Can a Talk host be unbiased anymore on a national show?

[jas2525]

The mistake is in thinking that a host who is not some extreme ideologue is one who lacks passion.

You can have varied opinions, conservative to liberal, depending on the issue, and still be passionate about whatever postion you hold on the subject at hand. You would describe someone who thinks that way as being moderate---which is unfortunately a word that too many people associate with passionless.

Let's be honest: How many people do you know in real life who are as completely one-sided as those on talkradio? It couldn't be more out-of-sync with the public at large. I know, I know, that's not who they're targeting. Well, the chickens, demographically speaking, will soon come home to roost...and will punish those stations that decided appealing to the fringe was where their future was.

Sadly, if you're a reasonable person who wants spirited and entertaining dialogue, talkradio is a disaster. So many times I'd love to hear something interesting, yet all we get is one extreme distorted version of subject matter vs. the other. It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest.

 

[Holland Cooke]

If you're a reasonable person who wants spirited and entertaining dialogue, talkradio is a disaster. So many times I'd love to hear something interesting, yet all we get is one extreme distorted version of subject matter vs. the other. It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest.

And that has more-than-a-little-to-do with how popular Public Radio has become.

That, and how big companies have gutted local news.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

If you're a reasonable person who wants spirited and entertaining dialogue, talkradio is a disaster. So many times I'd love to hear something interesting, yet all we get is one extreme distorted version of subject matter vs. the other. It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest.

And that has more-than-a-little-to-do with how popular Public Radio has become. That, and how big companies have gutted local news.

Looking for untainted, honest TV/Radio dialogue? Surf for re-runs of The Brady Bunch or Lassie.

 

[jas2525]

If you're a reasonable person who wants spirited and entertaining dialogue, talkradio is a disaster. So many times I'd love to hear something interesting, yet all we get is one extreme distorted version of subject matter vs. the other. It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest.

And that has more-than-a-little-to-do with how popular Public Radio has become. That, and how big companies have gutted local news.

Looking for untainted, honest TV/Radio dialogue? Surf for re-runs of The Brady Bunch or Lassie.

That's the exact misguided attitude that I was referring to.

Predictable = BORING. If you're entertained by todays partisan talkradio, you're not, shall we say, the sharpest knife in the drawer.

And no, talkradio doesn't have to be high-brow, but it needs to be real and honest, and passionate. And you don;t need an ideologue vomiting out the same BS everyday to accomplish that.

 

[wadio]

And that has more-than-a-little-to-do with how popular Public Radio has become.

Oh please! NPR is "soft sell" ... that's the only difference. When NPR starts making the case for entitlement reform, smaller government, personal responsibility, etc. on a regular basis, donations will dry up like a prune on a sunny beach. To quote jas2525, "It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest."

 

[Holland Cooke]

RE "Oh please! NPR is 'soft sell.'"

And THAT'S a big part of its appeal, as we hear in focus groups. It's respite from what-we-hear-called "the mud-wrestling" on AM radio, which, increasingly, listeners marginalize as a caricature. SEE how ratings are eroding, as Talk Radio's "big stars" slump-into low single-digits?

But velocity-of-content is less-the-issue than volume-of-content.
Commercial radio has been gutted. The content-making conveyor belt is all-but-halted.
IF YOU LISTEN to Public Radio, you'll hear more "stuff" there.

To quote jas2525, "It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest."

That's something else we're hearing...about commercial radio.

Full disclosure: I WAS LATE TO THIS PARTY.
I picked-up on Public Radio when:
a) PPM began showing us its audience, more-clearly than diaries; and
b) listening-to-listeners, I observed the migration.

My whack-on-the-side-of-the-head moment was getting-dragged-off to "An Evening with Ira Glass," whom I'd never heard of before sitting in that sold-out theater. First 10 minutes of the show was performed in the dark...VERY COOL, it seemed, since radio is about sound. When the lights came up, and Glass got a second ovation, the diverse audience (demographically EVERYONE) embraced this Woody Allen-esque character (http://thisamericanlife.org).

And, after commercial radio automation/syndication/voicetracking has killed-off the farm team, a 20-ish woman in the audience was first-up during Q+A, asking Glass "How can I get into radio?"

Second whack-on-the-side-of-the-head: 'Can't name names, but I did a project last year for a Public Radio station, top 20 market. What-I-walked-into was a-bigger-station-staff-than the 35 people I managed at WTOP in the 80s, and a facility AS NICE as WTOP's recent make-over. See THAT lately at any station owned by a-big-company-that-begins-with "C?"

Looking for untainted, honest TV/Radio dialogue? Surf for re-runs of The Brady Bunch

MERE MENTION THEREOF warrants us all taking-a-moment here, to pause the sniping, and fondly remember the Boomer generation's Justin Bieber, Monkee Davy Jones, gone-too-soon at 66.

As an aging longtime long-ago AM radio Top 40 DJ, may I begin?

CONDOLENCES TO 50-to-60-YEAR-OLD TEENAGE GIRLS, whose long-ago, longtime heart throb was still making audiences smile, appearing several times in February.

But it was a long-ago February night, February 9, 1964, when the Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, when much of America got its first peek at Jones, who also appeared that night, among other "Oliver" Broadway cast members. He played The Artful Dodger.

HOW TIMES CHANGE: in 1965, NBC quickly assembled a band to knock-off/serialize the zany fun we'd seen The Beatles having on the big screen in "A Hard Day's Night." Back then, The Monkees were derided as "The Pre-Fab Four." Now, we applaud unknowns on "American Idol," TV's top show.

Though their TV show only aired for 2 seasons -- killed-off even-quicker than NBC canceled schedule-mate "Star Trek" -- "The Monkees" was precursor to MTV music videos to follow. ABC News reports that "The Brady Bunch" episode in-which Jones played himself is the most-re-run series TV episode EVER.

The Monkees sold 65 million records. CBS News reports that, in 1967, The Monkees sold more albums than The Beatles and Rolling Stones COMBINED (and that was the year Sgt. Peppers came out).

Jones & company made AM radio sound...happy. Seems quaint now, eh?

From New York Times: "Perhaps Mr. Jones’s most enduring legacy takes the form of a name. The name belongs to another English musician, who burst on the scene some years after the Monkees. This man, too, had been born David Jones. But thanks to the Monkees’ renown, he knew he would have to adopt another name entirely if he was to have the hope of a career. So he called himself David Bowie."

RIP Davy Jones.

Now, back to the-topic-at-hand, before an trigger-happy young Moderator scolds me...again.

HC
www.HollandCooke.com

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Oh please! NPR is "soft sell" ... that's the only difference. When NPR starts making the case for entitlement reform, smaller government, personal responsibility, etc. on a regular basis, donations will dry up like a prune on a sunny beach. To quote jas2525, "It's predictable and boring...and worse yet, dishonest."

Similarly, if NPR were advocating for single-payer healthcare, or pacifying Iran, or mortgage reform, donations would dry up. NPR's listeners don't want to be preached to -- if they did, they'd be listening to the format previously known as "News/Talk" or Pacifica.

Now, I'm not going to try to say that NPR doesn't have its organizational biases. If the chairman of the Republican party were to criticize NPR for covering the current election season too much and "trying to marginalize the candidates," or being too kind to the administration on "Solyndra" I couldn't disagree.

 

[wadio]

And THAT'S a big part of its appeal, as we hear in focus groups.

Oh PLEASE!!!! Good grief, Holland, get a grip!

Apple is a company with a net worth bigger than many countries. Why? Because Steve Jobs refused to use focus groups! Instead he built an empire by giving people things they didn't know they wanted! Focus groups can only react to what's presented to them. They have no idea what's possible ... they have no vision.

Whack you upside the head #1:

You may have loved Ira Glass in a darkened theater but have you ever listened to his radio show? It's a "parade of victims" showcasing people who have made a lifetime of bad choices and who Glass believes the rest of us should bail out. Look, I'm not against programs that help people who genuinely need it, but "This American Life" seems to celebrate drug users and others who have taken unfortunate paths in life.

 

[Holland Cooke]

RE "Oh PLEASE!!!! Good grief, Holland, get a grip!"

Another stimulus-response moment.
What a surprise.

Cheer-up, willya?
Here, I'll (TRY to) help:
http://youtu.be/vOXWKvf9mU8

PS: Yesterday, when, for-the-second-time-in-two-weeks, much of commercial radio no-showed the passing of a music icon, PUBLIC RADIO ran-with the Davy Jones story: http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-cult...too-late-for-radio-to-come-back-from-the-dead

 

[borderblaster]

At least this time it happened during business hours

 

[markwooldridge]

Can a talk host be unbiased? Yes.

On a national radio show? Yes.

But there are caveats:

1) the host won't be expressing much of their opinion,
2) there will be many more guests and callers into the show.

Best international radio example I can give is the BBC's "World Have Your Say" program. Basically it is a phone-in show about a specific topic, and the host juggles different viewpoints from different people and doesn't express their own opinion much, if at all.