Originally Posted by MikeSmoke

maybe i didn't explain it correctly (from my standpoint) -
its true, i don't listen to loveline regularly anymore (haven't in a long time), but for the most part, it's not a "continuity" show, it's a "reactive" show - Adam and Drew react to each other, and most importantly react to the callers and the callers' general topics. Adam is very good in those situations.
maybe he has a storytelling skill that i haven't heard, but to my ear, when he's in a "longform" mode where he has to be in the driver's seat and is the focus of 15-20 minutes worth of content at a time, his delivery (to my ear) is slow, halting and low-energy - he reminds me at times of Norm McDonald - it's very hard (again, to my ear) to be "drawn in" for long periods of time to what he's spinning. i personally think that Howard's talent, while still enormous, hasn't been shown to best advantage over the last 15 years after his show became primarily sexually-oriented (even though it was certainly the right direction from a financial standpoint), but in the 1980s, when he was doing shows on everything from sex to politics to everyday life, he was brilliant on a daily basis - i can still remember a bit he did, that ended up lasting at least an hour, about "what it was like when he was in Nam" - it was one of the most compelling, funny, captivating hours of radio i've ever heard.