Liberals, blacks and the more typical angry white males of talk radio were in the limelight over the weekend at TALKERS magazine’s annual New Media Seminar.

From my left wing warhorse point of view, the funniest speaker was liberal talker Stephanie Miller of Jones Radio Network. In introducing conservative icon Sean Hannity she managed to zing him, mostly tastefully but sometimes shockingly with jibes about teddy bears, hybrid cars and other unmentionables. You go, girl.

Hundreds in the talk radio industry gathered for the annual event and the focus was on the Internet and the future of audio communication.

The room—and this time the room was at the Lighthouse Conference Center in New York City—was full of substantial egos, including my own.

The most sizzling panel was on Talk Radio and Race with six African American talk hosts and TALKERS founder Michael Harrison on stage and a crowd of mostly white, mostly conservative radio talkers chiming in with occasional shout outs. Reverend Al Sharpton was a no show. But Charles Etheridge of KISS-FM held ground with conservative black talker and Sean Hannity favorite, Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson.

Not that white conservatives boycotted the New Media Seminar. Like Al Sharpton, Rush Limbaugh didn’t make it but Sean Hannity was his gracious self at the podium and a meet and greet party.

And Michael Medved of Salem Radio Network delivered a thoughtful talk deploring conservative political correctness. Medved said it’s not only liberals who fear to offend their sacred cows but conservatives too feel the need to lockstep on many issues, including illegal immigrants and John McCain.

Awards were plentiful, including one for WABC conservative Bob Grant for lifetime achievement that drew protesters outside. African American broadcaster Joe Madison of WOL in Washington won the coveted Freedom of Speech award for his charitable work on behalf of Africans in the Sudan.

A kickoff panel of talk show legends brought in Barry Farber, who may have originated syndication by shipping tapes of his shows around the country. Joe Franklin now of WBBR in New York City was, well, at least as good as Billy Crystal’s parody. Financial guru Bruce Williams seemed like a crooner, grabbing his microphone and getting close to it to urge aspiring talk hosts to be persistent to get on the air.

But this was the New Media Seminar and my head is still swimming with information on spiders, podcasts and Podjockey, PalTalk, Blog Talk Radio, social Web sites, Wimax (like cel phones but a possible terrestrial radio replacement), plus the N95 phone that enables you to stream audio and video for less than 700 bucks.

Internet talk show hosts left us terrestrial talk show people mystified at how they do it. The Satellite Sisters and Mommy Cast are online and making money, or “monetizing” their Internet content in the jargon of today.

Forget politics. One of the most engaging speakers was Dr. Michio Kaku, a science spellbinder in the Carl Sagan mold heard on the Talk Radio Network.

Phil Boyce of ABC Radio delivered news the audience loved—the older people who listen to talk radio spend a lot of money.

Just when you thought you knew it all, Lucille Morillon of Reporters Without Borders explained about the countries where reporters are shot and tortured.

Dr. Laura Schlesinger got misty eyed as she received the Sharon Harrison Memorial Award for community service.

And liberal talker Ed Schultz was very much the happy warrior explaining how a $150,000 investment in satellite gear made him the toast of the news channels looking for a liberal talker, even though Ed lives in Fargo, North Dakota.

You go, guy.