most important talk show hosts

[Aaron Read]

C'mon guys, nobody's mentioned Howard Stern the King of All Media??  Who 
got his start in Boston, no less.   Howard's had a gigantic impact on 
the talk radio genre, not only amassing a disgustingly huge 
audience...but dragging a sizable percentage of that audience to 
satellite radio.   Whether it was enough is up in the air, but it's 
certainly dropped a giant bomb on the whole AM & FM industry.

Plus he spawned a legion of little copycats and clones.  Not exactly a 
"good" thing in my book, but certainly it had an impact.

I'd also toss out there Dr. Drew Pinsky (and Adam Corolla deserves some 
credit, too) who IIRC led a mini-revolution of sorts to talk about sex 
on the air in a serious way without resorting to Stern-like antics.

Tavis Smiley is having a major impact on NPR and public broadcasting as 
we speak, but I think it's a little too soon to make any judgements on 
just how influential he'll end up being.  Chris Lydon could also be 
described that way, although obviously he impacted public radio in a 
very different way than Tavis.

What, no David Brudnoy?  :-)
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Aaron Read
readaaron@friedbagels.com
www.friedbagels.com
Boston, MA 02176