Does Rush Limbaugh's first year record still stand???

Today's is the 1st anniversary of Ed Schultz's nationally syndicated radio talk program. On January 5 of last year Schultz signed on with just two radio stations, both in non-ranked Arbitron markets. The two stations were in Needles, California; and Langdon, North Dakota. If you are a lefty, Democrat, progressive, this man was your hope for a new era in talk radio.

Today they are 70 affiliates of the Schultz show and is heard in markets in Denver, Portland OR, Miami, Phoenix, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, San Diego, and Schultz's flagship town Fargo, ND to name a few. Later this month Schultz will sign on in Washington, D.C. It is been reported that Schultz will get affiliates in Los Angeles and Cincinnati this month as well.

One thing that helped Schultz big time was Clear Channel taking a chance on the Air America Radio network, which is getting lots of publicly for being an outlet of progressive talk radio. Without AAR Schultz may not have a chance.

Schultz and Democracy Radio have made the claim that he has surpassed Rush Limbaugh regarding their first year of broadcast and it appears that Schultz is standing by that. Rush is not taking this lightly and issued his own press release regarding the first year record.

According to Rush he began with 56 stations and was heard on 150 stations a year later.

While Schultz is not on a lot of blowtorch radio stations like WABC and KFI, radio listeners are gaining interest.

In left wing strongholds of Portland, OR and San Diego, CA the stations that have a full time lineup of liberal talkers having made very impressive gains in the ratings, getting more listeners that what they had in the previous format they had. Other stations have seen some gains as well although not as big as the two I mentioned.

As a broadcaster I understand the evolution of radio. It changes with the trends that the people are living in this country. Radio is always trying new formats to attract listeners. Syndicated liberal radio talkers have had a hard time getting on in markets, but now with Air America and the biggest radio company in world taking a chance on "Progressive Talk" the lefty finally might get their wish on being liberal and heard nationally.

People are in the middle and sadly vote personality over party, and the left can win battles. With Schultz and Air America in play they can win regardless if they are on 70 stations or 40 stations.
Here are the facts:

Ed Schultz is truly indeed the number one nationally syndicated radio talker on the progressive side.

Rush Limbaugh's record still holds, and Schultz must get off this lie if he wants to be around in four years and beyond. On the other hand people do use certain kinds of math to make themselves look good.

I will continue to listen to Schultz (unless I find a righty talker that I can listen to) because his show allows me to listen to the other side and I can put up with him. I will not listen to Al Franken or any of these entertainers that dominate AAR that think they can do talk radio. Randi Rhodes is a broadcaster but I can't stand her and I don't like Mike Malloy either. Both along with Laura Flanders are the handful of "broadcasters" on AAR. Other lefty talkers I can put up with include Lionel and Stephanie Miller.

Links used in this piece

Limbaugh's Record Still Stands

Ed Schultz on 70 Stations