Speed Gibson

I've been a subscriber to Bill O'Reilly's premium web site, which features commercial-free mp3 downloads of his radio program. This started when Dennis Prager's site was shut down by Salem in a copyright dispute. I had heard a little of his show on the Patriot II, seemed worth a gamble as Prager's replacemnt in my rotation along with Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham.

I have to say I am surprisingly impressed with The Radio Factor. I always appreciate good production, and O'Reilly is second only to El Rushbo himself. Some things I like:

• It's two hours, not three. I wish that were the talk radio standard, in fact. Very few hosts are like Limbaugh, with the talent, energy, and resources to produce three solid hours a day. Prager and Ingraham would be better as two hour programs, I believe.
  
• He talks straight at you. Too many hosts, including Limbaugh, get sidetracked with "oh by the way" segments. O'Reilly takes a topic and - talks about that topic!
  
• He has perfected the co-host concept. He has at least two who rotate, actually, both female, both liberal, like Lis Wiehl, a law professor and author. They don't speak often, more like a program observer you might say. But the contrast is good, with clear lines between male/female and liberal/conservative.
  
• He handles callers well, goes to break smoothly, runs the whole show smoothly in fact. I particularly like that he doesn't bring up callers with ten seconds left in the hour like Soucheray likes to do.
  
• He's prolific, host of the top-rated program in TV news. He also writes a weekly column and has written several books. He's not above plugging these other enterprises, but he doesn't do it all day long like Sean Hannity seems to do.
  

He's not perfect by any means. His oil company conspiracy theories that Neal Cavuto has no trouble destroying are a surprising anomaly against some otherwise pretty solid thinking.

It's good radio, informative, and enoyable.