The crown jewel for the News Talk format has often been considered Presidential election years for obvious reasons. The entire country is captivated by a Presidential race. It has turned into a sporting event.
While some may be persuadable either way, most people have their teams, and the fall of a Presidential election year is like a 12-round heavy-weight boxing match. There are twists and turns, good rounds and bad rounds, all leading up to Election Day.
And while the format undoubtedly will have the most attention on itself during these years, there’s something to be said for a Midterm cycle being even more fascinating for local news talk.
During presidential years, that race overshadows everything else happening. If we use the music radio comparison, “playing the hits” is the name of the game, and while you may have the most-compelling Senate, House, or county commission race your region has seen in years, it’s all second fiddle to the Presidential race.
Granted, as we have learned over the last two-and-a-half years, often who runs our state legislature, county commission, and school board can play a much bigger role in our day-to-day lives and freedoms, but it doesn’t matter. People become infatuated with the executive branch, and it’s our job to give them what they want when they want it.
However, with all that being said, the midterm cycle doesn’t have the Presidential race overshadowing it. Therefore it allows News Talk to shine, as the bigger, local races become the headline stories.
Folks in Missouri are caring deeply about their U.S. Senate primary coming up on Tuesday, August 2nd, but they don’t generally care about the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race. Pennsylvanians aren’t all that concerned or interested in the Georgia U.S. Senate race. And that’s how Georgians feel about the Arizona race. And on and on we go.
It’s local. It’s engaging. And it allows the format to stand out.
During Presidential cycles, you can tune into any News Talk show in America, and depending on what segment you happen to stumble upon; it will be more difficult to decipher whether you’re listening to a local or national show.
However, during a midterm year, differentiating local vs. national should be much easier.
And while we’re looking at Midterm cycles, the News Talk audience is super engaged during a cycle when the right-of-center audience is extra motivated to gain back power, which is exactly the cycle we find ourselves in right now.
The Democrats have the Presidency, the House, and the Senate. And as midterms generally tend to go, the party in power ends up losing to some degree.
The last time Republicans had a cycle like this was 2010. Barack Obama was in his first term with majorities in both chambers of Congress. That led to the Tea Party movement and a massive 2010 red wave.
While it remains to be seen what 2022 is going to bring (although it’s also looking like a wave election year), this is the kind of cycle News Talkers have typically only enjoyed once every 10-15 years.
1994 was the wave against President Clinton. Then the aforementioned 2010. And now we’re looking at similar trends in 2022.
How is your station taking advantage? How are you branding what your local hosts are doing around syndicated dayparts? Will the audience, regardless of their tune in time, know your station is the place to be as we hit the home stretch of what many in the audience believe will be a very promising year?
All these questions should be asked as we move through the summer, out of primary season, and into the fall general elections. Midterms are more local and more fun. So take advantage and ride the wave because we might not get another one like this for 10-15 years.
