Radio is a unique profession. We sit in a small box speaking to ourselves — not unlike the urban camper mumbling to himself about brain amoebas and microwaves. We get paid to jabber the same way, and perhaps unsurprisingly, sobriety is a fixture of modern radio.
If you speak with the older radio people, you’ll hear plenty of stories about chemicals in the studio. Not everyone was snorting Hollywood sugar, smoking weed, or downing a few beers — but it was far more common than it is today. Corporate radio has made our profession considerably more buttoned up and sanitized.
I am not espousing the benefits of drunk or high radio, I promise.
But those intoxicated personalities of the past looked at the studio as a party job. Do you?
Put Down the Phone
We are locked in our studios, which are frequently very small, with a window to master control featuring a twentysomething who isn’t paying attention to your show — he’s buried in his phone.
While we’re on the topic, can we ban cell phones from the studio? Hosts and producers are so worried about missing a social media post, a text, a sext, or watching their DraftKings account. Let the studio be about radio.
A news/talk studio should have at least one monitor up showing Fox News, Newsmax, NewsNation, CNN, or MS NOW. If there’s breaking news, that’s sort of our jam. Beyond your cell, plenty of other screens compete for your attention. Most hosts bring their own laptop or tablet into the studio, and then there’s the studio computer.
Many of those, by the way, are not the latest and greatest. The producer has the automation computer, an audio editing computer, and a phone screening computer as well. Technology can swallow our attention whole. We, though, have a show to do. Technological overstimulation can easily squelch our focus on hosting an entertaining radio show — much like intoxicants hindered radio shows in an era gone by.
Stay Focused on the Speaker
So you’re in this box with a microphone and a minimum of four computer screens. That’s modern radio. On top of that, your company has a focus on social media. You’re likely responsible for a minimum number of posts spread across X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms. These posts are expected to be engaging presentations that solidify your influencer status.
To be fair, most radio people are not particularly good on camera. Most of us — including me — have less than Instagram-model looks. Perhaps you’re pudgy like I am, with a poor sense of fashion. Yet here we are, on camera.
There are plenty of radio people who chose this career path because they didn’t want to be on TV. Those days are gone. We are now multimedia personalities. The TV people are now voicing podcasts, so radio people aren’t alone in that. TV people are a different breed, though. Spend time with a local TV anchor and they will automatically describe viewers as people who have invited them into their living room. I personally find that an egotistical assessment of their own importance.
Speaking of TV people, a local anchor in my market was recently charged with suspected drunk driving. Remember, radio people — you are public figures. If you’re out with your crew and having a few beverages, take an Uber home. It’s far easier than waking up in the county jail sharing a cell with a domestic abuser named Darwin. I’ve visited jail as a radio stunt, but not as an inmate. I plan to keep that streak alive.
Distraction is a constant in our lives. In news/talk radio, we must be focused on breaking news as well as our own shows. With content being delivered across so many platforms now, it’s hard to keep focused on what’s coming out of the speaker. Nielsen data says the majority of consumers of our product are driving — and that’s the number that matters. If we’re not thinking speaker-first, we are leaving cash on the table.
As our industry navigates economic headwinds driven by revenue challenges and corporate debt, the speaker remains where the revenue is on a radio station. Monetizing video is a huge problem. Podcast revenue has its own challenges. While radio companies can sell a wide variety of advertising products, radio stations are still the biggest revenue producer — and the biggest expense. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Stay focused on providing listener-focused experiences.
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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.
