk station KOGO had strong live coverage of the fighter plane crash in University City on Monday. KPBS-FM, however, stuck with regular programming an hour after the crash.

All Randy Dotinga wants for Christmas is a $25 billion bailout. E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.