Posted on 05/09/2008 9:53:54 PM PDT by mdittmar
When liberal talk radio host Randi Rhodes returned to the airwaves last month after her well-publicized departure from the Air America Network, she knew her loyal listeners would be relieved.
But even she didn't anticipate the fevered response, evidenced by sacks of mail and hundreds of calls.
Not to mention a suitcase worth of Mary Kay cosmetics hand-delivered by a fan to the West Palm Beach studios of WJNO-AM 1290, where Rhodes' afternoon drive-time program now originates under a new syndication deal.
"There was, like, a room full of stuff!" said Rhodes, whose weekly audience of 1.5 million-plus listeners positions her among the top echelon of talk hosts on radio.
Such is the state of talk radio today. A format that barely existed until the late 1980s is now, literally, the talk of the nation, second only to country music in the number of stations that carry it.
Its total audience: a passionate (and, important to advertisers, relatively affluent) 48 million listeners, according to the Arbitron ratings service. Some industry sources put the figure at 100 million-plus when factoring in satellite and public radio.
For example, Rhodes, who calls Lake Worth home and worked for WJNO locally for 10 years before she signed with Air America in 2004, just brought her newly syndicated show to satellite broadcaster XM Radio this week.
But with talk radio, it's not just about numbers. It's also about influence, especially in an election year, and playing to that politically rabid pool of listeners, who have a love-hate relationship with the reigning hosts. For all those who refer to Rhodes as "the Goddess" - her moniker among fans - there are just as many who view her as an "extremist nut job," as one listener complained.
The bottom line? "Talk radio is where the voters are," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, an industry trade journal.
Consider that other nationally syndicated talk host who lives in our back yard: conservative pundit and Palm Beach resident Rush Limbaugh (heard midday locally on WJNO). He not only commands a weekly audience of 14 million-plus, largest in the industry, but he also is widely credited with helping to bring the conservative cause to the fore in the post-Ronald Reagan era.
Limbaugh's latest effort: "Operation Chaos," a plan to encourage Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in states and territories where they are eligible to participate in Democratic primaries. The goal is to keep the Democrats divided for as long as possible, thereby boosting Republicans' chances in the fall.
If Limbaugh represents the old guard of talk radio, there's a sizable new guard, and many of them are branching out beyond radio.
Take Glenn Beck, a conservative who's heard weekday mornings on WJNO. He hosts a show on CNN's Headline News. He has written two books, including the recent best-seller An Inconvenient Book.
But even Beck will tell you that it all begins and ends with his three hours daily on the AM dial.
"Radio is the fullest expression of who I am," he says.
That's no small statement, given that radio dates back more than a century but has struggled recently. (Last year, radio revenue was down 2.3 percent, industry analyst BIA Financial said.)
But talk radio has remained strong. In many ways, the format can credit its existence to the 1987 repeal of the FCC "fairness doctrine," which meant opinions could now run wild without a need for a response.
In an instant, the big-mouth era was born.
Beck, who started as a music DJ, says the most successful talkers understand that the format is driven by the need to entertain, not necessarily to inform. "It's got to be bigger than politics," he says.
Rhodes agrees that talk radio is more about provocation than promoting a cause.
"People listen to me even if they disagree with me. ... It has to do with the question of can you evoke emotion?" says the controversial host, who came under fire from New York-based Air America for referring to Hillary Clinton as a "(expletive) whore."
(Rhodes resigned after being suspended, but she insists her problems with the network were related more to contract discussions.)
That emotional connection creates a sense of family among listeners, says Eric Rhoads, publisher of Radio Ink, a national trade journal based in West Palm Beach.
"It's that one person behind that microphone talking to you," he says.
Soon there will be more people talking, Rhodes predicts. There's room on the airwaves - talk has become a stronger presence on FM in recent years - for the format to grow.
Says the brash host: "It's just really starting."
air America -aka the “peoples republic of the airwaves.”
I thought Err America went under?
Hahahahaha . . . meanwhile, back in reality:
"Air America Radio's Randi Rhodes plummeted from 13th to 40th place."
Cybercast News Service (February 13, 2008)
They had to include her and the mysterious 1.5 mil listenership figure for ideological balance, of course.
Rhodes is the worst race-baiter I have ever heard.
I don’t mind listening to both sides of any issue, and tend toward discomfort with people who label any disagreement with their point of view “treason” as well as those that make fun of names. I’m probably bothered less than most on here by contrary views, as I like argumentation and refutation. Disagreement is not unpatriotic and nobody is right on everything.....
But Rhodes is just vile. No rationality, everything comes down to racism or sexism. No reasoning, no interest is analyzing a viewpoint or ability to even PROCESS a contrary viewpoint. Combining the worst of Sharpton and Marx. with a genuine loathing for the USA.
Wasn’t Randy Rhodes one of those midget, female wrestlers before she signed on with Airheads America?
She does better than BOR.
That should read, "In many ways, the format can credit its existence to the 1987 repeal of the UNCONSTITUTIONAL FCC "fairness doctrine."
If the so-called "fairness doctrine" law didn't clearly violate the 1st Amendment's guarantee of free speech nothing could.
I should have added in #10 that McCain’s CFR travesty is just as clearly unconstitutional as the “fairness” doctrine law in spite of the bogus USSC decision to the contrary. Anyone who can read and understand the English language can see that McCain-Feingold clearly prohibits exactly what the authors intended the free speech clause to protect, i.e., political speech.
First, we have to be honest on the 1.5 million listeners. 500,000 of them are likely dead registered listeners. 250,000 are likely Canadian listeners. 250,000 are likely dual-listeners who actually live in Yonkers but spend most of their time in Florida. If you count the 32 guys from the state prison in Kansas who are in isolation and forced to hear the station, and then the 1000 polar bears in Alaska who have the faulty radio transmitter which picks up the local Anchorage station instead of sending the bear’s position....then there are only 495k listeners total. Thats the reality of Air America.
I find it hard to believe that the Palm Beach Post (or any other rag, for that matter) would lead a story about talk radio with Randi Rhodes.
She has 1.5 million listeners using the Mitch Snyder math system. It works this way, you take pukey little leftist who listens up in his room while smoking a joint and add NOT ONLY EVERY SINGLE member of his family, but EVERYONE listed in the phone book with the same last name. Then round up and you can get to 1.5 million listeners. It’s kind of like a class action lawsuit where people don’t know they are being included, or Newsday’s circulation numbers.
"Just as many"? Try, "far more."
Hurricane Randi Alert for South Florida!
The only real goddess on the radio is Kim Komando - the Digital Goddess. Randi Rhodes is just a Maenad (”the raving ones”) of Dionysus.
At “Petition Spot” the petition to reinstate Rhodes received only 1,400 names after 2 weeks- posted at Dem. Underground, KKGN ECT. The petition to bring back crispy M&M’s had more names. The goal was 10,000- where were all her loyal listeners?
Rhodes is a pathological liar. Google-”My life as co host with shock jock Perry Stone” read entire article.
Wednesday May 14,2008-she blamed her asthma on Pres. Bush.She said she ran outside to help the people who were lying in the street after the underground pipe exploded in New York. (She didn’t do damm thing to help the people who were lying in the medium- ANOTHER LIE) And because Bush didn’t repair the infrastructure-she got asthma. Again, she left out the fact she has smoked for over 25 years.
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