I have been beachcombing the last couple of months and listening to a lot of news talk radio. I am hearing a lot of really talented hosts who are mostly hitting the biggest topics of the day in the nation or their community. Crew, I am hearing a huge weakness. This is happening in major, middle and small markets. It is the reset. I can’t scream loud enough about the importance of this key to radio success.
If the flawed PPM has taught us one thing, listeners are turning you on at any moment of your hour. For whatever reason, hosts seemingly believe that listeners are there from the beginning of the hour. It doesn’t work in that way. Consultant Walter Sabo preached this fact years before PPM. So, you need to reset your topic with every question to a guest or between calls.
Like this, “Tax Attorney Joe Blow on 77 WABC on the Sid & Friends Show.” Repeat that with every question to the guest. This keeps everyone in the conversation. If you were at The Waffle House having an awesome All-Star Breakfast with someone and a friend comes up in the middle of your conversation, would you introduce your friend to the person having breakfast with you? Would you include your friend to the conversation? Of course, you would. Why don’t you do that on your show?
I was listening to a great afternoon show recently. I started at 9 minutes after the hour. No reset up to the break. The host barely sold forward and didn’t reintroduce the guest in the next segment. This was so poorly executed. The host just ruined an amazing guest segment. The host’s questions were short and pointed. The guest knew the subject. When you turn on your favorite music station, the station is playing a song you don’t like, but you know that it is about over. You will stay for the next song. If a listener doesn’t understand what is going on, they will leave. Too many options.
On some PPM Stations, I am not hearing the reset at all. The radio stations are playing to the panel only. While I understand that maximizing the PPM participants is essential, I also know that strong branding is ignored too often. I have a Powerade in front of me. No Vodka added, ok I added up how many times that Powerade is on the bottle. It says Powerade 5 times. That is a visual reminder that you are drinking Powerade. Music radio stations play a liner or have a jock between every record. If you are not saying your name and your station’s name every couple of minutes, you are doing a disservice to the station.
We all think that people know what they are listening to. If you are in a diary market, ask your PD to show you Nielsen Data. You will find that diary keepers almost never mention the host’s name and normally identify the dial position more often than call letters or station name. If a good diary keeper is listening to your station, why make it tough for them to give you credit. Diary markets are essentially married to recall. You must use these facts. Your station may have 6 tune-ins per week. In PPM, we know that people are tuning in over twice that figure. So, all the more reason that there must be a unified mission for resetting the topic, guest, you, and the station.
A note for Board Operators and Producers, you need to keep your host on task on resetting. Hosting a show is a difficult thing to do. There are calls, guests, and topics to juggle. Some hosts need to be reminded to follow the fundamentals of the reset. Every Board Operator or Producer is a gatekeeper for the host. Your heroics of managing the host’s ego and insecurities are essential. I will also tell you that I have seen bad Producers and Board Operators hurt a show. Every Program Director has had a host at one time or another lean into a Producer or Board Operator that did not have good intentions or understanding of the format for the show. A PD will try to manage this, but sometimes hosts will defend to the death someone who does not have their best interests in mind. Producers and Board Operators, you are basically the Program Director of that show. You need to keep the station’s mission at the forefront of your skull.
News Talk Radio needs to focus on inviting more to the party. It is about expansion not exclusion. We must make our shows easier to digest and follow. The reset is a key to your show’s success or station’s success. If you follow human behavior, we like to be tribal. We want to congregate with those who think, look, or feel like we do. It is natural for humans to believe that they are a special group. This is a historical weakness of humanity that goes back to the first civilization. I am not saying to water down your opinions, observations, or feelings. We must look for ways to include all listeners. The secret sauce to News Talk radio is speaking for the people. Are you a host that is speaking for the people? Are you speaking for their concerns, fears, and hopes? I often think that we need to focus on the people first. It’s not about the powerful and it is about the powerless. Don’t cater to the elected officials. Cater to the people. Resetting the topics, guests, show and station allow you to grow the platform. This is our mission.
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.
