I've not listened regularly in a while but was disappointed the other night when Keith from Rochester called in and got banned for not playing nice with Ed Dames. IMO, Keith was just the right amount of crotchety and was one of my favorites. The usual intonation in his voice, for me, was manna from heaven.
I guess the next best thing is either the lady who is both the reincarnation of Cleopatra and Aretha Franklin, or the conspiracy guy who believes John Lennon was assassinated by Stephen King. Crazy, right? I mean, everyone knows it was actually Dean Koontz who conspired with Ronald Reagan to kill Lennon. Unfortunately, Noory and staff rarely let that guy get through; it has been years since I heard him make it in...but it was gold whenever he did slip through.
Some of the guests can be fun and seem to compliment both Georgie's personality and often those of his callers very well, so I don't really think in terms of which is better; open lines or guests, because both can be good in their own right, as much as they can be good for each other. There's something for everyone. Besides, getting too much of what we want can get dull.
serious new topics like little or unknown history or science are unicorns w/ c2c...and so are quite a different ball game. for those, I prefer Knapp (on the rare occasion it's not ufo-related) Syrett (on EVERYTHING) or Ian (if he can stand to quit talking about comics for 10 seconds) along with a more discerning screening process for callers (if you know what i mean)