The news cycle remains on absolute fire this month. President Trump is moving a mile a minute, there have been multiple plane crashes, and overseas conflicts persist. However, that doesn’t include many stories happening in your individual markets. New television data from Nielsen that dropped this week should also be a sign of good things to come on the news/talk radio side as well.
Overall, television viewership was up 5% from December to January. And while sports events — led by the NFL Playoffs — dominated, news programs were up 15% on broadcast television and jumped 26% on cable from December.
Now, like everything else, there’s nuance to interpreting the data. It doesn’t mean you can take a local show and make it straight national, but you can take the national stories and do your best to localize it while still covering all the goings in your backyard.
But many will look to you and your station to keep up on everything happening in the world at a time when the news cycle is nearly impossible to keep up with. Picking and choosing how to navigate a time when you could cover more stories than you have time for is a balancing act that all hosts have to feel their way through.
But if there are two things to take advantage of right now: 1) Don’t waste the listener’s time and get right to your point/opinion/story. Your show and station will have new cume coming in, and people will be sampling and giving you a shot to inform and entertain them. And let’s be honest, we all have more competition than ever before from other stations, podcasts, YouTube shows, and more.
Every show, every segment, and every piece of imaging can be viewed as an audition for a potential new listener. One new listener will breed more because of the power of local radio that still remains today, despite the death knell so many have tried to project on the industry. Word of mouth remains a potent marketing tool in cities and communities nationwide. The opportunity to meet you in a restaurant or bump into you in a grocery store remains an advantage for local news/talk radio in the marketplace.
Along with not wasting your listeners’ time, there’s another critical point to think about during this boom and demand for news: 2) Figuring out the best way to have fun. Everything doesn’t need to be serious or the most important thing to ever happen in the world. You’ll become the boy who cried wolf. Serious topics can have lighter angles with plenty of fun attached to them.
Go on YouTube and watch old Don Imus shows. Sure, plenty of it was serious, but there was a lot of fun on that show. Rush Limbaugh was at his best when he was having fun and sharing his sense of humor with his audience. Our format often forgets that. And no, that doesn’t mean you have to be a stand-up comedian. But a turn of phrase that’s clever, a funny line in a story, poking fun at a politician when discussing a broader topic should not be lost on any host in the news/talk radio format today.
We aren’t passing legislation or changing the world. Run for office if you want to do that. We’re providing entertainment for people through the prism of the news of the day.
We’ve got more ears and eyeballs than we’ve had in quite some time. Let’s take advantage, not waste anyone’s time, and have fun doing it. You’ll be rewarded.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
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.
