Monday marked nine years of being on 77 WABC for morning host Sid Rosenberg. With that milestone came several high-profile guests, including Fox News and nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity.
I chose this interview for several reasons. First, Sid Rosenberg has built his brand on being a fire-breathing opinionist, not someone who asks deep, long-winded, well-thought-out questions. To his credit, Rosenberg sees a topic, formulates his opinion, and presents it to the audience.
Secondly, he hosts the show alone. While the name of the program is Sid and Friends in the Morning, it doesn’t necessarily follow the “and Company” format many other talk shows — whether it be sports or news — have adopted in recent years. It’s basically all-Sid all the time on the 77 WABC morning show, with some interaction between the host, producers, and news anchor thrown in sporadically.
So, listening to someone like Sid Rosenberg — who recently finished in 2nd place in the Barrett Media Top 20 Major Market Morning News Show category — was an intriguing prospect.
The interview with Sean Hannity began with Rosenberg stating that the Premiere Network host is on more than 200 stations. Hannity responded by asking what decade it was, because he’s on more than 750 stations. After sharing a chuckle, Hannity congratulated Rosenberg for his near-decade on the New York news/talk station.
Rosenberg then shared a story of a time when Hannity welcomed him to the nationally syndicated radio show, which the 77 WABC host believed helped legitimize him to a news/talk radio audience. That, essentially, opened the door for Hannity. He spoke for the next five minutes about how awful the city and state of New York have become, why he decided to move to Florida, and why he feels the area won’t return to prominence anytime soon.
As the discussion went back and forth between Hannity and Rosenberg about the failings of New York leaders, I was struck by something. Neither had asked the other a question. It was simply a discussion. And I’ve written before — and will continue to write for a long time — that I think one of the best forms of radio feels as if you’re eavesdropping on a conversation. And this is exhibit A of that.
The only real question that was asked by Rosenberg to Hannity was about whether or not the Fox News host had seen a politician work as quickly as newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump did since the pair were together in Washington D.C. last week.
“I’ve never seen anybody — anybody — operate and get things done as quickly as our guy Trump. Have you?” Rosenberg asked.
That, again, led Hannity to speak for several minutes. And that’s the biggest gripe I could have with the discussion. I don’t know that Sean Hannity is really “guilty” of anything. He hosts a national three-hour radio show each day by himself, so he’s used to opining for minutes at a time. But if I were a New York news/talk radio listener, I don’t know that I would want to hear about how awful everything in my life is for 20 minutes.
So, that would be the biggest thing I would point out from Rosenberg’s standpoint. Try to avoid letting the guest — despite it being one of the highest-profile guests you could get — speak uninterrupted for five minutes at a time. Especially when Rosenberg noted that Hannity could only be on the show for 10 minutes. Now, that ultimately led to a roughly 18-minute conversation, but I don’t know if the time from Hannity was especially maximized.
But, ultimately, I think it’s still good radio. Two friends chopping it up on a special occasion. It shows the reliability from Rosenberg and why he’s risen to such heights in recent years with the resurgence of 77 WABC. It’s another example of the difference between a hard-news interview and a talk show interview.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
