We talk a lot about television shows and movie stars on the Lycos 50, but what about that other big communications medium: radio? Reports of radio's demise have been greatly exaggerated so many times that Mark Twain might as well retire the phrase.
I'm an old radio jock myself (here's a link to one of my old stations) so the Lycos 50 decided to take a look at the leading radio hosts online. And the winner won't surprise you: it's the King of All Media himself, Howard Stern. Stern can now add King of the Internet to his titles.
Here is a listing of the top 20 radio hosts and teams with the most searches over the past two months. We've computed each host's percentage when compared to the King of all Media, just to show how dominant in his field Stern is.
100.0% Howard Stern
30.3% Rush Limbaugh
23.6% Art Bell
15.8% Dr. Laura Schlessinger
9.7% Paul Harvey
9.4% Don And Mike
5.5% Opie And Anthony
5.4% Don Imus
5.2% Jim Rome
3.5% Tom Joyner
3.5% Mancow
2.9% G. Gordon Liddy
2.6% Larry King
2.2% Phil Hendrie
1.9% Tom Leykis
1.5% Joan Rivers
1.4% Oliver North
1.2% Dr. Demento
0.8% Michael Medved
0.7% John Boy And Billy
Howard Stern has been the most popular radio host each week since we began compiling the Lycos 50 two years ago. The only exception to this was immediately before and after the 2000 election when he was toppled, briefly, by Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh is down to 5% of his peak during election week, but in his defense that week was the best-ever performance by a radio host on the Lycos 50 (he was #11).
There are two major surprises here. The first is Don and Mike at #6. They are a syndicated team who appear on WNEW in New York and WJFK in Washington, among other stations, from 3pm to 8pm Eastern. Their regular guests include "Homo Joe" and "The Nipple Guy" so their show seems to feature fairly adult humor. I must admit they are the only names on this list I had never heard of before compiling this report.
The other surprise is how far down Don Imus is. While Imus is beloved by the media and the Beltway crowd, he is less popular on the Internet than the shock jock team of Opie and Anthony or the classic American voice of Paul Harvey.
Every host here is syndicated in some fashion, which explains the national online interest. The one host who seems to be growing over the past few months is Jim Rome. He is by far the most popular sports talk host on the Internet.
OF course, radio in the twentieth century comes out of your computer, as well as your car dashboard and home stereo. Lycos has you covered with both our musical Lycos Radio (at the Lycos Music page) as well as the talk jocks of Lycos Talk Radio. Start you career as a budding Howard Stern (or even a budding Michael Medved) by hosting your own show on Lycos.
TOMORROW: Someone you might be hearing on the radio very soon.
