Rating the radio talk show hosts

[EveningStar]

Since I retired several months ago, I've had plenty of time to listen to talk radio and I've been able to come up with my own factors for rating some of the hosts.

It is this: Who provides depth and insight and who doesn't?

To me, those who provide depth and insight include: Rush Limbaugh Dennis Prager Michael Medved Larry Elder

Those who fall into the "No **** Sherlock / Captain Obvious to the Rescue" category include: Laura Ingraham Sean Hannity

That's my opinion. What's yours?

[TASMANIANRED]

I try to listen to Medved when I'm fixing supper.

It helps to have a knife and an onion in hand when the liberal moron of the day is speaking. It makes dicing vegetables go very fast.

He allows them to make their points and then calmly asks questions that allow them to make fools of themselves .

The first couple of times I listened I wanted to throw the radio and then I saw the wisdom in his style.

My only problem with Michaels show is he is locked into that one hour format with a new topic each hour. Sometimes a segment needs to be longer.

[doug from upland]

I listened to Tammy's show on the day she found out Clinton had been lying. She was screaming about how she now HATED Bill and Hillary Clinton. HATED them! They had used her and all the rest, lying to everyone all along.

[American Quilter]

>> Is Ken Hamblin still talking? <<

I confess I don't know. I've never been able to find his talk show. Maybe I can't get it here, or maybe work interferes too much with my talk-show-listening time.

[American Quilter]

>> And you were reminded today that his book is for sale? <<

Sean's book? No, I wasn't reminded.

[k2blader]

Okay, two FReepers can't be wrong (much of the time, anyway). :-)

[American Quilter]

>> I was glad KOA had his show on the overnight hours, when I could hear him. <<

Overnight? No wonder I never found it. Do you know if the show's still on?

[American Quilter]

>> Welcome to FR. Mrs. DFU is a quilting phenom. <<

I could probably learn a lot from her!

By the way, I liked your original posting with your opinion of the various talk shows.

[Springman]

What the heck, I'm going to step in it now.

Rush is #1, he let us know we were not alone when the Slick one was President. "AKA" BF FR!!

Laura is good, however the "but monkeys' can be iffy.

Glenn Beck, strange, but worth a listen, even if he isn't on the air in Detroit anymore, Cleavland comes in OK.

Hannity is all right, just on the air at 7:00 here, don't hear him much.

Medaved, haven't heard much of him, have 2 stations in the Detroit area that have Rush on 1 and 2 hours later, when his show is on here.

Dr. Bennett, love reading his work, just at 6:15 AM, not what I what to listen to.

The one talk show I wish still on in Detroit is Imus in the morning.
He gets great interviews. He is a strange one, but I like him.

Sometimes I can get the AM skip from 660 AM from NYC driving to work.

[Allan]

I am amazed.
Do people still use radios??
My radio is stored somewhere in the cupboard
and I haven't used it for several years.
Every talk show host named on this thread
can be heard on the Internet
often
at a variety of times
and I have listened to most of them.

(Yes, I know, I should get a life)

[BigSkyFreeper]

He doesn't work at KOA anymore. Rick Roberts was a local host. KOA does the "Best of Phil Hendrie" on the overnight weekends nowadays from 1am to 5am MT.

[joesbucks]

I agree with the Imus sentiment. The local affil we had discontinued the show and I don't know how many times I've been late for work because I wanted to hear an interview he had at 7:30 as I watch MSNBC and with local local affil, I've stuck around the house. I've even gone as far to put the phone next to the tv and listen on my cell phone on the way to work if it was someone or a topic I wanted to hear.

I personally do not like Imus, but he does seem to get the best out of guests.

[joesbucks]

I'm not sure how unsucessful Talk America is. They are adding affiliates, and most of them are Clear Channel stations, oddly the same company that owns the syndication rights to Rush, Glenn Beck and Dr, Laura and at one time Michael Reagan. They still are Reagan's agent for bookings. Clear Channel doesn't invest in losers. Yeah, they are putting it on their less desireable stations, but they are adding it.

[leadpenny]

I've even gone as far to put the phone next to the tv and listen on my cell phone on the way to work if it was someone or a topic I wanted to hear.

I personally do not like Imus, but . . .

Those two paragraphs have to be the quote of the week.

And I thought I was a fan.

[Springman]

Ah, I don't know what to say. The best I have done is to tape Imus off of PMSNBC.

However Mrs. Springman doesn't like to watch Imus, I just watch the tape when she isn't around.

BTW, don't know if you know, McGruff has a Daily Talk show thread, AKA an Imus thread, look it up, it's great.

[Springman]

an=as, sorry

[scottybk]

BOB GRANT! What about Bob Grant? He is the grand-daddy of them all. Unfortunately for Bob, his show got cut down to only 2 hrs, and WOR-NY long ago crossed the absolute saturation point with commercials. For every minute of show, there's 3 minutes of commericals. Add in traffic and weather, which are completely worthless, and out of 2 hours you get maybe 15-20 minutes of show.
Can anyone explain why AM radio is so absolutley saturated with commercials? It seems that radio is so much cheaper to produce than TV, but they cram in at least 3X the ads. I hope satellite radio puts all these greedy AM stations out of business. I would rather pay 9.99 a month than have the host ram ads down my throat every ten seconds!

[Allan]

I've even gone as far to put the phone next to the tv
and listen on my cell phone on the way to work
if it was someone or a topic I wanted to hear.

Seems to me it would be simpler to buy a VCR.

But, to each his own.

[joesbucks]

Mrs. Joesbucks doesn't like Imus either. Especially when it becomes a tad adolescent. I think it was Friday morning and Bernie was making a comment on the form fitting sweater the news chick was wearing. She was getting out of sorts about it and even Charles was kicking in. Mrs. Joesbucks was impressed and even less so when I was chuckling.

[joesbucks]

I get busy and usually don't have time to watch tv in the eveing. I work during the day as a purchasing manager, sell real estate in the evenings and weekends, sub host for a bluegrass radio program on Sat and Sun nights (actually on air now) and I'm on my church's planning committe, trustees and am chairman of the church council. I usually doze off to tv when Mrs. Joesbucks allows it. She hates the tv in the bedroom.