Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini. You know the story. Everyone does. But it’s not the story that’s most important — it’s what your show did with it. In the next three minutes, you’ll learn a lot about your RockTernative show or podcast.
At my other day job, I curate a content tool called The Drop for shows and brands I work with. Vrabel Gate has been orbiting my world since the 7th. For shows that create content stretching past the musical psychograph of a brand, this story was a gift. It has all the layers, mass relatability, and dozens of interesting ways to cover it.
You’ve likely heard consultants or PDs refer to The Topic Tree. Dianna Russini/Mike Vrabel is a champion oak among topic trees. That’s why it can serve as an X-ray for your show, and why PDs and group heads should be using this same exercise.
Let’s start with a word I’m guilty of overusing: “treatment.” By that, I mean — what’s the unique content treatment angle?
Outside of highly compelling personalities or shows propped up by an endless supply of cash giveaways, treatment is what separates the top tier from the mid-pack. Because there’s very little exclusive news out there. Everyone already knows the headlines. It’s what’s done with them that matters.
Once Page Six dropped the photos, every show knew about it by morning drive. The best producers and talent thought to themselves, “toss the rundown, forget yesterday’s prep meeting.”
This is when the game of treatment begins — it’s what separates the unique from the sound-alikes across the dial.
So, what did your show do with this story? How many different angles did your show use? At last check, from the jump through Russini’s resignation, I count over 20 interesting and different treatment options. The number of angles a show used isn’t the measuring stick — it’s how sticky the angles used actually were.
If your show mostly ducked it because “it’s sports,” “it’s sad,” “it’s tabloid stuff,” or because “everyone else is covering it,” maybe it’s time for a vision reset. It could also be a sign of a comfort zone that’s holding the show back.
No one has to celebrate the mess of a potential scandal, but the key is having relatability to what the audience is already talking about — and even opening their minds to things they haven’t considered yet.
More than a week later, we can look back and learn from this story — like Vrabel watching game film with his players. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that if you dropped in on market after market, many shows covered it the exact same way, with the exact same treatment:
- Read the details from Page Six
- Discuss or state personal observations
- (Lazy close out) Headline delivered, personal feelings stated, now let’s bail
But the first two are like kickoff — they’re the natural places to start, not where a show should stop. Not with a story this deep, widespread, and with multiple arcs. The third is where the game starts — where critical thinking finally shows up.
While there were many options — 20 or more — here are 10 easy examples of how a show could have started being unique at step three:
- Talk to listeners whose parents cheated — how did it affect them as kids?
- Should consequences be equal? Will this become a male vs. female sexism debate?
- If it’s really an affair, is her credibility really ruined? What matters more to the audience — the information or how it was obtained?
- If there’s no affair, should she have resigned?
- What’s the worst punishment: losing the job, her credibility, privacy, or trust at home?
- Even if innocent, is that public behavior acceptable for two married public figures?
- If the photos came from an investigator, who benefits most from hiring the PI and the photos leaking?
- If you run ESPN or Fox, is Dianna Russini more hirable now that she’s a household name — or less hirable and possibly toxic?
- Talk to listeners who were caught up in something that made them look very guilty, but they were innocent. What was it, and how did it play out?
- Book a private investigator to share wild stories of what they’ve uncovered.
Those treatment options shouldn’t shock you, and there were many more. What’s shocking is how often critical or deeper thinking doesn’t take place these days. Moments like these are when content shows can make their move — gaining ground on competitors or widening their lead — by avoiding the lazy, low-hanging fruit that shows across the street lean on daily.
It’s also what can actually cause someone to walk into work or post online asking, “Did you hear what Show X did with the Dianna Russini story this morning?”
Anyone can do steps one and two. Most everyone does — and then they stop.
But the real winners live for step three and beyond. Because that’s when the show starts sounding like theirs and not everyone else’s.
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Keith Cunningham is a music industry and Rock/Alternative columnist for Barrett Media and the founder of Black Box Group, a modern-modeled creative & strategic consultancy built for brands that need strategies with teeth. He’s the former Master of Mayhem at 95.5 KLOS-FM in Los Angeles for over a decade, a nationwide consultant, and has been repeatedly voted one of America’s top Program Directors and strategic thinkers. Keith has built his career by taking multi-million-dollar brands from worst to first and leading Marconi & Gracie award winners along the way. A data nerd with a rock-and-roll heart, he is an advisory council member for St. Jude fundraising, a fantasy football champion, and lover of his daughters & dogs. Reach him at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com or on LinkedIn or X.
