As the New Year marches on, it can be a great time to get out of the day-to-day radio grind of just planning your next show and think about how you want your show to change or be different in 2024.
And one of the questions that I’ve been asked by multiple fellow hosts in recent weeks is about guests. “What is the right amount of guests for a show?” “How many guests do you try to book per show?”
My answer has been a simple one: As many as your listeners care about.
In one show, that could be 3-5, in another show it could be zero. There’s no right answer to this question.
However, the “guest for the sake of having a guest” notion has to come to an end. I know for many it has, but it does seem like it still lingers in the minds of radio hosts and producers, at least to some degree.
If you’re hosting a solo show, it can be intimidating to try and figure out how to handle a daily three to four-hour program with only your voice. But be leery of booking a guest, just because you want to fill a segment.
Like many of you, I get inundated with email pitches from agencies looking to book their latest and greatest guests. Hint: Most stink. And while they might be convenient to book, it doesn’t mean they’re worth your audience’s time.
In today’s world, our audiences are more valuable than ever, and just as important, they have more options than are imaginable. If you’re boring them with an interview that you forced onto them to give yourself a perceived “break”, not only can they flip the dial, they can move to a podcast, audiobook, YouTube, or even stream another radio station in another city. And there’s no guarantee they will ever come back.
The listener currently holds all the cards, because the supply of content has crossed the threshold of demand for content (just think about how many podcasts currently exist with under 10 downloads!).
Some might long for the days when they were the only game in town. The only place to listen to news/talk, the only place to hear the latest sports talk, or the only place for the Top 40 hits.
But that’s a world that many of us now in the industry never experienced. I’ve never worked in a media landscape that didn’t have intense competition beyond radio and CDs. Streaming a station is now decades old and podcasting just turned 20 years old. It’s not the way of the future, it’s the way of the present, and it’s been the way of the past for a long time now.
But it’s nothing to fear… If you like to compete and challenge yourself, then embrace the competition rather than long for the days when there was less. Iron sharpens iron and as you think about your listener sitting in their car or listening in their home office, ask yourself if you would listen to the guest you’re considering. If the answer is yes, then ask yourself why. If you can’t answer those questions quickly, then move on.
Make sure you’re only booking guests who bring value to your show that day. They’re topical, entertaining, informative, and interesting.
And lastly, when you book them, don’t feel the need to keep them until the end of the segment. If they’ve said all that they need to say, and all that brings your audience the information needed, drop them and move on. Opine on the topic, segue organic to another one, but don’t force the listener to fit your radio needs of reaching a commercial break.
Thinking about the guest booking process through the ears of the listener will help weed out what really moves the needle. The rest is just filler.
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.
