Hosts Ranked In Two Categories

FRANKENFALL

Al Off List, Limbaugh Syndicator Questions Talkers Survey



Ranking talk show hosts using differing methods, two lists are making big waves today.

Al Franken can't possibly be happy with the just-released 2005 Lycos Top Radio Hosts list, where he fell all the way out of the top 20, after ranking 10th in 2004.

Worse, Franken-related search activity fell 95% year-over-year!

Each year, Lycos ranks radio personalities based on Internet search enquiries. While that's certainly a novel approach to ranking popularity, it probably doesn't tell the whole story.

Oddly, while Franken vanished, Air America co-conspirator Janeane Garofalo made this year's list, in 12th place.

Could that interest actually be related to her recent "West Wing" television appearances? After all, her national radio ratings are one-third of Franken's.

Here's the rest of the top 20, according to Lycos:


1) Howard Stern (1st in the 2004 survey)
2) Rush Limbaugh (2)
3) Tom Joyner (7)
4) Bob & Tom (3)
5) Michael Savage (6)
6) Dr. Laura (8)
7) Art Bell (4)
8) Bill O'Reilly (13)
9) Larry King (14)
10) Opie & Anthony (16)
11) Sean Hannity (5)
12) Janeane Garofalo (-)
13) Laura Ingraham (28)
14) David Lee Roth (-)
15) Don & Mike (-)
16) Paul Harvey (11)
17) Tom Leykis (12)
18) Kim Komando (-)
19) Mancow (9)
20) Tavis Smiley (29)


Also from the new Lycos story:

Mancow is the biggest loser this year, with a 109 percent drop in search interest, falling from number nine to number nineteen in search activity.

Of the three newcomers to last year's list, only Tom Leykis remains, while Al Franken and Lionel drop off the list completely.

Search activity for Franken dropped 95 percent over the past year.

Here's the 2004 list:


1. Howard Stern (1st in 2003 survey)
2. Rush Limbaugh (3)
3. Bob & Tom Show (-)
4. Art Bell (8)
5. Sean Hannity (13)
6. Michael Savage (-)
7. Tom Joyner (2)
8. Dr. Laura (10)
9. Mancow (12)
10. Al Franken (-)
11. Paul Harvey (11)
12. Tom Leykis (-)
13. Bill O'Reilly (6)
14. Larry King (14)
15. Clark Howard (7)
16. Opie and Anthony (9)
17. Glen Beck (-)
18. Coast To Coast AM- George Noory (4)
19. Jim Rome (19)
20. Lionel (-)


Of particular note for 2005: Art Bell, only occasionally still hosting Coast-to-Coast AM, manages to stay in the top 10. And because he'll soon take over for Howard Stern in a number of cities, David Lee Roth makes the survey this year.

Also, Laura Ingraham manages a huge jump, from 28th in 2004, to 13th this year.


While the Lycos list seems to have at least some basis in reality, another most likely doesn't.

Infuriating talk radio programmers and hosts seems to be the name of the game at Talkers Magazine, an industry trade publication covering talk radio. Twice annually, it publishes a list of the most popular syndicated radio hosts.

Why only national programs are ranked, nobody seems to know. And without a real basis for making audience determinations, the Talkers list appears very subjective in nature. It seems to be a guessing game:














































Many in the industry have long placed little faith in the survey, but mainstream media outlets often quote from it, making it potentially damaging.

What's wrong with the list? It's the methodology, which relies on stations to supply individual performance information to Talkers editors. That makes it subject to incomplete and/or inaccurate data.

Some suspect the figures to be inflated for a number of hosts, while others may be understated.

Example: how could overnight host Doug Stephan, heard mostly on tiny stations, outpoll George Noory, who took over for Art Bell on "Coast-to-Coast AM" and still has a top-rated program?

Noory's affiliates are primarily major outlets, including WABC in New York City.

Another: how could liberal talker Stephanie Miller make the list, with a million supposed listeners? Let's see the proof.

And Limbaugh's figure appears too low, based on recent information we've seen.

The Radio Equalizer was curious how Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks (there's actually no such thing as the EIB Network), felt about the results.

Premiere responded to our questions with this statement:

We have always questioned the legitimacy of their rankings.

We are not convinced they have access to the most current affiliate lineups and most importantly, access to accurate airtimes of these programs.

That information is key to the development of appropriate and accurate measurement of cume listenership on a national level.

Additionally, another necessary tool to creating such a ranking would be the effective application of Arbitron Nationwide data to an industry-accepted software program (Act 1) used by network radio.

Premiere also syndicates Glenn Beck and George Noory, among others.


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