"BriMaloney" wrote in message
...
(David Eduardo)
Per Talkers, the top shows based on cume a
1. Rush Limbaugh 14.50+
2. Sean Hannity 10.50+
3. Dr. Laura Schlessinger 8.00+
3. Howard Stern 8.00+
4. Michael Savage 6.50+
5. Art Bell - No longer on air 4.00+
5. Jim Bohannon 4.00+
5. Dr. Joy Browne 4.00+
5. Don Imus 4.00+
6. Neal Boortz 2.50+
6. Ken & Daria Dolan 2.50+
6. Clark Howard 2.50+
7. Mike Gallagher 2.25+
7. G. Gordon Liddy 2.25+
8. Glenn Beck 1.75+
8. Kim Komando 1.75+
8. Jime Rome 1.75+
8. Doug Stephan 1.75+
8. Bruce Williams 1.75+
9. Tom Leykis 1.50+
9. Michael Medved 1.50+
9. Bill O'Reilly 1.50+
9. Dave Ramsey 1.50+
10. Bob Brinker 1.25+
10. Dr. Dean Edell 1.25+
10 Phil Hendrie 1.25+
10. Rusty Humphries 1.25+




I'm not aware of many people who have faith in the accuracy of this list.

This list, as the heading indicates, is based on cume persons in the most
recent full Arbitron survey prior to its publication. I think it is based on
Summer or Fall 2002. While Talkers admittedly takes some liberty in
"weighing" the numbers, the general picture looks about right.

One PD told me it's partly based on a survey card sent to stations, many
aren't
returned and what is sent back to them isn't verified with actual ratings.
Do
the syndicators fill in the gaps? They are not known for being trustworthy
in
this area.

Cume is determined by Arbitron. Not by stations themselves. You may be
confusing this with the same pubication's list of "most influential talk
shows" which is a horse of a different color, and based on opinion, not
cume.


Talkers relies heavily on ads from the syndication firms behind these
programs.

And this does not affect the cume of the stations in the ratings. If the
cume figures are even close to accurate, the relative position and size of
the audience should be reasonably stated.

One person on this list went up from last year despite losing his major
flagship station. He should have dropped based on the loss. The minnows he
picked up elsewhere wouldn't have been a drop in the bucket compared to
the
huge hit taken.

There have been no full ratings for the entire US since Savage lost KSFO.
Arbitron ony started releasing Spring, 2003, ratings last week and is only
up to the top 10 markets and thier periphery.

The syndicator behind the show is a heavy advertiser in Talkers.

And the show was on the air through the last fullly published boo, Winter,
2003.

I also really doubt that Rusty Humphries has over a million listeners
given the
tiny stations that carry him yet huge ads for his show run in Talkers
every
month.

It only takes 25 or 30 stations with a cume of 50 thousand to make that
figure. It is not hard to fathom.

I work with the syndication of a morning talk show that is on only 7
stations, and yet cumes about 1.6 million. It is really not hard to build
that kind of number. It is getting above 4 or 5 million that gets tough.

There are several others who seem to have inflated figures and at least
one
(who never advertises in Talkers) who I think is understated.

Still, the list is a good approximation.

Rich Wood, who is more familiar with syndication, can probably contribute
some clarification.