Talkster

For the 5th straight year Howard Stern tops the annual «Lycos 50» list of talk radio personalities, beating out Rush Limbaugh who again got the number 2 spot. Notable newcomer Digital Goddess Kim Komando jumped onto the list for the first time at number 18.

The top twenty by rank (with last year's rank in parentheses) are:

1) Howard Stern (1) 11) Sean Hannity (5)
2) Rush Limbaugh (2) 12) Janeane Garofalo (-)
3) Tom Joyner (7) 13) Laura Ingraham (28)
4) Bob & Tom (3) 14) David Lee Roth (-)
5) Michael Savage (6) 15) Don & Mike (-)
6) Dr. Laura (8) 16) Paul Harvey (11)
7) Art Bell (4) 17) Tom Leykis (12)
8 ) Bill O'Reilly (13) 18) Kim Komando (-)
9) Larry King (14) 19) Mancow (9)
10) Opie & Anthony (16) 20) Tavis Smiley (29)

Read the news release from Lycos...

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Lycos, Inc. (http://www.lycos.com), a media destination for creators and consumers of quality content, today announced its fifth annual list of the most popular talk radio personalities with Web users based on The Lycos 50(TM) (http://50.lycos.com). The Lycos 50 is a weekly list of the most popular people, places and things web users search for everyday.

Howard Stern continues his reign as «King of all Media» online for the fifth consecutive year, generating eight times more search activity than any other talk radio personality or team of radio hosts. Searches for Sirius Satellite Radio are also up 1,300 percent due to Stern's scheduled exit from traditional radio at the end of this year. Of total Stern search activity, 50 percent of online interest specifies Sirius Satellite.

«Based on the fact that half of Stern's searches specify Sirius, it's easy to predict that half of Stern's present terrestrial radio audience will follow him to satellite,» said Dean Tsouvalas, writer of The Lycos 50. «Over the past year, Stern's popularity with web users has tripled, and if web search activity is any indication, David Lee Roth will pull in bigger audience numbers than Adam Corolla once Stern departs. But right now, Stern is 63 times more popular online than Roth, and Corolla's search activity doesn't even register a blip on the radar with web users.»

Another big winner with web users this year is Laura Ingraham, seeing a 2,050 percent rise in search activity, up from number 28 last year. Kim Komando makes her first-ever appearance on this year's list, with a 500 percent bump in online interest.

While Sean Hannity experienced the biggest gain in online popularity last year, he slips 44 percent this year, falling from number five to number 11. But Mancow is the biggest loser this year, with a 109 percent drop in search interest, falling from number nine to number 19 in search activity.

Of the three newcomers to last year's list, only Tom Leykis remains, as Al Franken and Lionel drop off the list completely. Search activity for Franken dropped 95 percent over the past year.

The Top 20 Most-Searched Talk Radio Personalities of 2005 (numbers in parentheses reflect last year's rank):

1 ) Howard Stern (1) 11 ) Sean Hannity (5)
2 ) Rush Limbaugh (2) 12 ) Janeane Garofalo (-)
3 ) Tom Joyner (7) 13 ) Laura Ingraham (28)
4 ) Bob & Tom (3) 14 ) David Lee Roth (-)
5 ) Michael Savage (6) 15 ) Don & Mike (-)
6 ) Dr. Laura (8) 16 ) Paul Harvey (11)
7 ) Art Bell (4) 17 ) Tom Leykis (12)
8 ) Bill O'Reilly (13) 18 ) Kim Komando (-)
9 ) Larry King (14) 19 ) Mancow (9)
10 ) Opie & Anthony (16) 20 ) Tavis Smiley (29)

Source: Howard Stern, Most Popular Talk Radio Personality with Web Users for 5th Straight Year, Spikes Online Interest in Sirius Satellite Radio: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance