LA's top ten

First off I must share a great line I heard from my fabulous writer friend, Treva Silverman.

“What a strange few days it's been. Bush is guilty and Judas isn't.”

Now to today’s post. It’s somewhat geared locally to Los Angeles but a lot of the names should be familiar to everyone. I was asked by the Los Angeles Radio People website (see my links section) to list my picks for the top ten LA radio personalities over the last fifteen years. The piece ran Friday on LARP and I thought I’d share it here.


1. Renan Almendarez-Coelo (El Cucuy) – It’s hard to say just what it is about him that is so great because I’ve never heard him. I don’t speak Spanish. But he must be doing something right. Everywhere he goes he gets runaway number one ratings regardless of station or timeslot. Maybe translated into English we’d discover he’s really doing Dr. Laura's act.

2. Bill Handel – You have to love a morning man with no censor. He’s been on the air for years and yet every morning sounds like it’s his first show. In other words, he sounds like a real guy and not a “radio” announcer. And he rules the mornings.

3. Howard Stern – It pains me to put him so high up because he wasn’t local, but there’s no denying his impact, innovation, and consistency. Too bad that today he’s on satellite and the weekend all-night guy on the WAVE has a larger audience.

4. Vin Scully – He would’ve been higher but he only simulcasts three innings on the radio these days. But if there were an all-time list of LA radio personalities he would be number one for now and evermore. There are some records that will never be broken.

5. Phil Hendrie – Has created the most unique and entertaining talk show since the format began. And he proves each and every night that there will never be a shortage of utter morons out there in radioland.

6. Kevin & Bean – Best, funniest, most original morning show in Los Angeles. And they’re local. (Well, at least one of them is). Extra points for discovering Jimmy Kimmell, Adam Carolla, and the best of all – Ralph Garman.

7. John & Ken – They do the impossible – make an issues oriented show compelling. And they’re always in the news getting sued so you have to admire their show prep.

8. Robert W. Morgan – Even though he’s been gone ten of the last fifteen years his impact is so great that KRTH still has been unable to replace him, despite try after try. Morgan was the perfect morning man – quick, topical, funny, warm, real, and so relatable. Never did I hear him when he wasn’t talking just to me.

9. Tom Leykis – Yes, he’s the current president of the “Hee Man Woman Haters Club” but you have to admit he’s a superb showman. It’s talk radio as theatre and no one does it better. Or louder.

10. Ryan Seacrest – He’s host of AMERICAN IDOL and fifteen E! shows and yet he wants to get up at 4:00 every morning to be on local radio. He must either really love radio, or be so desperate for acceptance that it’s pathetic. Replaced Rick Dees without losing a listener which says to me that either he’s the real deal or all those years the ratings weren’t for Dees they were for Ellen K.