Put yourself in a listener-focused mindset. If you are a news anchor, talk radio show host, or producer, you must be thinking about your audience first.
I have heard more than one radio performer say that their show is important for their listeners. It probably is. But how are your ratings? Are the listeners getting older and the numbers dwindling?
If you tell me that ratings don’t matter, it’s revenue. How are your revenue numbers? Have you asked your market manager? Are you meeting your target demographic where they are?
When Walter Sabo was consulting stations, he didn’t want to have lunch with the market manager, program director, or operations manager at some fine restaurant. Walter wanted to go to the food court of the local mall.
There were a couple of reasons. The only place that served the delicacy “bourbon chicken” was at the food court. The other reason is that the food court actually had busy people doing things. People in the food court are real. If you go to a fancy eatery that brags about handmade cocktails and burgers, you are around a few foodies but not seeing the great unwashed. The food court is perhaps the only part of your local mall that is still doing great business in 2025.
To think strategically about our ratings and revenue growth, we must stop theoretically trying to retool what worked in 2005 and seriously evaluate everything we do. I am not a rocket scientist, but if we are just doing what we did 20 years ago, we are in huge trouble as a format and a medium.
News/talk stations have some built-in advantages over music radio. We are hopefully speaking with the people. When I refer to the people, I am not talking about some pinhead from a think tank or a locally elected official. We are at our best when speaking to listeners. Your listeners want entertainment.
Music stations have a huge mountain to climb. I use Amazon Music. I have 800 songs on my playlist that I love listening to. There is no music station programmed for me personally, and for decades, music stations programmed into their listeners’ skulls that more music and less talk is an actual benefit.
Well, the content comes from the radio personalities, not from the music. Your news/talk station or show has the potential to relate to your audience in real life. News/talk has so many advantages over other platforms. Now, are you actually using those advantages?
Because of Reddit, social media, and other information destinations, we can run deep on practically any interest. That can be great and quite rewarding. The limitation of going down the rabbit hole is that there is very little interaction, and the ability to ask questions or debate a particular subject is somewhat limited.
We have all received or written a text/email where the intended recipient read it out of context. There is no natural inflection. Nuance cannot easily be expressed. Well, you, the news/talk radio host, can express the shades of gray or wrinkles in a news story. Callers can add to the conversation with details that have not been expressed or question a point that the host made so an idea can be clarified.
Talk radio, in many ways, was the first social media platform. I was speaking with a friend of mine, and she read something from a fairly well-known commentator. She wanted to know what I thought of the story. My answer was that I didn’t know the information presented and needed to research it more closely. Talk radio hosts can break through the noise. A lot of blog writers will do whatever they can to get more clicks and likes. The currency of the internet is all centered on clicks and likes. There are many “hot takes” on current events. I am all for it, but hosts should always realize that having a hot but inaccurate take is problematic for their brand. If you are a hot-take host, you must be able to totally back it up.
As I have referred to previously, humor is a currency that many hosts have almost zero ability to execute properly. Your credibility is more important than gold. If your audience cannot depend on you to deliver on your show’s unique selling proposition, you are in trouble.
Speaking of that: what is your show’s unique selling proposition? If you have never adopted this strategy, ask a favorite account executive or sales manager to explain how your company helps local businesses develop their unique selling proposition. It is a solid exercise to make sure your show or station’s brand is delivering on its strongest attributes.
When is the last time you enjoyed bourbon chicken at the food court? Have you noticed that your friendly neighborhood Chinese restaurant does not serve bourbon chicken? I love Chinese cuisine. I am an amply proportioned gentleman and I love all types of ethnic foods. I went to an Ethiopian place a while back and just loved it. I believe I was the only person who looked like me there for lunch that day. Be that host or station that meets and exceeds the expectations of your listeners — the real, food-court-listeners — every day. Pick up some bourbon chicken as well.
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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.
primarily the bourbon chicken.
EXactly… Bourbon Chicken is awesome.