You can meet him at the crossroads of witty and insightful. Radio America’s Chad Benson is redefining what it means to be a talk radio host and it all started as a childhood dream.
“I love cartoon voices and radio. I did a lot of pretend radio shows when [I was] a kid,” said Benson. “Now, anybody can do radio stuff but back in our day you had to really hit play and record and pretend like you’re really doing a radio show. I just loved radio. It was awesome.”
Before his radio debut, Benson made a pitstop in the soccer arena. “I went to Europe and tried to play professionally, and I got into the lower divisions. But you know this is way back in the day when Americans weren’t anything. Then I got hurt, and I was like, ‘Where else can I wear shorts and a T-shirt to work?’ And I was like, ‘Radio!’”
Working from the bottom up, Benson started at a country radio station in Los Angeles on the production side. “Ultimately, I wanted to [get into] talk radio. But I also knew at 20-something nobody’s gonna listen to me, nor should they. At 20-something, you have no life experience. I was blessed enough to be in the business long enough to push it, and keep working and got the opportunity. [And now] I’ve never let it go.”
The former semi-pro soccer player said there is a major connection between music and talk radio which might be getting lost on today’s music stations.
“It’s still a one-on-one,” he shared. “So if you’re doing it right, you could be at home listening to a guy, and you don’t even know who this guy is, and he’s talking. But you feel like he’s having a conversation with you. When done right, that’s [how] radio brings you in.”
By his own style, no matter if it is music or talk radio, you can’t do one thing: be too “preachy.”
“We’re doing this all together. We’re having a good time and we’re having a conversation.”
He’s still a big believer in this style because, “In today’s world it’s all about the music, this, that, and the other, where I keep saying, ‘if you want music radio, if I ran a music radio station today, [it would be] all about the personality.’ Everybody can get the music anywhere they want. Come for the personality and stuff like that. The business itself, you’ve got to learn. It’s a great place to learn back in the day. Now, today is different, because you have podcasting, you have stuff available that you didn’t have back then and you got to remember when I came up, there wasn’t the podcasting world.”
The podcasting world is where many are getting their start today but more importantly, Benson believes it is also a good way to grow and expand your brand.
“I’ve got friends who only want to do podcasting now, and I have friends who never want to do podcasting. I want to do both. I think that’s the most important thing, because there are a lot of things I can’t say on the radio and I’m not talking about just sex or bad language.”
Benson went on to say, “There’s no commercial break. I didn’t have to be in and out at a certain time, because everything was timed perfectly. You can get deeper into certain things. You can hit a subject a little bit longer, do certain things where you just don’t get that opportunity in radio”
In fact, for those looking to follow in his footsteps, podcasting is where he suggests they start, “Start a podcast because the more you’re up to the microphone every single day, the more that you’re at bat, as they’d say in sports. The more that you’re doing this the better you’re going to be at it.”
Most importantly, stick with it. “So much of entertainment and all of this stuff is an act of attrition. I know a lot of really talented people that didn’t have the want to to stay with it for a long time, and a lot of people who were mildly talented, but were so hardworking and stuck around that they became a success.”
He added, “If you can sharpen your tools [in music] early on, because you’re learning to be witty or funny or get something out. That [helps you get] right to the point immediately, which talk radio a lot of times doesn’t do.”
His own map for success also includes keeping a social media presence. “The fact that I can — at any given time — hop on and do 30 minutes on something that happens later in the afternoon, or something that I didn’t [hit in the show], because I over prep, I can go on and hit them a little bit later. Have a little bit more fun. Some of them maybe aren’t so serious some of a little bit, [others are]. I love the fact that there’s another avenue for me to do that. If I can drive people to my podcast of my radio show in general and vice versa, then it’s a double win.”
No matter which technological avenue Benson appears on, he is a true believer of the Audio medium. “[It’s] still the great medium. Whether it’s podcasting or radio, it’s still there. People still go to it as much as anything else and they love it. So that’s been great.”
Another thing Benson believes in is his great Radio America team. “Mike (Paradiso) and Rich, who run Radio America, they’re incredible. I was in Palm Springs, working in some little station out there and through the great David Hall and Mike, they had a plan, and they finally let me in on the plan when I was like ‘I don’t know how much longer I can afford to be this broke’, and the opportunity came, and they syndicated me.
“They have worked with me from being relatively unknown and helping me just get to places. They’re like, ‘We look at you as kind of the future of radio. You’re fun. It’s not all about politics. You can see both sides. You have a good time and you talk a lot about life kids, the whole 9 yards.’ And they gave me a platform and just said, ‘Go do it.’ They’re amazing for that.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
