Boortz Beats Hannity and Limbaugh in Some Cities
Neal Boortz will be signing copies of The FairTax Book in Grand Junction, Colorado this evening.
A new article by Gary Harmon in yesterday’s edition of Grand Junction’s Daily Sentinel provides some interesting information about Boortz — and how favorably his ratings compare, in some markets, to talk-radio heavyweights like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
Here is the article:
Nationally syndicated radio-talk-show host Neal Boortz will visit Grand Junction on Saturday to promote his book advocating a radical change to the federal tax system and thank listeners who rallied to keep him on the air on KNZZ News Talk Radio in Grand Junction.
Boortz, whose talk show originates from WSB-AM radio in Atlanta, which is owned by the same company that owns The Daily Sentinel, is the co-author of “The FairTax Book,” which advocates abolition of the federal income tax and replacing it with a national consumption tax of 23 percent.
A libertarian who supports President Bush in the War on Terror and criticizes him for increased federal spending, Boortz was talking loudly about abuses of eminent domain for large retailers before the U.S. Supreme Court broadened the powers of local governments to condemn private property.
Grand Junction radio listeners might not have heard Boortz on any of those subjects had they stayed quiet back in February 2004, when KNZZ canceled his show in favor of Tony Snow.
“I will admit it was probably the single biggest error in judgment we made,” said Jim TerLouw, KNZZ general manager.
Boortz’ removal set off a series of complaints to the station.
“We had an unprecedented number of bummed-out people,” TerLouw said. “When we took him off the radio, these people were hurt,” one telling him, “You’ve taken away my good-morning time.”
What listeners didn’t want, TerLouw said, was “another right-wing political show” that sounded like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, both conservative Republicans.
Listeners, TerLouw said, wanted a different voice, what some described as a “stimulating, different point of view.”
Today, Boortz “is our strongest personality,” with more listeners than Limbaugh, Hannity or any other talker in the station’s lineup, TerLouw said.
In an e-mail, Boortz said his Grand Junction experience isn’t entirely unprecedented.
In Atlanta and Orlando, where he goes head-to-head against Limbaugh in his fourth hour against Limbaugh’s first, “I beat him,” Boortz wrote.
“When Hannity and I competed head-to-head, I also bested him in the ratings. I guess that gives me some minor bragging rights.”
His libertarian voice, he said, allows him to prosper in conservative settings.
“I think it’s because the listeners learn that they are always going to get my true feelings. I won’t adjust my opinions and statements to fit some party line. If I get upset with the Republicans, I’m not the least bit afraid to say so. My libertarianism allows me to cross the party lines and call out the scoundrels wherever I find them.”
Spots for Boortz’s book signing have gone quickly, said Monica Salvo, promotions director for KNZZ.
All 600 tickets for the first signing session at the Doubletree Hotel from 2 to 4 p.m. are taken, and more than 500 of the 600 available tickets have been taken for the second session, from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
The station has distributed tickets to listeners across the Grand Valley and from Utah and New Mexico, Salvo said. Tickets are free and may be obtained at the KNZZ offices, 1360 E. Sherwood Ave. Grand Junction.
Hastings Books and Music will sell books at the hotel for the signing.
That is some very good news, overall, for the FairTax.
