The Derek Chauvin trial and verdict was likely the most watched event of its kind since O.J. Simpson. But unlike O.J., which featured a superstar athlete-turned-celebrity, there was no celebrity involved in this story. In fact, in many ways it was an uber local story, specific to Minneapolis, that became a national story because it fit a narrative by many in the media that America’s cops were inherently racist, and more importantly, America was systemically racist.
Ironically, while Chauvin was found guilty on second and third-degree murder, along with manslaughter, the prosecution never even brought up anything involving Chauvin being a racist. But regardless, this story became national because of the agenda it was pushed.
While I imagine most news talk stations have spent hours of their talk shows on the Chauvin case this week, as have I, I did not spend an enormous amount time on it prior to this week when the closing arguments were made and the verdict came down.
Why? It wasn’t local and the day-to-day drama was newsworthy, but not necessarily an obvious talk segment, especially if there was enough happening locally.
And while this week was all about the expected verdict and the fallout from it, at KCMO Talk Radio, I made every effort to try and localize as best as we could.
On Wednesday morning, we had the first interview with the Kansas City Police Chief to react to the verdict and discuss how Kansas City handles its business to best avoid a similarly tragic situation. The Chief went on to discuss their policies and how they do their best regarding accountability and making sure any complaints from folks inside the department can come in anonymously to protect those men and women on the force who wish to be protected.
We’ve followed up conversations with the police chief by talking to local Kansas City pastors on what their conversations have been in their communities to try and build up relationships between law enforcement and civilians.
On top of that, we spoke with black Republican representatives in our state legislatures to understand their perspective and how they feel they can share a conservative-leaning message with folks who come from the same communities as them.
These are ways we worked to put a local spin on the heavy issue of race and policing that have dominated the news cycle this week from a national perspective.
I certainly believe the topic of, “What Derek Chauvin properly convicted?” is a worthy one to have, but it will undoubtedly get stale and could be any national call-in show in the country. Or, imagine pulling up your iTunes and searching the terms “Derek Chauvin”, “Dereuk Chauvin Trial”, “Derek Chauvin Verdict”. Your possibilities would be endless.
Instead, how do we as talk show hosts and programmers move the conversation forward and make sure there is a local flavor to this huge conversation that means something more to our audience that they can’t get from a podcast somewhere else in the country.
That’s how we can continue to stand out from the rest when there continues to be more audio options than there are people to consume this content.
Pete Mundo is a weekly columnist for Barrett Media, and the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. Previously, he was a fill-in host nationally on FOX News Radio and CBS Sports Radio, while anchoring for WFAN, WCBS News Radio 880, and Bloomberg Radio. Pete was also the sports and news director for Omni Media Group at K-1O1/Z-92 in Woodward, Oklahoma. He’s also the owner of the Big 12-focused digital media outlet Heartland College Sports. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
