I agree. Feinburg is funny, Finneran is strange, and takes a lot of ribbing. They cover news a little differently than J&M, who pretend to be liberal. F&F pretend to be conservative. (I think Feinburg is a genuine conservative, but the rest of ‘em are empty-headed wallets).

Braude has a brand of self-regard that’s about as greasy as old mayonnaise, in any case. J&M do banter well. But I can watch reruns of Absolutely Fabulous, if I want to hear from someone as catty as Jim Braude.

@Aaron: you’re correct, if a bit oversimplifying, about the PPM vs. Diaries issue for NPR affiliates. It is true that most NPR outlets have taken a big Cume hit, and most have either seen small increases or, more likely, medium decreases in AQH.

But you can’t just stop there. The reason why NPR affiliates did better under diaries is because diaries do a much better job of tracking station loyalty. In other words, a station that does well in diary-based ratings has done a good job creating a brand identity that listeners affiliate themselves with, and then convince themselves that they listen to it more than they actually did.

That is not to be discounted out of hand. Not for commercial radio, but ESPECIALLY not for public radio where loyalty is a crucial factor in the success of on-air fundraisers.

It’s also important for underwriters as well; with pubradio, you can’t “sell” a product on the air. It’s prohibited by the FCC to be promotional or mention price info or sale info…things that are typically used to “sell” a given product or service.

Instead, with NPR underwriting you’re banking on the inherent trust on (there’s that word again) LOYALTY that listeners have with the station. That trust does the selling for you; all the station has to do is mention the product.

Granted, you can’t ignore the drops in cume and/or AQH entirely…especially not with underwriters. All the loyalty in the world doesn’t help when your reported audience is cut in half thanks to the PPM. But you can’t ignore the loyalty factor…and how it benefits public radio disproportionately compared to commercial radio.

Eagan and Braude might be the only show left that presents the “ideas in conflict” format that worked so well for Gene Burns.

Al Franken was terrible on the radio. I do find Stephanie funny. Yes, it’s often childish and silly but you need that sometimes. I don’t mind Ed. I didn’t like him at first but he’s grown on me. He brings quite a bit of passion to the show, enough that I’m willing to overlook his constant deification of Brett Favre :-)

If you REALLY want to hear a bomb-thrower, Mike Malloy is the equivalent of some of the right-wing bomb-throwers. His invective is over the top. And, to quote the late, great Jerry Williams, never boring.

As for Feinburg, perhaps he opts not to wander away from what the pro rasslers call kayfabe when in the presence of a media critic

I loved Franken’s show. He was definitely on a learning curve as a radio talker, and some of his comedy bits fell flat, but he had great guests from across the political spectrum and his interview skills were excellent. He was the best AA had to offer, because he wasn’t all liberal all the time.

As for Franken, I thought he was pretty good, and there’s no question the ratings showed he was giving Limbaugh fits in markets where Franken had a good signal. I don’t think they’ve invented a ratings system yet that would somehow make Franken’s numbers, but not Limbaugh’s, look artificially strong.

We’re all biased, but bias does not enter into my assessment of Franken. Ed Schultz bores me, Stephanie Miller tries too hard for my tastes and I detest Randi Rhodes. I liked Franken’s show on the rare occasions when I got to hear it because he was low-key and funny. Howie Carr’s show is one of my guilty pleasures for the same reason — he’s low-key and funny. But God help me if I commit the heresy of saying that I liked Franken’s show. It can only be because I’m biased.

To be told that programmers didn’t think Franken was good at radio is like being told music critics don’t think Bob Dylan can sing: Why do I care what they think?

I think you can do better than telling me I’m out of my depth simply because you disagree with me. We’re not talking about nuclear fusion. We’re only talking about radio, what’s good and what isn’t. Frankly, the talk stations in Boston are doing so badly that they could do worse than hire me as a consultant. I’ve been saying for years that ‘TKK ought to put Eagan and Braude on in morning drive. Now they’ve done it. I’ll bet it works very well.