When I talk about radio in today’s very crowded audio space, I still think it is the most personal medium. Even though you may be broadcasting to 250,000 listeners, most are listening by themselves–in their car or through their headphones. This creates a direct connection.
I have always encouraged sports talk show hosts to share personal details of their lives so their listeners can relate to them on a human level. When I did a Q&A with Chris Kinard of 106.7 The Fan in Washington, DC he talked about listeners relating to his hosts:
What we find is that listeners latch on to the personalities. It’s a great thing for our hosts to know that their power is not necessarily just their sports opinions but that their P1s especially love to hear the personal stuff and that’s what they remember about them. The little quirks, the little things that make them special. The things that make them in some ways irreplaceable–or at least very difficult to replace.
If a host is going through a difficult time, their radio audience is a great source of support both on-air and through social media. It can be issues with children, rehab, death in the family, or even everyday problems or issues that listeners can relate to.
This week may have been the most personal and heart wrenching example of this. As Brandon Contes detailed in his story.
WGR morning host Jeremy White and his wife were expecting quadruplets. They tragically were all born too early to survive. Jeremy shared the experience with his audience on Monday. Here’s the audio:
It’s incredibly heartbreaking to hear Jeremy talk about the children being born, being named, and the nursery they had created. He made one point very clear–that if he hadn’t come on and shared this with the audience he didn’t think he would have ever been able to come back and host.
Here is the point. We are all human. When you are a sports talk host, you have to be three dimensional and human in order for listeners to relate to you. Chicago host Dan McNeil is known for keeping it real with his listeners when he was asked by his then-PD Adam Delevitt about his calling in life:
Mine is I take people home from work. I’m not gonna be the smartest guy on sports talk radio. I’m not necessarily going to be the most informed or well read but they’re gonna have fun and they’re gonna feel like they had a friend on the ride home with them.
That’s what the best hosts are. They’re your friend on your ride to work, during your workout or on your ride home. So to my programmers and hosts out there–Radio is a personal medium, so don’t be afraid to get personal with your listeners.
Matt Fishman is a former columnist for BSM. The current PD of ESPN Cleveland has a lengthy resume in sports radio programming. His career stops include SiriusXM, 670 The Score in Chicago, and 610 Sports in Kansas City. You can follow him on Twitter @FatMishman20 or you can email him at FishmanSolutions@gmail.com.
