Ed or Thom

    While living in suburban D.C., I decided to enter the progressive talk radio business in large part because of two hosts - Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz. I heard both in early 2004 on WWRC a weak station transmitting from Silver Spring, MD. Stephanie is humorous and has a sidekick who does great impressions - sometimes the two are almost as funny as Howard Stern on an average day - plus she is timely, topical, liberal, and doesn't leave me with that queasy feeling and slightly dirty sheen that Stern usually did. Schultz has a great voice - better than Limbaugh's. He is lively, entertaining, and frequently over-the-top. He proves that progressive doesn't mean dry, boring, and professorial.

    In 04,I was confident that a radio station featuring these two major talents would appeal to the vast majority of Americans who are not right-wing nuts and, therefore, were and remain unrepresented on AM talk radio in most markets. My confidence is unshaken. When we launched KRXA 540 AM in Monterey, CA, in July 05, we aired The Stephanie Miller Show from 6 to 9 am live and Ed Schultz live from noon to 3. In search of a 9 to noon host, we found Thom Hartmann - less well-known, but a published author, erudite, progressive, and pompous. In January 07, 18 months after our launch, Ed moved up his show three hours so that it was and is live 9 to noon on the Pacific coast. For a while, I kept Ed where he was noon to 3 - now on tape delay - but several months later due to other scheduling considerations had to decide whether to preempt Hartmann with Schultz and play Hartmann late night or play Schultz after hours.

    I pulled the trigger in May 07 and boy did I hear from listeners. "Ed's not a real progressive," "he's a blow-hard," "he's a Limbaugh wannabe." The constant refrain - "Put Hartmann back." I ran an online poll in September and nearly twice as many respondents preferred Hartmann live to Schultz. So, I flipped Hartmann and Schultz again.

    Yesterday, I flipped 'em back. Neither host is perfect. But, Ed has better guests. He listens to them and his callers, and you can hear in his rumbling baritone that talking on the radio is what he loves to do. Listening to Ed is truly enjoyable. He doesn't interrupt callers or guests, like Thom does, and he does not put his own opinions into their mouths. Yet, I remain amazed at the number of listeners whose vitriol directed at yours truly manifests their unrequited love for Thom and disdain for the Big North Dakota Redhead. It doesn't matter, I ain't changing horses in mid-stream again because I gotta love my lineup but I just don't get it. Do you?

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    I dont know the two personalities at all (well, Ed I saw a lot on CNN during election season and wasn't overly impressed - tho his voice was clearly made for broadcast), but I will say this: You can never please everyone, and I certainly wouldnt equate the ferocity of listener complaints to the size of each personality's popularity. Some people just inspire a more passionate audience.

    But as director of a radio station, I don't see how you can't be guided by ratings. Those should be a more accurate reflection of which host is more preferred.


    There are two big problems with ratings.  First, they are not real accurate.  Second, they're always in flux.  Yes, it's true that a show with a 3 rating has more listeners than one with a .5 but it's not necessarily true that a show with a 1.5 has more listeners than one with a 1.2 - at least not over a 3 or 6 month period.


    Ed is fantastic, I love this schedule change. It works really well after Hal's delighful and fiery show . The energy flows together between the shows, I didn't feel that way with Thom, he was a let down after Hal's show. Anyway, Ed brings so much passion and spirit to issues that are of the moment.  I must admit that I was not always a fan, I was not sure about his progressive credentials but I began to really tune into him during the primaries and Ed was always cutting edge with his choice of guests and topics.  He is definitely a true patriot and a fighter for the average working man (I like hearing that perspective), he's also one of the few progressive voices that can get booked on the corporate shows.  Team Ed!


    Many thanks for the love fiasunshine.


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