Talk show hosts are genetically predisposed to talk a lot. If you are a practitioner, speaking for 40 minutes an hour is no problem. Hosts love their own voice, and that is really important. Most talk show hosts are terrible listeners—just not very good at it.
I am not speaking for you, but I bet that I am.
Of your show’s regular guests, how many of them are unnecessary? How many guests are there for reasons other than great radio? Ok, let’s talk about interview skills…
One question at a time. I cannot tell you how many amazing hosts cannot ask one question at a time. Many times I have listened to hosts who ask one question with a follow-up included at the same time. Hell’s bells, I once heard a host ask a two-minute-long question with a yes-or-no answer. When I hosted a daily show, I was guilty of this from time to time. I’ll explain my guest rules later in the column.
One question. Most hosts are absolutely in the moment and just want to get everything in. Here is the truth: you will never get everything in an interview because of time restraints.
Is the guest necessary? If you are hosting the show, you are the expert. You are the bartender making the drink. Looking at benchmarked guests, some are amazing, but most just suck. Once a month on the Joe Blow Show, we interview an expert from the Cato Institute. The world could be staring down a 20-mile-wide meteor that will create a mass extinction event, and Joe Blow will never cancel that guest.
I have had hosts argue with me over the years about how terrific some guest is and that listeners are begging to hear that expert. Here is the fact: most people will never ever miss that lame benchmarked guest. Now, if it is important for Joe Blow, do this as a podcast only. I guarantee that the podcast numbers will be mediocre.
Always trust your program director on a few things. They are listening just wanting you to win. If there is a lame segment, the PD will tell you. Listen—they are right.
Now, some of these guests are awesome. On my stations, one show interviews two separate guests weekly who are truly engaging. They spar, joke, enrage each other, and it is always good radio. This is truly appointment radio. When was the last time you had a guest make fun of a position on your show? When was the last time you told a guest that they were making no sense?
If the guest is unable to roll with the punches and is just there to plug their stuff, it is likely time to move on.
Publicists make money from you. When a publicist books a guest on your show, they get a check. It’s just the truth. Is this a guest that you can book on your own? If the publicist is making money, why isn’t your station? If you are making money on the side from booking a guest, that is probably going to get you fired.
Here is my rule for publicists: never EVER book a local guest from a publicist. I had a morning show book a local doctor who had some revolutionary knee surgery procedure. Probably not a topic for a talk show, but it was booked through a publicist.
I pulled the morning show host and producer in after the show and asked them if they were going to write the station a $2,000 check. They said no. Then I told them that if this doctor wants to promote his amazing surgery, he should buy advertising. Interviewing that local expert just cost the company money.
Be careful. If you can make a couple of calls to get a guest on your show, don’t be lazy. Do it.
Here are my guest rules. Does the guest make the show better? Remember, the biggest lie that you can ever tell is the one you tell the human in the mirror. I had a boss who was big into writing down good and bad reasons in separate columns. His advice, which I still use, is to read back the good and bad reasons and evaluate them.
Is the guest timely? Your station has a mission.
Does the guest address the biggest topic of the moment—Topic A, if you will? Is the guest entertaining? If the guest is not compelling or the interactions with the host are not amazing, it is time to move along. It is probably not good for your show.
When people listen to your station or show, they come with certain expectations. If that sweet meteor of death is careening toward our demise, you better be discussing it. I have heard hosts put more stock in a regular guest than in breaking news. That is wrong. The biggest story is more important than any guest unless it is the President of the United States, the Pope, or Sydney Sweeney.
If you are getting guests like this, I can accept the argument that the guest is super important. The pencil-neck from the think tank or the state representative is never truly that important in a listener-focused show.
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Peter Thiele is a weekly news/talk radio columnist for Barrett Media, and an experienced news/talk radio programmer. He currently serves as News/Talk Format Captain for Zimmer Communications. Prior to joining Zimmer, Peter held programming positions in New York City, San Francisco, Des Moines, 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.
