Arlene Violet, a talk-radio icon in Rhode Island, has been let go by her station, WHJJ (920-AM) after more than 16 years on the air. Her last day on the air will be tomorrow. She will be replaced Monday in her 3 to 6 p.m. time slot by a syndicated program featuring conservative commentator Sean Hannity.

Violet, a former Catholic nun and Rhode Island attorney general from 1985 to 1987, announced her departure on her show yesterday afternoon.

She described it as “a business decision” on the part of the station, owned by Clear Channel Communications, which is in the process of being sold to two private equity groups. “It’s a fact of life when there’s any change. … it’s a business decision, they cut to the bottom line,” she said. “I feel I’ve been extraordinarily lucky to have this job. Sixteen and a half years, with this accent! A talk show host!”

Violet said the station was buying out her contract, which ran through 2008. Under the terms of her contract, she said, that means WHJJ will pay her nine months salary.

In other moves, WHJJ announced that the Quinn & Rose radio show, a conservative syndicated program with Jim Quinn and Rose Somma Tennent, will go into the 9 a.m. to noon slot. Helen Glover, the former Survivor contestant turned local talk show host, will move to the noon to 3 p.m. slot. Howie Barte, who had hosted on WHJJ from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., has also gotten the ax from the station.

Clear Channel, which owns WHJJ, has three other stations in Rhode Island — WHJY (94.1-FM), WWBB(101.5-FM), and WSNE (93.3-FM). The Texas-based corporation, the largest radio broadcaster in the United States, is in the process of being sold to Thomas Lee Partners LP and Bain Capital Partners LLC.

In a statement released yesterday, Violet pointed to other layoffs at local Clear Channel stations, including morning show veteran Joannie Edwardsen, who was fired from WSNE last month.

In a phone interview, Violet said station management told her that her job was in jeopardy last month, at the same time Edwardsen was handed her walking papers. “The people who have been here the longest have the highest salaries. And they’re cutting from the top,” she said.

Officials at WHJJ declined to comment on any relationship between corporate cost-cutting in preparation for a Clear Channel sale and Violet’s departure.

“Saying goodbye to Arlene is going to be extremely difficult,” Jim Corwin, general manager for Clear Channel’s Rhode Island stations, said in a news release. “She’s been such an important part of WHJJ for so long. We wish Arlene the very best.”

Violet said she didn’t know whether ratings played a role in her dismissal or not. All of WHJJ’s programming, including Violet’s, took a sharp dip during the station’s disastrous experiment with liberal Air America last year. According to the latest available Arbitron figures, Violet lagged behind afternoon competitor Dan Yorke on WPRO (630-AM).

According to Arbitron ratings for the spring, from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays, Yorke has a 4.1 percent share of the radio audience, with 65,100 different people listening during the course of a week. Violet had a 2.2 share, with 37,600 people listening each week. In the summer of 2006, Yorke had a 4.1 share and an audience of 55,100 to Violet’s 1.9 share and an audience of 28,700.

Violet said she hasn’t decided what she’ll do next but “I’m not going to rust away.” (She declined to give her age; voter registration records indicate she’s 63).

“We’ll see what happens next,” Violet said. “I consider everything that happens, happens for a reason. And I’m looking forward to whatever the next opportunity is.”

Looking back at her radio career, Violet said there was never a lack of local issues to talk about. She said she tried hard to stay even-handed in a mostly conservative medium. “I tried not to have a Republican or a Democratic agenda. Talk radio tends to be very one-sided, everyone’s got to have their own spin. …I thought of it more like a town meeting where people could talk about the issues.”

Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade journal for talk radio, said stations around the country are choosing syndicated shows over local talk hosts — and that Hannity is a big star in the radio world. (Hannity previously aired on WHJJ rival WPRO in the evenings).

“Arlene Violet is a victim of changing times in the business of radio,” he said. “We’ve seen the loss of local talk show jobs around the country over the past 15 years. Hannity is a franchise. It’s like getting a hit movie to play in your theater, as opposed to making your own movie from scratch.”