Local

Limbaughs

Talk-O-Meter
Writer John Mainelli, a radio consultant and former talk-radio programmer and media reporter, ranked the hosts on a scale from 1 (most liberal) to 10 (most conservative).

Al Rantel

Los Angeles KABC/790 AM

Rantel is a conservative with a twist. He’s openly gay. There’s another twist. He’s critical of same-sex marriages. Rantel is one of a handful of talk-show hosts who do voice impressions of the newsmakers they talk about. Anthony Cumia of Opie & Anthony is another. Jay Diamond, too. Phil Hendrie, on the other hand, is famous for creating and “impersonating” his own wacky callers. Rantel angered members of L.A.’s Sikh community while discussing airport security screening.

Typical Comment: “If my mother has to take her shoes off during a security screening, then why shouldn’t a Sikh be required to take off the hat that looks like a diaper?”

Roger Hedgecock

San Diego KOGO/600 AM

He’s been a high-profile talk-show host about 10 times longer than the two scandal-filled years that he was the city’s mayor in the mid-’80s. As with Chicago, political scandals in self-called “America’s Finest City” seldom cause a derailment on the career track. On radio, Hedgecock is generally conservative, especially when it comes to his showcase issue, illegal immigration. He also rails against what he calls environmental extremism in spite of having oncev been a spokesman for the Sierra Club.

Typical Comment: “The murder rate in Baghdad, the people being killed in Baghdad, is lower than the murder rate of Washington, D.C.”

Jay Severin

Boston WTKK/96.9 FM

Some call the hip, high-energy talker a “rock-’n’-roll Republican.” Indeed, he has consulted GOP campaigns and was a conservative pundit on MSNBC. He also went to Vassar and enjoys discussing his past and present female liaisons on the air. When he debuted on WTKK, Boston’s first commercial FM talk station, he shot to the top among younger listeners, toppling longtime ratings leader Howie Carr.

Typical Comment: “What is scarier to you, the people who took a trillion dollars and pumped it into the wrong places, or the fact that the Fat-Nazis have been created and the government will now weigh your kids like pigs and cows? And you’ll be a criminal for feeding your kids the wrong way.”

Kathy & Judy

Chicago WGN/720 AM

This talk team is celebrating two decades together this year on the legendary 50,000-watt Tribune-owned station. Their topics range from “kids to sex to politics to daily calamities” and they say that they enjoy talking to listeners about their lives rather than talking to authors pitching books. Kathy (O’Malley) and Judy (Markey) were rival newspaper columnists when they began their show as a once-a-week experiment. Both are mothers with grown-up children.

Typical Comment: Kathy: “We’re doing ‘Your sex life in eight words.’” Judy: “Here’s one by e-mail: ‘Wife says don’t touch. Right hand’s my friend.’” Kathy: “Vince in Indiana says: ‘Missionary position. Let me know when you’re done.’” Both: “Oh . . . my . . . God!”

Barry Young

Phoenix KFYI/550 AM

He calls it The Nearly Famous Barry Young Show even though it’s the highest-rated local talk show in Arizona. Like most talk shows, his is based on the news of the day and, frequently, partisan politics. Unlike most talk-show hosts, Young has interests beyond Fox News, MSNBC and Politico.com. He is, for example, a published author in science and astronomy, a commercial pilot and flight instructor, a HAM radio operator and, Arizona deserts and canyons notwithstanding, an advanced SCUBA diver.

Typical Comment: (after the Virginia Tech massacre): “They allowed themselves to be shot one at a time. You gotta wonder why people would just stand there and be slaughtered.”

Ronn Owens

San Francisco KGO/810 AM

He’s a fixture on one of the few liberal-leaning talk stations that really works. In fact, KGO has been No. 1 in the ratings longer than any other major-market radio station in the country. That platform propels Owens to be one of the few talk-show hosts who beats Rush Limbaugh in mouth-to-mouth competition, even though his own attempts at syndication have failed.

Typical Comment: “What really set me against Bush was when he was asked if he would do anything differently, and he said, ‘No.’”

Dori Monson

Seattle KIRO-AM/FM 710/97.3

He sees himself as a “watchdog of local, state, and national government and a passionate advocate of personal responsibility.” Monson is proud that his drunken-driving shows brought about tougher DUI laws in Washington state.

Typical Comment: “One of the most notorious rapists in our state’s history has a new home, and it’s my neighborhood. You know the old saying: When a rapist moves into somebody else’s neighborhood, it’s a tragedy. When he moves into your neighborhood, it’s a jihad.”

Grandy & Andy

Washington D.C. WMAL/630 AM

Grandy is Fred Grandy, who was Gopher on The Love Boat and also a U.S. congressman from Iowa and a college professor. Andy is Andy Parks, a one-time DJ and radio traffic reporter. Together, they reach a significant number of lawmakers and opinion-makers in America’s capital city. Theirs is a chemistry common to “morning drive” programs on many “heritage” radio stations: genial banter with an occasional edge weaved through heavy doses of news, traffic, weather and sports reports.

Typical Comment: Grandy: “Pelosi wants to raise the tax rate from 35 to 39 percent for the worst, the greediest, the meaniest, the most venal.” Andy: “And then there’s Barney Frank.”

John Gambling

New York City WOR/710 AM

He needs no introduction in New York because he’s on the same station that employed his father (John A.) and grandfather (John B.). The easy, breezy Gambling style and ensuing radio dynasty debuted in 1925, when commercial radio was only 3 years old. Gambling calls himself a “moderate conservative,” but listeners know that the moderation level varies greatly, depending on the issue.

Typical Comment: “There’s obviously a major flaw with Roland Burris. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so much opposition. This is Blagojevich throwing the racial grenade, knowing exactly how to lock up everybody else because they have no wiggle room.”

Tom Becka

Omaha KFAB/1110 AM

The gravelly voiced ex-comedian is known to listeners in several Great Plains states because of KFAB’s powerful 50,000-watt signal. He calls himself a libertarian. Critics called him insensitive — and worse — when he mocked a boosterism commercial for a crime-ridden area of the city: “Arson, abductions, assaults. Everything that makes a community exciting. Discover North Omaha. After all, it’s safer than Baghdad.”

Typical Comment: “Waitaminnit, waitaminnit, waitaminnit!”

Herman Cain

Atlanta WSB/750 AM

This man is dangerously close to being overqualified to be a radio talk-show host. He occupied high-level executive positions at Pillsbury, starting off with salvaging 400 slumping Burger King units in the Philadelphia region, then turning around the Godfather’s Pizza chain for the company. When done, he led his executive team in a buyout of Godfather’s from Pillsbury. In addition to his WSB gig, Cain is a Fox News Channel commentator and a syndicated newspaper columnist.

Typical Comment: “The mainstream media never told you that there’s a congressman from Texas who proposed a tax holiday for two months. The media and many members of Congress hope that if they ignore it, it will go away. Well, I don’t plan to ignore it.”

Michael Berry

Houston KTRH/740 AM

He’s not only a popular talk-show host but also a city councilman, mayor pro tempore, and a lawyer married to a lawyer. The Houston Chronicle says the Republican pol/talker makes it a “practice to provoke” and is a “love-him-or-hate-him” kind of guy. Berry says he wants his show to be a “controversial discussion of issues” where people “discuss openly what they typically think but can’t say.”

Typical Comment: “If you’re against apologizing for slavery, then you gotta be against giving welfare to the American Indians because of the fact that 200 years ago, they were whipped in a war. We conquered them. That’s history. Hello!”

Charlie Brennan

St. Louis KMOX/1120 AM

If this soft-spoken community activist ever wants to be mayor, he’s got a good shot at winning. The top-rated talker doesn’t preach, doesn’t shout. He just gets involved. In everything: historic sites, public trials, building fix-ups, landscaping, support of U.S. troops. He’s also the champion of street performers and vendors and got ordinances against them tossed out. Brennan is about to start his third decade at this CBS-owned “heritage” radio station.

Typical Comment: “There’s a lot of socialism going on in the country with bailouts for banks, insurance companies. What about all the other businesses on the public dole that don’t get attention? Would you believe Walmart?”

John & Ken

Los Angeles KFI/640 AM

For these two super-rated talkers to “go national” and be syndicated, they would have to clean house and start over. Everything they do is, as radio execs like to say, “local, local, local.” They’re all about L.A. and L.A. knows it. John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou are “activist” talk-show hosts, sometimes to a fault, according to critics. It’s likely they played a role in the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. They’re also tough on illegal immigration and had their listeners send thousands of brushes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after he told protestors, “We clean your toilets.” The duo also went on a rampage about the placement of registered sex offenders and got some ordinances changed.

Typical Comment: John: “The truth is I don’t trust juries. I don’t trust 12 people who aren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty. There’s a lot of crazy people out there and many of them end up on juries.”

Roe Conn

Chicago WLS/890 AM

If you didn’t know better and stumbled upon this show, you might think you were listening to FM radio in the morning instead of AM in the afternoon. Conn approaches his popular talk show in the same way many FM Morning Zoos do, not to mention recently downsized Chicago legend Steve Dahl (who would otherwise be on this list). He’s easy-going, humorous, topical, and joined by a boisterous supporting cast. His politics apparently range from blue to red because he gave $2,300 each to Obama and Giuliani last year, according to CampaignMoney.com.

Typical Comment: “Here’s the problem with Guantanamo. It is an affront to the stated, ethical arc of America. It, however, serves a very important purpose because we got a bunch of guys down there, some of whom are really dangerous.”

Dave Ross

Seattle KIRO-AM/FM 710/97.3

You may have heard him subbing for Charles Osgood on CBS’ The Osgood File. If you lived in Seattle in 2004, you had a chance to vote him into Congress when he took a leave of absence from radio. (He won the Democratic primary but lost the general election.) The longtime ratings winner has a thirst for danger and regularly broadcasts from the planet’s flash points — such as Baghdad in ’04, Qatar in ’03, the second Russian revolution in ’91, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in ’89.

Typical Comment: “I don’t know why we need a colossally expensive traffic tunnel when New York City, which has a lot more money than we do, couldn’t afford to rebuild the elevated West Side Highway and, instead, made it ground-level.”

Jason Lewis

Minneapolis KTLK/100.3 FM

He calls himself “Minnesota’s Mr. Conservative” or, more grandly, “America’s Mr. Right.” He crusades for lower taxes, created a “Tax Cut Coalition,” and got thousands to rally on the steps of the state capitol. He has also led fights over Minnesota’s gas tax. Lewis is one of the crop of subs for Rush Limbaugh.

Typical Comment: “Instead of throwing trillions of ‘stimulus package’ money down a rat hole for solar energy, bio-fuels, and windmills that don’t work, let’s build nuclear power plants. Then we’ll have abundant, clean, cheap energy for the foreseeable future. But they won’t do it.”

Lee Rodgers

San Francisco KSFO/560 AM

He’s on his own now, ever since station owner Citadel Communications ordered partner Melanie Morgan jettisoned last year for budgetary reasons. Rodgers is a blustery, old-school conservative — the “women should bake cookies and raise kids” type. He thinks feminist rabble-rousers are “a bunch of hags” who “couldn’t get laid in a men’s prison.” Condoleezza Rice? Her spike-heeled boots remind him of “the hostess at an S&M parlor.”

Typical Comment: More? OK, here’s Rodgers’ take on Sarah Palin: “Most of all, these liberal women resent the fact that she’s good-lookin’. She’s good-lookin’!”

Neil Rogers

Miami WQAM/560 AM

He’s another talk-show host who is openly gay except that, unlike L.A.’s conservative Al Rantel, Rogers is a proud-and-loud liberal with serious anti-social tendencies. Most of the time, he doesn’t even come to the radio station, preferring instead to broadcast from Canada and work short weeks and take long vacations. A Jew who’s rough on Israeli right-wingers, the often-cranky Rogers keeps away from “hard news” most of the time and focuses on stories, events, and phenomena that interest his large, young, male audience. He revels in not “going national” and has even been known to ignore calls from interested networks.

Typical Comment: “[Gay] is who I am. That’s how I see things on the air. There are a few queens on the air, like Alice [sic] Rantel, who was dragged out of the closet, kicking and screaming.”

Howie Carr

Boston WRKO/680 AM

He’s a pit-bull talk-show host, an influential newspaper columnist, and a long-time feuder with fellow Beantowner (and MSNBC liberal pundit) Mike Barnicle. Carr’s wife sued and settled with Barnicle pal Don Imus after Imus claimed Mrs. Carr had an affair with boxer Riddick Bowe. The conservative Carr likes to bestow nicknames — like “Liveshot” for John Kerry because of Kerry’s attraction to news cameras, and “Fat Boy” for, guess who, Ted Kennedy. Howie’s callers, meanwhile, have called him “Brittle Bastard” because of his self-disclosed osteoporosis.

Typical Comment: “Maybe they can get [$50 billion Ponzi scammer Bernard] Madoff to walk barefoot through the snow in New York City where he could run into one of those hot manhole covers and get electrocuted like the dogs often do.”

Bill Handel

Los Angeles KFI/640 AM

He’s long been the top choice for adults in prime-time “morning drive” in the nation’s most intensely competitive radio market. He’s smart, funny, edgy, informed, topical. He’s also not without controversy. Asian-American leaders once demanded his head for a shock-effect comment about athletes appearing on cereal boxes (below). More recently, he antagonized local Muslims by claiming they were bath-avoiding, Jew-hating animal lovers. In both instances, KFI apologized.

Typical Comment: “And when I look at a box of Wheaties? I don’t want to see eyes that are like all slanted and Oriental and almond shaped. I want American eyes looking at me.”

Mike Rosen

Denver KOA/850 AM

The high-rated talker in the Mile-High City took an interesting approach to a local election last year by writing a newspaper column analyzing ballot issues and stating how he would vote. From that, we learned that Rosen is opposed to affirmative action; favors “right to work” rules (e.g., against forced union membership); is opposed to declaring fertilized eggs a person; wants higher bet limits at casinos; thinks raising the sales tax to pay for the “developmentally disabled” is going too far; and doesn’t want the age to serve in the legislature dropped from 25 to 21.

Typical Comment: “Why not 18, then? Worldly wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age, but it definitely doesn’t come with youth.”

Mark Davis

Dallas WBAP/820 AM

Dallas’ top-rated talk-show host is also a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He says he’s a “libertarian conservative” who opposes smoking bans, comes down hard against illegal immigration and isn’t interested in legalizing drugs. Recent attempts to join the over-saturated ranks of syndicated talk-show hosts showed promise but fizzled, although Davis is occasionally tapped to sub for the most successful syndicated talker of all time, Rush Limbaugh.

Typical Comment: “People say American campaigns run too long and people get tired of it. Tired of it?! I’m ready to do 2012 horse-race stories right now! I’m ready for Romney!”

J.D. Hayworth

Phoenix KFYI/550 AM

If you watch Fox News Channel, you’ve seen this former six-term congressman in his industrial-strength conservative-pundit mode. When Washingtonian magazine voted him the second-biggest “windbag” in Congress, he crowed, “I was hoping to get the number one spot.” Hayworth, who had a radio career before as well as after Washington, sometimes subs for the syndicated Laura Ingraham.

Typical Comment: “While actions speak louder than words, we should never forget that the right words said at the right time can prompt the right actions.”

Joe Soucheray

Minneapolis-St. Paul KSTP/1500 AM

He’s a wildly successful, one-of-a-kind talker who probably could succeed elsewhere, but it might take some time getting up to speed on his laid-back, sly, and subtle ways. Soucheray (pronounced SOOSH-uh-ray) calls his show “Garage Logic,” that being the seat of mythical Gumption County where he’s the mythical mayor. He’s suspicious of so-called “pop culture” and “Minnesota liberals” (e.g., Al Franken types) but he is not old-of-mind, and he is not a prude. He and his listeners (and newspaper readers) observe life, marvel at it, and discuss how it works or how it can be fixed. The Garage Logic slogan is “Anything that needs to be figured out can be figured out in the garage.”

Typical Comment: “The hip-hop culture is more accurately a criminal culture, a prison culture. It is pathetic. It is not defensible. The clothing of the hip-hop culture is the clothing of a clown. The civility and public manners of the hip-hop culture do not exist.”