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Rep. Mike Rogers gets a radio show

Small Market Guy said:
Remember some of these other threads where I said major syndicated hosts would be culled from non-radio people such as politicians? Here's another one.

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...ike-rogers-to-retire-from-congress-will-host-

Not a podcaster, either.

I give it a year, max.
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From the article:
[He will] "play a leading role" across the company's talk radio platforms, including CUMULUS MEDIA, WESTWOODONE and RDIO.

A guy who has ZERO radio experience is expected to play a "leading role" across their talkradio platforms? A "leading role"? Oy vey.

Yet another example of how radio executives seem to be clueless about radio.
 
We'll see what happens when he tries to tell Savage what to say. Or any of the other hosts.

This reads like a contract thing, not a real authority thing.
 
Small Market Guy said:
"Leading role" = lots of promotion. At the expense of radio people.
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How do you know that? Once again, I can't imagine Savage or any of the other hosts are going to let this new guy take money away from their budgets. And if you're good at what you do, and your show is established, you don't need any new promotion.

The question is what do audiences want from conservative talk radio? Do they want a bunch of people saying the same thing, or do they want a guy who brings inside experience about strategy and issues beyond what everyone else is already saying. I think Huckabee brought an interesting mix of views to the table and wasn't a screamer at a time when talk radio needed a level head. My view is this guy is a replacement for Huckabee. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
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Small Market Guy said:
"Leading role" = lots of promotion. At the expense of radio people.
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I assume you're referring to "promotion" as in "advertising to encourage listeners to tune in". If that's the case, promotion is always needed. No business enterprise, including talk radio shows, are so secure that they can just sit back and coast. As long as there is competition, you need to keep promoting just to maintain. And, such promotion, even if done by a ringer from outside the industry will help more radio people than it hurts.

On the other hand, if you're referring to a "promotion" as in "raised to a higher level job position", one of the first thing anyone who works in broadcasting needs to learn is that you can teach anyone to handle the backstage, behind-the-scenes aspects of the business, but those with the most experience usually always do it better than novices and rookies. But when it comes to on-air talent, that's a commodity that is "on loan from God" (as someone once said). In most fields or show business there's a lot of skills that need to be nurtured and developed, but even more important is pure, raw talent. You'll generally have more success taking someone with boatloads of raw talent and working with them to develop that talent than with taking someone with loads of training and experience who simply doesn't have that special and elusive talent that only some people are lucky enough to be born with.

Of course, for the people who have the training and experience, who see themselves as having paid their dues and who've earned the top job, but who weren't gifted with the intangibles that separate the stars from the background extras, that reality sucks.
 
"Promotion" doesn't necessarily mean spending more money. It could mean telling the sales staff to focus on selling the new show over old stuff. Or affiliate relations pushing the new one over old stuff.

And on air talent isn't "on loan from god". It's developed, trained, and honed. Rush has been doing radio for 40 years. That's why he's good.
 
Small Market Guy said:
"Promotion" doesn't necessarily mean spending more money.
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We need to go back to the words in the press release, which is "leading role." Playing a leading role could mean things like hopefully changing the tenor of the talk from where it is right now. Someone has to take a leading role here because the successful guys have too much to lose by changing the direction.
 
TheBigA said:
We need to go back to the words in the press release, which is "leading role." Playing a leading role could mean things like hopefully changing the tenor of the talk from where it is right now. Someone has to take a leading role here because the successful guys have too much to lose by changing the direction.
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Yeah, just what we need. More non-radio people telling radio people how to do their shows. I'm sure that'll really work.
 
Small Market Guy said:
Yeah, just what we need. More non-radio people telling radio people how to do their shows. I'm sure that'll really work.
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Radio always benefits from new ideas, wherever they come from. Right now, talk is really stuck in the mud. Not that I'm saying this guy is the savior. But radio needs to keep an open mind. And if it doesn't work, there's always another audition tape. It's better to have tried and failed than not to try at all.
 
TheBigA said:
Radio always benefits from new ideas, wherever they come from. Right now, talk is really stuck in the mud. Not that I'm saying this guy is the savior. But radio needs to keep an open mind. And if it doesn't work, there's always another audition tape. It's better to have tried and failed than not to try at all.
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Unless, of course, someone suggests loosening up tight music format playlists. Then radio needs to keep a closed mind, right?
 
Avid Listener said:
Unless, of course, someone suggests loosening up tight music format playlists. Then radio needs to keep a closed mind, right?
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I said it's better to have tried and failed. In the case of loosening playlists, every time it's been tried, it's failed. And I'm sure people will keep trying, and it will keep failing. Radio people would LOVE big playlists, but they keep failing. So once bitten, twice shy.

The thread here is talk. Talk has no direction except to the right. It's the ultimate tight playlist. One message over and over. And it's been very successful for over 20 years. I'm sure anyone who goes against that grain will fail. Quite a few already have. But someone needs to try something else. If Mike Rogers gets too cerebral, he becomes Fred Thompson. Too much the other direction, and he could be radio's Jerry Springer. That could work. At least Huckabee played the guitar.
 
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There's more than one way to look at this. Yes, radio experience is important but it can be learned. The question is, are they hiring this guy because he's interesting, entertaining and will be able to keep up the pace three hours a day -- or because he has a name, or might be independently wealthy and willing to work cheap because it gives him a national platform?

Rush, Hannity, et al, are quick to criticize anyone who they say, "never held a job" running for political office. I'll turn it around: how can they talk about politics three hours a day when they've never held political office? Eh, Sean?

Rogers might be good, especially since he knows politics from the inside, but only IF he has the innate qualities it takes to do radio and can get up to speed fast enough to make a good first impression.

However, here's an example of hiring based on celebrity, not talent. In the NYC market, rimshot station WNYM 970 AM recently hired former Saturday Night Live cast member Joe Piscopo. Piscopo's career peaked three decades ago and he's stuck in that era. He's totally self absorbed and has no discernible sense of humor, yet there he is hosting the morning show. The show is salvaged somewhat only by the producer, Frank Morano, who occasionally has a chance to throw in something relevant or funny. Morano hosted the morning show for a few days after the former host left and did an excellent job. Ironically he had Piscopo on as a guest which is how he met management and got his foot in the door. Morano has the talent -- Piscopo has the name. Management was wowed by celebrity.
 
wadio said:
Morano has the talent -- Piscopo has the name. Management was wowed by celebrity.
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Or perhaps the audience is wowed by celebrity. Same thing happened to Curtis Sliwa 20 years ago.

And it's not always just celebrity, but familiarity. When you look at the NY media landscape, it's filled with long-time veterans. On radio and TV.
 
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TheBigA said:
I said it's better to have tried and failed. In the case of loosening playlists, every time it's been tried, it's failed. And I'm sure people will keep trying, and it will keep failing. Radio people would LOVE big playlists, but they keep failing. So once bitten, twice shy.

The thread here is talk. Talk has no direction except to the right. It's the ultimate tight playlist. One message over and over. And it's been very successful for over 20 years. I'm sure anyone who goes against that grain will fail. Quite a few already have. But someone needs to try something else. If Mike Rogers gets too cerebral, he becomes Fred Thompson. Too much the other direction, and he could be radio's Jerry Springer. That could work. At least Huckabee played the guitar.
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And every time what you think talk should be has been tried it failed.

Also, radio's Jerry Springer was Jerry Springer. Who actually had a decent show. It failed.
 
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