Randi Rhodes is Now Top Lib Talk Host

The "goddess" of liberal talk radio is now the top rated lib talk host in the country. In the most recent Talking Radio survey of syndicated lib talk hosts, Randi Rhodes has ended Ed Schultz’ two year reign as the number one talker and held off aggressive challenges from number three Thom Hartmann and number four Stephanie Miller.


Despite improving his time period on about 20 stations, Schultz slipped to number two in the quarterly survey. Schultz was hurt by his continued lack of coverage in New York, a downgrade in Los Angeles, and the loss of carriage on KTRH in Houston. There is also some speculation that critical comments made by Schultz about other liberal talkers and AAR, which angered many listeners, also contributed to his decline. On the other hand, Rhodes hung on to all of her stations and received time period upgrades on eight stations.


The TR survey* rates the performance of virtually all of the syndicated lib talkers who broadcast on weekdays. You will notice that the hosts are rated by the percentage of the total audience that they reach.

Furthermore the positioning of the hosts is based on all radio listeners, not the so-called money demo, i.e. adults 25-49. You will have to go to other sources e.g. trade magazines or the host's websites to find specific data concerning ratings, shares, AQH's and cumes. Here is the ranking of syndicated lib talk hosts as of April 15, 2007:









Overall, listenership continued to fall over the past three months. The lib talk audience decreased by 7% over this period, primarily because of the loss of lib talk stations and the termination of two talkers. Since, the beginning of the year, eight stations serving 4 million potential listeners have dropped the format and two talkers – Al Franken and Sam Seder – are no longer doing weekday syndicated shows.


Of the 15 lib talk shows contained in the current survey, only one – The Young Turks – has maintained the same position. The other 14 talk shows have either moved up or moved down.

Not surprisingly, Thom Hartmann, who has taken over Franken’s slot on Air America Radio, gained the most coverage over the past three months. In January, Hartmann had a 5.4 ranking. In the current survey, Hartmann’s ranking is 16.0 -- a gain 10.6 or about 300%.

Rhodes secured her number one ranking even though her show is carried on 23 fewer stations than Schultz'. The difference was in New York and LA where Rhodes’ show is carried live. On the other hand, Schultz has no carriage in New York and is carried from 7 to 10 PM in LA with frequent sports preemptions.

Late night talker Alan Colmes is carried on the most radio stations – 85. However, Colmes is only ranked sixth on the current survey because he is always carried during the late night daypart when radio listenership is very low.

AAR hosts continue to lose lib talk audience share. Non-AAR talkers attracted 43% of the listenership in the current survey – that’s up from 34% in the January survey.

There are 161 stations that carry at least one syndicated lib talker on weekdays. Of these 96 stations carry only one host, 12 stations carry two hosts, and 53 stations carry three or more hosts.

*These estimates, pertaining to characteristics of the liberal talk radio audience across America, are excerpted from Talking Radio’s in-house, non-scientific study. It is drawn from interviews with listeners of general news-talk radio across the United States supplemented by input from talk radio programmers, hosts, sales personnel, and radio station in-house research in addition to occasional studies provided by academic institutions.