Posted on 12/10/2005 10:42:51 AM PST by rface
NEW YORK, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Talkers magazine reports conservative hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are the most popular radio hosts in the United States.
More than 13.75 million people listen to Limbaugh per week while Hannity draws more then 12.5 million weekly listeners, Talkers reported.
Michael Savage is third with more than 8 million listeners a week.
There is tie for fourth place between shock jock Howard Stern -- soon due to move to Sirius Satellite Radio -- and Dr. Laura Schlessinger with more than 7.75 million weekly listeners, the New York Daily News reported Saturday.
Laura Ingraham filled out the Top 5 with more than 5 million.
Talkers said it used Arbitron data and "other reliable indicators" for its semiannual rankings report.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
I wonder if Stern is THE reason Siris won't carry Tony Snow or Fox News anymore after the first of the year. They broke their orbital piggy bank to pay for that...well...PIG.
I'd like to see Tony's ratings improve. I wonder if these latest numbers take into account he had a sub for three weeks due to a sinus infection and surgery? I have to listen on the internet, and he was one of the reasons I subscribed to Wildblue.
I used to listen to his show 2-3 days/week at work, but stopped about two years ago. It just got so repetitive, so full of hype for platitude-filled books, country alleged "music" concerts, the same dead-obvious topics over and over ("you know, those terrorists want to kill us!") that 20-minute leadin theme song, the RNC talking-points-fax-of-the-day and Marty that I finally had enough. Went to Medved, never looked back. Now it's Roe Conn out of WLS in Chicago on the Internet, if I have time for radio.
Sean's probably a good guy, like everyone says, but his show holds zero interest for me. I just flat got tired of it.
For me also, the warm, old-slippers, cup-of-coffee feel to Bennett's show is an unexpected charm that works perfectly in the mornings, a time slot otherwise largely untroubled by thoughtful talk.
Who would have guessed that Bennett would be not just another Medved/Prager/Hewitt (all excellent conservative talkers), but a man with an old-fashioned talent for radio that mixes in a hint of Arthur Godfrey-type nostalgia along with the serious intellectual content? And all done without apparent design...just seeming to enjoy some morning chat as his listeners do.
And his man, Seth, also makes a nice contribution. I've been a little away from his show in recent months since it disappeared from XM (Why?), although KRLA's stream comes in beautifully over my dialup. Anyway, when last I was listening, my only complaint was that Bill seemed to take a lot of time off and the substitutes were often disappointing. One can make a worse complaint against a talk show host than "We miss you when you're away!"
(Other favorites, besides those mentioned: Tony Snow, a nice and smart fellow who is a real journalist; Laura Ingraham, although she needs to quit skipping her meds; John Bachelor (ABC-XM), who is a bit of a drama queen but very intellectual and fits his nighttime slot in the way that Bennett does his early morning slot. If one wanted to slam Bachelor one might say that he is a political thinking person's Art Bell. (I shouldn't have said that last bit, it is so Maureen Dowd-like: I couldn't resist the shot even though it is a nasty remark playing off a modest fault of Bachelor's.))
I can respect that. We each have our own tastes. But I just don't understand the type of criticism Hannity gets here at FR. It goes beyond just disliking his style to attacking him as a person.
BTW, I haven't heard him mention one of his books in ages, and that's one thing I get tired of hearing here at FR, that he keeps hyping his books. He certainly talked about them over the time that he wrote them and they were published, but that's part of authoring a book: marketing them once they hit the shelves. No publisher in its right mind would publish a book if the author wasn't willing to do that.
Perhaps this is over analysing it, but I think maybe Sean's boy-next-door likeableness ultimate works against him for some of us, once we have had enough.
He is, IMHO, pretty much of an empty suit, but he is certainly on our side and so I long repressed my dissatisfaction with him. Since I finally looked unsentimentally at the actual quality of his work, I have had a tendency to be a little unkind to him.
It may be true that he is not hyping his books as much any more but the snippets I catch of his act are a nonstop hype machine for the ~next~ segment. With Sean, the thing that is really worth listening to always just over the horizon.
Taking just a moment for fairness....I believe that Sean led the pack in the routing of that dispicable Warren Community College English instructor. Kudos.
Welcome to FR and thanks for your thoughtful posts.
Just taking this a bit further, and I may be wrong about this, but may it be a bit of envy? From all appearances Sean has everything going for him. He IS like the boy next door in many ways ... he didn't grow up in a rich affluent family, he's like most of us, but somehow he's managed to have a nice wife and two cute kids (and still be on his first marriage, intact, and going strong), owns his own house and boat, etc., written two books, PLUS be #2 in the talk radio world.
Like I said before, we all have the styles we prefer, but one thing I really appreciate about Hannity over Rush is that Sean keeps his talk clean and his personal life reflects his conservative values. I get tired of Rush's bad mouth as well as his going on about things like chocolate vaginas. And while I understand that things happen, I'm not too thrilled about his three failed marriages and the fact that at least one of them was to a woman who was still married when they first started dating. And now his dating a liberal CNN chick is not too appealing, either.
I love Dr. Laura.
The February issue of Playboy will feature an interview with Franken where he explains, and these are his words, why he is more popular than George W. Bush.
I agree. I recently told someone I consider him to be the greatest living American. He has had more influence on this nation than anyone else. God bless Rush Limbaugh.
All other conservative talk show hosts owe their success to Rush. He blazed the trail.
I'm sorry not to see Michael Reagan on this list. We get his show, and it's very good. He deserves better.
I have to agree, it's nerve-wracking. I'll tune in on my way home from work and only listen if he's got a worthwhile interview going. When I tune in and "Let Freedom Ring" is playing, or some caller is busy stroking his ego, that's it, I immediately tune out for the day.
When my scanner hits Hannity I'll usually stop it, but I always change the station at the first "You're a great American," because it is so overused and is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I rarely listen for more than a minute.
And what's up with this? Whenever someone calls in and says "you're a great American" Hannity always responds "thank you. You're a great American." He doesn't know the caller from Adam; what a dumb/uninformed/perhaps undeserved complement. Arrghhhh, it annoys me...
I'm wondering the same thing. O'Reilly says his radio show is doing so well.
What ever happened to Baby Jane...
I agree that Rush should stop resurrecting Hardball. Nobody would even remember that it's on if Rush didn't mention it.
"Where's Franken?....Who's Franken?"
You remember. He's that big ugly guy built
by 17th/18th century technology, running ahead
of the enraged townfolks chasing him with
torches and pitchforks.
My main problems with Hannity are that he has too many democrats on, plus he argues with morons. He's also repetitive, but young people need that type of education. My son-in-law became a Republican after listening to Sean.
"I know this sounds like a joke, but just listen. If Rush can bring in revenue and make the freakin' (OK, I'll use the PC term) "shareholders" filthy rich, then why should they care, what, or, who, he supports? It's all about the money.......right?"
And what of anything that you wrote warrants ANYONE of us listening to anything you say?
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