Randi Rhodes Loses Weight in Talkers Magazine's Heavy 100

Talkers Magazine has just published their annual list of the leading talk radio hosts – The Heavy 100 – and while it is dominated by the usual cast of conservative talkers we continue to be amazed at their ranking of local and syndicated liberal hosts.




Talkers’ love affair with Ed Schultz, a regular advertiser in the monthly trade magazine, continues in the 2008 Heavy 100. While Schultz dropped from fifth to eighth place, he is the only lib talker included in the top ten. For some strange reason, Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio’s top talker, was dropped from 13th to 40th in the Talkers survey. This is strange because Rhodes has not lost any of her carriage and her ratings are up over the past year.

Rhodes is beaten not only by Schultz, but also by late night talker Alan Colmes, #16, Thom Hartmann #23 and Lionel #31. To give some idea how ridiculous this ranking is, Lionel is carried on only 17 stations (stations which also carry Rhodes) while Rhodes is carried on 54 stations.

Readers of Talking Radio know that we have ranked Randi Rhodes "number one"in our last Quarterly Ranking of Liberal Talk Show Hosts. Yes, Schultz (number three) appears in 25 more markets than Rhodes. However, Rhodes is carried in New York and Los Angeles -- while Schultz is not -- and there are more radio listeners in these two markets than all of the Schultz-only markets.

For some reason Talkers continues to claim that Schultz has more than twice as many listeners as Rhodes (3.50 versus 1.50 million per week.) This is complete nonsense. As noted above, Rhodes is currently reaching more radio listeners than Schultz, so the only way he has more than twice as many listeners is if his ratings are more than twice as high Rhodes. In fact, her ratings are about 10% higher than his.

Despite this fiction, Talkers is cited by numerous publications – including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time and Newsweek and many more -- whenever they refer to talk radio ratings in general and lib talk ratings in particular. Even right wingers who follow talk radio are disgusted with Talkers fictional ratings data. Brian Maloney, AKA the Radioequalizer claims that Talkers under-reports Limbaugh’s ratings by about 40%.

Maybe the editors of these publications should read the fine print before citing Talkers' data. Here’s what Talkers wrote when they published the Heavy 100 on their website.

Aside from the hosts whose sheer numbers and fame demand their inclusion on the list, the selection process is subjective with the goal being to create a list reflective of the industry’s diversity and total flavor as well as giving credit where credit is due.

The Talkers Magazine editors who painstakingly compile this super-list draw upon a combination of hard and soft factors when evaluating candidates. These include (in alphabetical order) courage, effort, impact, longevity, potential, ratings, recognition, revenue, service, talent, and uniqueness. We acknowledge that it is as much an art as science and that results are arguable.Excuse me! "The selection process is subjective" they consider "the total flavor" and "hard and soft factors" and that it is "as much an art as a science." In other words, the editors of Talkers are just pulling the rankings out of their collective rear ends.

Talkers’ publisher Michael Harrison claims that determining liberal hosts' positions on the list was more difficult than placing conservatives.

"It's a very subjective thing, determining the popularity of liberal hosts, because they have this sort of alternate universe they operate in," he said.

No Michael. It’s you who is operating in an alternate universe.