There are many sins that talk radio hosts commit. You are an artist. There are a million things happening at any given moment. Here is my list of the worst.
Soft Opening a Show or Segment
When you crack open that microphone, you must come out swinging. Your audience doesn’t want happy meaningless chatter, they demand to be entertained.
A talk show host asked me for some feedback a while ago. He spent the first two minutes talking about his weekend. He and his wife went out to dinner with friends and had a great time. Whoop dee doo.
No one cares unless something tragic or unique occurs. I am all about getting personal on the air, but it has to be more than I had a nice weekend. Your audience demands to be entertained. You have been given that microphone. Use it for something remarkable.
These amazing people have given you precious moments in their day. Don’t waste their time. Don’t waste the time of your employer. You are paid to perform a listener-focused experience that could make the moment, the day, or perhaps a memory of a lifetime for your audience. Don’t ruin your chance.
Hosts That Obviously Have Not Prepped a Show
Folks, prepping for a show is more than watching an hour of Fox News and checking headlines. One of the greatest problems for music jocks, when they move to news/talk, is knowing how to prep. A DJ is there to highlight the music. The DJ is not the main attraction.
When a DJ moves to news/talk, they must adapt to that reality, often they can only crush it for 20 seconds six times an hour. I know many people who have made the adjustment, but it is hours of commitment every day. I believe that this axiom is truer than ever: two hours of show prep for every hour on the air. It’s reading, writing, listening, and watching everything. Don’t fake it.
Everyone knows if you are just phoning it in. If you are playing lots of soundbites and filling the show with interview after interview, you are probably unprepared.
If you want to be the best that you can be, don’t shortchange the show prep.
Producers or Sidekicks That Don’t Add Anything
It is all about content. It is all about making listener-focused moments for your audience.
If you have a sidekick and/or producer who is an on-air character, they must add to the show. If someone has a quick ability to spout a funny or sarcastic quip, encourage that. And if they are cracking a mic, these people better interject something memorable.
I love cinnamon toothpaste. Give your sidekick or producer the right to go after you. If you allow them on the air, create some drama. If you have a sidekick just agreeing with you, that is boring as hell.
The sidekick should shut their piehole if that is all they add to the discussion.
Highlighting a Past Segment/Hour/Show is Pure Evil
Go forward. The movement needs to be there to grab your listener for another five minutes.
If you are referring to the segment earlier, it’s useless unless you are promoting your podcast. “If you missed President Trump, the entire unedited interview will be on the Wxxxradio.com podcast page.” That is the only way that you could promote something from earlier in the show.
The most important thing is to maximize the time spent listening. Your listeners are there now. Snatch their mind and create a listener-focused experience every moment.
Promote ahead. Always.
Meaningless Benchmarks
During the legislative session, you have an expert from the Capitol on the show every Tuesday morning at 6:40. It is a useless crutch. You do a stupid news segment at the same time every week. I am not saying that the stupid news segment is a bad idea. I am saying that benchmarking it for a specific time does not give you higher ratings and quite possibly could hurt listenership.
A news/talk station is built around the biggest stories in your community, state, nation, and world. Don’t ever abuse the trust between you and your audience.
Ignoring the Biggest Story
I have heard talk show hosts ignoring the biggest story of the moment. If there is a car chase zipping across your town or a cell phone outage, make sure that you are at least discussing it.
You may need to cancel your guests to pay attention to the breaking news of the moment. Don’t pass this opportunity up. If there is a huge event, your show will likely be gaining new listeners. These big events are more important than a marketing campaign. These casual or first-time listeners need to know you are that human who is there for this exact moment. Don’t drop the ball.
If you follow these tidbits, you will make huge strides at having a listener-focused radio show. It is about the listeners. It is never about you. Nor is it about the guest. Never forget that truth.
Peter Thiele is a weekly news/talk radio columnist for Barrett Media, and an experienced news/talk radio programmer. He recently served as program director for WHO/KXNO in Des Moines, IA. Prior to that role he held programming positions in New York City, San Francisco, Little Rock, Greenville, Hunstville, and Joplin. Peter has also worked as a host, account executive and producer in Minneapolis, and San Antonio. He can be found on Twitter at @PeterThiele.
