Who’s your favorite talk show host? And where do they rank in audience size?

audience radio talk show hosts

This ranking of radio talk show hosts and the size of their audiences comes from Talkers magazine, the bible of the talk show industry. Well, call us blasphemous, but we doubt the word of the bible.

We buy the rankings, but not the audience size of the liberal talk show hosts. It’s just not possible for Stephanie Miller, for example, to have ten percent of the listeners that Rush Limbaugh does. Just not possible.

Now, perhaps, the discrepancy can explained by the fact that Miller’s show airs in the more highly-rated morning slot, while Limbaugh airs in the generally lower-rated midday time period. But that still can’t explain away the fact that Miller doesn’t air in most major markets and has low ratings in the markets in which she does air.

So either the lib talkers’ numbers are grossly overstated or Limbaugh’s numbers are grossly understated.

And that would be the only thing understated about Rush Limbaugh.

Source: Talkers.com

This post was last modified on May 12, 2021

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View Comments (16)

  • As far as good old over the air radio, it's El-Rushbo.

    Now, I have XM Satellite Radio, & have 2 units the are portable & record content, up to 50 hrs. Through this, I listen to or record & listen later to Quinn & Rose (out of Pittsburgh) Glenn Beck, & Andrew Wilkow(exclusive Sirius/XM content). I will also catch Roger Hedgecpck, Mike Church(exclusive Sirius/XM content), & for fun, Mike Malloy. I over hearing his anger & rage from a safe distance. I also will listen to Opie & Anthony, which is an uncencored morning show along the lines of Howard Stearn. They know each other, & they have a history...

    Finally, I do listen to a local morning show here in the TwinCities, MN, the KQ92 Morning Crew. It is one of the best & highest rated major market drive time morning shows in America. Very good show, & very down to earth.

  • I am a huge fan of Neal Boortz and listen to him whenever I can (usually through radiotime or the WSB app). I also like Mike Church a lot -especially when he launches into some history lectures on the founders or The Constitution. He and Wilkow are the main reasons I keep Sirius, most of the other programming I enjoy on there I can get through the internet or smartphone for free.

  • If I had to make a list it would be: Savage, Levin, Limbaugh, Komando, Ingraham, and Beck. Limbaugh was number one and is the reason I started to listening to talk radio but I don't have time to listen now. (I started listening to him in college) Vannity I listen to now and then but... meh. The others I have never heard, although a name or two does sound familiar from guest hosting duties on shows I listen to.

  • Someone help me...I was under the impression that a "cume" was a percentage of total population based on a specific demographic. Other than stating they came up with these numbers from Arbitron, there is no reference to the demographics or population sector they are using.

    There is no way in hell they can be using the Nation's population - a lot of these folks wouldn't even register.

    And another thing, they cannot possibly "rank" any of these people under a single "cume" as there are multiple demographics and population sectors involved here.

    Unless I am missing something, this is one of the most arbitrary (and stupid) rankings I have ever seen - who was this intended for?

    • "Cume" is a shorthand way of saying "cumulative audience". It's a measure of the total number of unique listeners over a particular period of time. So cume is a gross number and various demographics are broken out of that total number.

      • Thanks for clearing that up - I thought you were going to start asking for credit card numbers to continue viewing your site...

    • This is a list of the largest total audiences among ALL talk radio hosts. Consider it a testament to the success of KFI/Los Angeles that the only local talk shows hosts with audiences large enough to show up on this list are the station's morning man, Bill Handel, and its afternoon team, John & Ken. KFI is such a Southern California powerhouse and has such a strong signal that it also shows up among the top stations in other radio markets (Riverside-San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Barbara).

      John & Ken are only on one station, KFI, yet they have 40% of the total national audience of the liberal talkers, who are on dozens of stations. It seems clear that the lib talkers audiences are miniscule.

      We initially made this point in our article, but edited it out at the last minute.

      • John and Ken are awesome! I listen to them from San Diego quite often. Always on some lib politicians ass, just like they should be.

  • Rush says his audience cumes are in the 20 to 22 million range. Wait a second, maybe Talkers means that if you add up the audiences of Colmes, Miller, Schultz and Hartmann you have 2.5 million listeners.

    According to Wikepedia Hartmann received his C.H. (Chartered Herbalist) degree from Dominion Herbal College, and a M.H. (Master of Herbology) degree from Emerson College of Herbology. Well that certainly cements his liberal credentials.

    • Herbology degrees? That's right up there with Keith Olbermann's degree from Cornell School of Agriculture (or whatever) or Paul Ehrlich's butterfly degree.

    • i think the 15.25 million is the minimum amount of people that listen to rush and ur prolly right about colmes, miller, schultz and hartmann having a combined total of 2.5 million which is a real overstated amount