Hot Seat

You're a radio talk show host. Whose interests do you represent?

It used to be easy. You represent the listeners. Their best interests are your best interests. And when you interview a politician or celebrity or newsmaker, you have access that the listeners don't, so you ask questions on their behalf, and you don't shy away from tough questions.

That's not how it goes anymore, and it's not entirely the hosts' fault. Politicians have learned that, as it turns out, they don't HAVE to go on shows where the hosts ask tough questions. That's how they handle cable news, and it works for talk radio, too. You go on shows that won't challenge you, you get nothing but favorable sound bites, the end. No challenges, no gotchas, just another campaign stop.

There are listeners who want that. It's an older group, it's a shrinking group, but it's your core audience, especially on AM. Conventional wisdom is that you will not keep those listeners or grow your audience by being hostile to the politicians they revere, nor will you attract the "other side" by playing the both-sides game.

However...

Let's go back to the old school thought that you don't represent a "side," you represent the listeners. Maybe they're on one side -- surely, they are -- but they're humans with things that are important to them, and not necessarily the stuff that makes national news. They care about their taxes, about schools, about safety and social security and health care, and not always in the way those issues are debated in the national news. The parties manipulate the national news debate to fit their particular needs, but so much of that is irrelevant to most people's daily lives. Honestly, most people aren't all that outraged about any of the stuff that's amplified on Twitter. Most people aren't even ON Twitter.

And you don't work for a political party or candidate. (At least, I assume you don't. You really should disclose that, prominently and frequently, if you do.) You work for... okay, you work for the radio station, but what you do on the air should reflect wiat your listeners need to hear. Maybe it's time to go back to asking tough questions of candidates and elected officials, especially in a time when local news reporting has become more and more scarce. You don't need to do it in a hostile manner, you don't need to yell, you don't even need to disagree with anyone -- people understand the concept of devil's advocate. But you and your listeners aren't served by tossing softballs at a politician. Worse, it's boring as hell. And even if it's a candidate you personally support, they need to be able to answer tough questions, and it's not your problem if they can't.

Ah, but what about access? If you're tough on a candidate, they won't come back, will they? Well, so what? Candidate and politician interviews are usually boring. Listeners don't care that you can get Candidate X or Senator Y on the phone. They want to be entertained. And the politicians need you more than you need them. You can do your show without them, but they need (or at least think they need) to be on the radio and TV as much as possible to get free publicity.

Sure, things have changed, and polarized partisan political talk is the norm. That doesn't mean that you need to bore your audience with interviews that don't tell anyone anything new and don't actually get answers to the questions your listeners would ask if they had the same access as you have. Ask the hard questions. Challenge falsehoods, Get solid answers and commitments. The guest might not like that, but, hey, you don't need to be friends with your interview subjects. You do need to do right by your listeners. Do your homework and focus on the things that really matter to your audience.

And remember, you're not a campaign worker or a political consultant. You're an entertainer, and asking tough questions is way more entertaining than just letting the guests quote their own press releases.

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By the way, you just might get some ideas for questions at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep page. Click here for that, and you can also follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics and find every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

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It's busy around here, so I got nothin' to close this one out. Go do whatever it is you do and I'll see you here next week.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon
Mastodon @pmsimon@c.im