http://talkers.com/online/?p=267

Rush #1 and Hannity #2 - no big surprise there.

At #10, Hartmann is the highest-ranked progressive talk show host:

Fellow progressive talker Ed Schultz ranked #18. Knowing his ego, he must be a bit miffed.

Lars Larson ranks #26.

Nice!!

He's #10, and doing a solid show. Not the easy sell seen by Rush and Hannity. Good on Thom for that.

Ed will continue to rise. His show is solid.

A sad statistic for America that Rush and Hannity are number one and two.

Comedians always do well.

Yeah, like Franken?

Do you mean the Senator-elect from Minnesota?

*bam*

Don't you just love the sound of that? Senator-elect Franken! Sweet!!!

The only reason Rush and Hannity are doing that well is because we have media ownership consolidation problems. Basically, most of those large corporate owners don't want anybody else on the air!

I don't deny that Rush and Hannity are talented as well - they do well not just because of how many stations they are on. And I do think conservatives gravitate more naturally to the "talk" format (vs. liberals gravitating to, say, NPR.). I once predicted that liberal talk would never work because of that, but I have been proven somewhat wrong.

"The only reason Rush and Hannity are doing well is because we have media ownership consolidation problems. Basically, most of those large corporate owners don't want anyone else on the air!"

Rush was doing well before the consolidation fever was unleashed.

I don't care for his act, but it draws a huge audience and is successful. Trust me, CC is just as happy with great ratings for Air America on KPOJ as for Rush on KEX. Ratings=income.

There is no conspiracy to keep anyone off the air - unless they can't get ratings!

That's fair.

However, I think the industry owners do contribute to the problem. It's just not the only reason.

Agreed that conservative minded people do gravitate to the format easier than liberally minded people do.

Generally speaking.

Tom Parker (aka. Steve Kanelli from HTD)>>There is no conspiracy to keep anyone off the air - unless they can't get ratings!

I disagree. There are many areas in the country where a liberal voice could do very well. But only conservative voices can be had. Are liberal voices given a chance? Hell no! When people like the late Tony Show or Bill Bennett decided to have a talk show, they were given dozens and dozens of stations.

Fact is that radio slots are a finite resources; you just don't go out break ground and build your own shop.

Look at the conservative hosts from Salem radio: Prager, Medved, Hewitt... They get very little ratings and yet a liberal host has no chance on one of their stations.

Take Jaquel7, for instance. Has anyone here given her brilliant show a shot?

Oh wait...nevermind.

No one wants to hear a show filled with intentionality. Whatever that is.

Listenerpete: "Tom Parker (aka. Steve Kanelli from HTD)>>There is no conspiracy to keep anyone off the air - unless they can't get ratings!"

I disagree. There are many areas in the country where a liberal voice could do very well. But only conservative voices can be had. Are liberal voices given a chance? Hell no! When people like the late Tony Show or Bill Bennett decided to have a talk show, they were given dozens and dozens of stations.

Well...I don't disagree with that, but I think the reason they prefer conservative talk to liberal talk is economics, not ideology. Since conservative talk already has a huge built-in audience and lead-ins like Rush and Hannity, putting yet another conservative talker (even one of average talent) on the same station is much less of a risk than putting a talented new liberal talk host on. And programmers will always go with the sure money instead of the risk.

Liberal talk has made inroads, but it has a long way to go until it even begins to challenge the long-established conservative talk market. Maybe if broadcasters wanted to invest the money, they could build up a larger audience for liberal talk - but what's the point? Maybe they don't see the payoff of a big investment. They have taken a few easy, low-investment chances flipping failed stations to "Progressive Talk" since Air America went on the air; some have succeeded with little effort, many haven't. Markets like Portland (on 620Khz, what had been a wasted frequency for years) were easy, low-risk choices.