The historic news cycle of 2024 continued this week for talk radio hosts with the near assassination of former President and GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Stations across the country went into Breaking News coverage on Saturday evening and covered the first shooting of a current or former President in 43 years. There’s been updated news to cover every day since on what breakdowns happened within the Secret Service, communication, or lack thereof, with local law enforcement, and more.
But there’s also been a Monday Morning Quarterbacking within some parts of media in discussing how to improve the political discourse across America. To be clear, no one is to blame other than the shooter, but tragic situations can always be used to self-reflect.
As local talk radio stations, our format will continue to lean right and should be driven by fact-based strong opinions. However, how can you further the discussion across all political viewpoints?
In today’s climate, it’s harder than ever to get Democrats on talk radio that isn’t NPR. Admittedly, many Republicans won’t talk to their local NPR affiliate. A “team” mentality has permeated media, which has been largely driven by the rancor that is unavoidable on social media.
There’s no doubt that politicians are wise to avoid some media, but there are also many in politics who aren’t strong enough in their convictions to handle pressing interviews, don’t feel they need to do them, and are told by their handlers and consultants that they can only do more harm than good to protect their political futures.
However, the more we do in the local markets, the better for our listeners, our community, and our country.
Every Thursday morning on KCMO Talk Radio, I interview Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. He’s a staunch Democrat helping Joe Biden’s campaign with tour stops around the country. We disagree on most policy issues, but we’ve done weekly segments on KCMO since COVID-19 hit in the spring of 2020.
I asked him about the political discourse in the country this week. His answer will warm the hearts of long-time radio listeners, “When we were growing up, the Imus in the Morning Radio Show, which re-aired here in Kansas City for a while, which I listened to it, and my mom, when we’re driving to school, because you could get political commentary from both sides. You could get Joe Lieberman, you had John McCain, you could get much more conservative and much more liberal people, but you had that interchange of ideas.”
Given that many in broadcasting would love to have the success of the late Don Imus, is there a blueprint from the Imus days worth reconsidering?
Some might suggest we live in a different climate, where people have so many news and entertainment options, they’ll just listen to hosts and guests who they agree with 99% of the time.
But you’ll have an audience if you can successfully put together smart, informative guests, and not always those who are ideologically pure to your beliefs. Plus, a few things will happen: 1) You create interesting conversation. 2) You become a better interviewer. 3) You open yourself up to other guests that you might not be able to get on the show by leveraging the relationships you’ve built with your current stable of guests.
I’ll leave you with the conversation that happened this week on The Daily Show between Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart. Regardless of where you fall ideologically, it was a fast-paced, funny, and pithy conversation between two men who see the world from incredibly different perspectives. It’s the fastest 13 minutes you’ll watch this week.
The more conversations we have, whether on cable news, network news, or local radio, the better, more entertaining, and more beneficial our conversations can be in America. And none of this involves compromising your values.
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.
