There’s a never-ending pregame show for the State of the Union. I swear that news talk radio will spend the next two days focusing on President Trump’s first State of the Union of his second presidency.
I am girding my loins for a pregame show that is longer than the Super Bowl broadcast for a 90-minute speech that is little more than a campaign rally. We have all done it. Yes, your station should be carrying the speech. Oh, the postgame of the speech on Wednesday and Thursday will be insanely long as well.
So, how should news/talk radio handle this? I have three ideas on how to do just that.
Don’t Get Granular
So many hosts get into every little thing without thinking about being listener-focused. Perhaps there will be some magnificent drama where the speech will be torn up by the Speaker of the House or a senator will yell out, “liar!” in the middle of the presentation.
Talk about the big stories. Because of the plethora of choices, there are many options to avoid watching the speech. Now, most P1 news talk listeners will probably be watching the speech.
Here is the conundrum: your show’s P2 and P3 listeners just want to know the themes of the speech.
Don’t Take the Day Off From Show Prep
There is a big temptation to be lazy. This is easy content and very well may not be Topic A for today and later this week. Don’t give in. Show prep like you normally do for a show without an event like this. I think that you should actually prep harder.
On these occasions, I often hear hosts give similar takes without building an actual topic. Building that topic around something in the speech could work… But, if there is an actual story that is Topic A, do it!
Be Honest About the State of the Union Speech
If you have a reaction to the speech, don’t just give information like you are a news anchor. Opinion and personal observations are essential to make this a big moment. Even if you are a big fan of the president, if there is a moment that you didn’t like or agree with, tell the truth.
Is the pregame of the State of the Union speech water-cooler talk? No! Go out to eat for breakfast or lunch today and listen to the conversations. Most people will be discussing work problems, creepy kids, traffic, etc. Are you even boring the P1 listeners with a never-ending pregame?
Postgame may have some water-cooler talk. If there is something significant in the State of the Union, it will be discussed. As news/talk radio struggles with younger demographics, the State of the Union will be prime viewing for the 65-plus crowd, along with Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
Ask the people in your office — salespeople, the digital folk, administrative team members — whether they will be watching the State of the Union. I am guessing that most under the age of 65 will not be watching the speech unless they are politics or current events people in the programming department. Always follow Topic A: the biggest story is the biggest story.
I am not saying to ignore the State of the Union.
We should all be focused on the biggest story, and that could be the State of the Union, but more than likely, there will be something else. There are so many things going on that a single 90-minute speech that is basically a campaign rally with booing should not dominate 48 hours’ worth of your station’s programming.
One of Donald Trump’s skills is that he has figured out how to dominate the news cycle in a way that presidents before him have never done. I think that it is a fair discussion about how much we take the bait as a format. Trump has figured out how to get people frothing-at-the-mouth angry while simultaneously getting people to cheer.
The rapid-fire avalanche of news and discussion can really overtake what we do. Very early in my career, there were days when you couldn’t find easy things to discuss on a show. It took imagination and creativity to build an hour of news/talk radio. Trump feeds us so much content and is always on the offense. It is so easy just to cover President Trump. There is just more to life than Donald Trump.
Be listener-focused. I can’t remember the name of the reporter from one of the big TV news networks. She was discussing that there was no time off if you covered the White House with Donald Trump. You could wake up to a social media post that demanded coverage. She said that the Biden administration was predictable and rarely broke into the weekend with a fresh news story.
Trump seemingly creates news 24/7. Don’t be overwhelmed by the information. Be focused on your station’s target demographic before anything else.
As a format, we don’t want to be considered the Trump station. You may love what the president is doing, but don’t be that one-trick pony. Your listeners are busy and just want to be entertained.
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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.
