Plenty of news/talk radio listeners — whether they listen to hosts like Vince Coglianese, Larry O’Connor, Anthony Cumia, or any other show — think the host just sits down and fires from the hip when the mic turns on.
Obviously, there’s more to it than that.
But what goes into show prep for these nationally syndicated and local radio hosts? We recently sat down to discuss the topic with these three top show hosts and geit their insight on the subject.
“It’s never-ending,” Coglianese, who hosts the nationally syndicated VINCE for Westwood One, admitted of his show prep routine. “What did Rush (Limbaugh) say about show prep? Life is show prep. It’s all consumed. So, every second of the day — whether it’s consuming media on my phone, or on television, on radio, or it’s kind of taking a mental note of a personal experience I’m having and how it can translate to the audience interest — It is a never-ending experience.”
Anthony Cumia — who hosts a nationally syndicated weekend show for Red Apple Audio Networks, which originates from 77 WABC — said he takes a drastically different approach to preparing for his program.
“Social media is just huge when it comes to show prep now,” said Cumia. “I don’t know anyone that watches mainstream media anymore. I remember ‘back in the olden days’, you’d pick up your (New York) Daily News, New York Post, and Wall Street Journal and paw through the newspaper. Whereas now, with social media, those top stories, you can scroll and see what the real top stories that people are talking about on any given day are.”
He added that the advent of social media makes it “so much easier to prepare” today than previously.
“I print out the top stories, write a few notes on them, because I don’t like scripting myself,” said Cumia. “I don’t like writing a monologue. And I know what I’m going to say about this story, add a couple of bullet points, and then I just roll on it.”
For 105.9 WMAL host Larry O’Connor, he also hosts a digital video show for TownHall. That means he needs to decide what works for radio and what is a better option for his digital video show. And the freedom that is offered with that digital show allows him to open a story a little bit more, so to speak.
Doing a morning show means that we have a pretty strict clock: shorter segments, lots of topics, traffic and weather every 10 minutes, news breaks at the top and bottom. It’s your typical clock. Which means the longest I get on a topic without taking a break is about eight minutes,” O’Connor said. “When I start my live stream at noon for my Town Hall show, I usually go for about an hour. It averages about an hour and 15 minutes without a break.
“I can take as long as I want,” continued O’Connor. “I aim for about 20 minutes per topic of just me monologuing or interacting with videos and audio on a topic. Sometimes I’ll do an interview, but usually it’s just me. So it definitely exercises a muscle to be able to talk about a topic for as long as I want without a break, building the story arc and the narrative. It’s been good for me. It’s allowed me to sort of open up the way a story is presented”
Vince Coglianese has a similar situation with his podcast with Silverloch Media and Rumble. He still tries to prioritize his radio audience with content specficially curated for that medium. He believes its the difference between a good show and a great show.
“I think that in order to succeed in radio, you should put a lot of work into it and try and make the best possible product you can,” Coglianese said. “And that means constantly thinking about the ways you can utilize your life and the things you’re consuming to enhance the product.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
