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Talkers Top 100 2006

D

dampier

I never know what to think of these massively subjective "lists" that come out every year from Talkers magazine. The author spends almost a page defining criteria for selecting these people with a lot of empty words. There isn't any defined process, just a general sense of who is supposed to be important.

My real suspicion is that this leads to nice ad revenue by their parent companies buying congratulatory ads for the hosts that make the grade, and of course for bragging rights in the publicity kits.

The top 10 list is basically a popularity contest as far as ratings go, with the glaring exception of Dr. Laura whose star faded after 9/11 and who is listed at #5?!?! Good luck even finding her program in many markets these days.

Don Imus and Laura Ingraham are also in the top 10 and I'm not sure why. Imus seems most known, if you can call it that, for his MSNBC simulcast, and Laura's show is aired mostly on second tier conservatalk stations.

Randi Rhodes made #10. It confirms my ongoing suspicion that Randi Rhodes remains the true star of Air America Radio, with a greater following than Al Franken, but likely paid much less than he is. Bill O'Reilly made #11 and his radio star has already faded. It's bizarre.

Stephanie Miller made #44. The rest of the 250 talkers list were a pack of faded stars and purely local hosts.


http://www.talkers.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=44
 
They say their criteria are:
Courage
Effort
Impact
Longevity
Potential
Ratings
Recognition
Revenue
Service
Talent
Uniqueness

You're right. It doesn't mean much.

Randi Rhodes is rated higher than Ed Schultz but more often than not her show is pushed into evening hours in favor of Ed's. Michael Savage is also an evening show. Maybe Michael Harrison has not checked cume for dayparts after PM drive.

I'm sure Imus gets a lot of points for longevity. Of course, his show does run in morning drive and that's where most listeners are.

Dr. Laura was on the downhill run well before 9-11 when she turned into a self-righteous scold. I guess she would get points for being recognizable and unique.

How does Mike Gallagher keep making this top 10 list? Small stations. Small markets. Overnights in many markets. He works for Salem and maybe Michael Harrison wants to get in good with the Lord.

This list used to be alphabetical without any ranking, which made a lot more sense. Ranking syndicated and local hosts is ranking apples and oranges. Even at the local level, I see local hosts with a strong market presence ranked lower than other hosts not as big in the same market, or even on the same station.
 
> Randi Rhodes is rated higher than Ed Schultz but more often
> than not her show is pushed into evening hours in favor of
> Ed's.

I gather that you're in the eastern U.S. In the west, Schultz runs from Noon to 3pm and Rhodes is in PM drive, when there are a lot more listeners. And of course in the number one market, Rhodes is also in PM drive and Schultz doesn't have an outlet.
 
> The top 10 list is basically a popularity contest as far as
> ratings go, with the glaring exception of Dr. Laura whose
> star faded after 9/11 and who is listed at #5?!?! Good luck
> even finding her program in many markets these days.
>
> Don Imus and Laura Ingraham are also in the top 10 and I'm
> not sure why. Imus seems most known, if you can call it
> that, for his MSNBC simulcast, and Laura's show is aired
> mostly on second tier conservatalk stations.
>
> Randi Rhodes made #10. It confirms my ongoing suspicion
> that Randi Rhodes remains the true star of Air America
> Radio, with a greater following than Al Franken, but likely
> paid much less than he is. Bill O'Reilly made #11 and his
> radio star has already faded. It's bizarre.
>
> Stephanie Miller made #44. The rest of the 250 talkers list
> were a pack of faded stars and purely local hosts.

Local hosts that get huge numbers and dominate their markets are significant if the market is big enough. But your failure to complain about Randi Rhodes' listing at #10, while Laura Ingraham (whom I don't care for) is the fifth most listened to talk show according to Talkers. Randi Rhodes doesn't crack 1,000,000 listeners in their survey, and your lopsided critique of the survey just shows what a biased pimp for liberal radio you are.

"Not that there's anything wrong than that"
 
> >Dr. Laura was on the downhill run well before 9-11 when she
> turned into a self-righteous scold.
>
> When was she ever not...

Did you at any point ever have 18 million weekly listeners?
 
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