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?