What Makes Great Talk Radio

[smedge2006]

Since this always seems to deteriorate into a political discussion, I decided to come up with a few characteristics of good talk radio that can be used as a yardstick regardless of ideology.

1. Interaction. What differentiated talk radio from media before it was the interactivity. It was originally called "two-way" talk radio, a way of saying it was something different from sermons, lectures and interview shows. The turning over of the microphone to the people is a key component. Therefore, a host should have the skill to interact well with callers... AND to bring out the best in less than good callers. A good host deals with bad callers and makes them entertain. He is sharp on his points and can tear apart a caller who isn't... WITHOUT using the mute key. I do not believe that skill with callers constitutes wielding the mute and dump buttons to conduct long and unanswered monologues over a caller. The input from the peanut gallery is the difference between talk radio and the rest of mass media. A good host not only makes callers part of the show... he shares the spotlight with callers. He makes them characters, personalities of theie own. Unfortunately, the best example of this on a national level isn't anyone in political talk radio... it's Jim Rome, at least the Rome of the 90's and early '00s.

2. Risk Neil Rogers came out of the closet in a bad time and place. It was 1977 and Anita Bryant was conducting a gay jihad in Miami. Taking that risk began the process that made him a South Florida institution. Rogers, Howard Stern and others defied the FCC over indecency. Others battled with sponsors or powerful people who just didn't want them to be heard. I'm not calling for hosts to go to battle with the feds, especially since satellite radio has made that fight pointless. But listeners respond to a host doing something dangerous. Comfortably reciting talking points makes no connection with the audience. A contrarian host that goes against the predominant view in his community also qualifies. A conservative in Boston, yes. A liberal in Boston, no. A conservative in Memphis, no. A liberal in Memphis (if there were such a thing on radio), yes.

3. Passion As differentiated from anger, and here is the difference to me: Anger is what might come out if you were explaining your worldview to an indifferent radio audience or a crowd at a bar. Passion is how you would explain it to your girlfriend/wife.

A good to great talk radio host gets the most out of interaction, does dangerous things (and I'm not talking about morning-show stunts), and is passionate as opposed to angry. He may not be trying to rouse you to pitchforks or terrify you. But he needs you to understand him, as desperately as lovers need to be understood by each other. Opinions?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Your heart is in the right place, my friend. I hope this topic can 'grow some feet' and we can take a great ride with it.

Inventing something new out of whole cloth is always hard to do. How many times have we been in business situations where the challenge was to create a whole new concept, a "new paradigm" is the oft used word... but it is difficult for most humans to visualize something brand new. We bring with us old traditions and insist that the new, creative vision must protect the following parts of what is old and what we are trying to replace.

I like your interaction point. Two way talk was to replace and go beyond sermons and lectures. Good comparison. And yet talk radio today has become the sermon and lecture of today. I hope people who participate here can help us find ways to restore and retain the difference. I suggest that maybe you err in lumping "interview shows" with the other two. On Sunday morning, I tune in interview shows on network TV. During the week I tune in interviews on C-SPAN. Isn't good talk radio a creative form of an interview show where the audience becomes a participant in the interview?

Yes, Talk Radio needs to have a game plan and a certain amount of stomach for risk, but when I read how you define risk, I get the idea that you would make talk radio a risk simply looking for a cause. So how is that different than the clusterxxxx we have for talk radio today? Are you saying you approve of Howard Sterns risk but do not approve of Rush's risk? Be a liberal or be a conservative just to be contrarian? Look around your community and see what is missing... and become that just for the sake of being controversial? I can't vote for that as a pillar of "Great Talk Radio".

Go back to the drawing board on number 3. I don't want my Talk Radio program to be a surrogate for my wife or my girlfriend. Talk Radio should be an intellectual thing. Having either passion or anger has no assurance there will be any intellect involved in the transaction.

Virtually all talk radio today is trying to discuss politics. It can be said that politics today is all passion and anger.... totally devoid of significant traces even of intellect. If we were to ask NAB or someone to set up a board or an advisory group who would give encouragement and advice to bring improvement to talk radio, how would they write a standard that helps talkers and listeners understand where passion stops and anger begins?

Let the discussion begin! continue!

 

[MR. JAROME_CALVIN]

Good topic, and I will give you some examples. You all can listen to their radio shows on your free time via their Archives

What makes a great radio talk show?

-"America Tonight with Kate Delaney" Genesis Communications Network. Look up by "Genesis Communications" (On top look up "Schedules" and on the top left, choose which day. on Google. She is on Monday-Thursday Midnight-4am Eastern (LIVE)
-"Good Day with Doug Stephan" also with Genesis Communications Weekdays 4am-10am Eastern
"Redding News Review" also with Genesis Communications Weekdays 4pm-7pm, and Sundays 7pm-10pm all Eastern time on LIVE
"Free Talk Live" Genesis Communications Every night 7pm-10pm Eastern Time It's on LIVE. Genesis Communications
-Saturdays 3pm-5pm "Angelique Allen Show" Genesis Communications
-"Baldwin McCullough Show" Saturdays 9pm-11pm On LIVE Genesis Communications
-"Amerika Now" Saturdays 11pm-2am On LIVE Genesis Communications
-"Michael Smerconish" weekdays Noon-3pm Dial-Global.com
-and locally in Boston (BIG City 101.3) I know it's a Pirate radio station, but weekdays in the 8am hour, they have some great topics.


These are what makes a great Radio Talk show.
Besides Politics and President's (all Presidents) Besides Politics and President bashing, all of these shows have many different topics


Hope you all enjoy?

 

[ProducerGuy]

Simply doing a political show that's contrary to the predominant political bent of the community isn't "risk", it's suicide. It never works.

You want risk? Try doing a talk format that isn't politics or sports. It's worked in the past, and can work again.

You also forgot one HUGE thing that every host needs. A SENSE OF HUMOR. Even political shows need humor. It's why Rush stands above the rest of the crowd. While not as humorous as he once was, he at least tries from time to time.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

You also forgot one HUGE thing that every host needs. A SENSE OF HUMOR. Even political shows need humor. It's why Rush stands above the rest of the crowd. While not as humorous as he once was, he at least tries from time to time.

Yes, we seem to like personalities that somehow seem like a nice set of slippers. Humor is usually a part of a nice personality. A good personality makes himself/herself the target of some of the humor.

Now here is the evolution of Rush and his show through the years. He started out with the qualities I just listed. Through the years "his compass has been recalibrated" and maybe part of that naturally happens when a personality grows from the unknown to "the 800 pound gorilla in the room". I've never had the privilege of making that transition so I speak as an observer, not an expert.

I don't listen to him much, but I don't hear him playing the role of the humble servant in any of his humor now adays.

Here is what I try to get my ultra-conservative friends to understand: The political statements that Rush makes today are stronger, tougher, more partisan than in earlier years. That is NOT what makes him a un-favorite with many of us. His use of humor has changed. He not only uses less of it, but his humor when thrown in is far more likely to upset people than are his political opinions.

A good political discussion is a fair fight. It has to happen in a society that chooses to be a "self government" project.

Gaudy, hurtful humor based on things that are not accepted facts is about as appealing as the aroma of an old-fashioned out-house behind a country church.

So. What makes Great Talk Radio? The absence of nasty smelling humor helps.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

^^^ -- Goat, you nailed it about Rush. Til reading Reply #4, I thought I was the only radio listener in the world familiar with his then-more humorous style, and even conciliatory treatment of dissenting callers. My own recollections of Rush's show date back to the '80s; his star was just starting to rise, springboarding from his local gig on NYC's 770 WABC.

The prospect of Rush-to-the-rescue may sound laughable to some, but the Rush of old could ironically fashion the model for a much needed quality-upgrade of Talk Radio. Whatever, I think most of us would agree that on-air partisan temper-tantrum-ing has damaged Talk Radio, whether on Rush, Ed, Hannity, Savage or Joey Maggs. Yet another NYC-based talker, Bob Grant used to make my skin crawl. His rigid ideology didn't bother me since it often, though not always, paralleled my own. What troubled me was his penchant for humiliating callers, some of them espousing views as conservative as his. He just sounded sadistic.

If I wanted to hear the runaway raving of angry old men, I could have satisfied my appetitie watching video theatrics on the 6 o'clock news, seeing Congress and the executive branch swapping blame for the gridlock in DC, dialogue similar to the head-butting filiblustering of today. Yes, "theatrics"; good theatre makes for good talk radio, but only when it's hosts leave the mud-slinging to the President, the House and the Senate, and all the other salty pugilistic players along the I-95 corridor.

 

[MR. JAROME_CALVIN]

Another great one "Flow of Wisdom." It just started yesterday (Sunday March 10, 2013) from Genesis Communications. I wish their shows was on in Boston.
Genesis Communications has such (great programs-look above at my previous responce above from last week)
So far, "Flow of Wisdom" sounds ok. I'm listenning to their (archive). Because as I said, they are not on here in Boston.
Your thoughts on their programs, if you had a chance to listen to them. Do you all like it or not?

 

[N1WVQ]

I find Genesis' programs to be mainly to sell the gold of Midas Resources or whatever the name of the parent of GCN is. That being said, a lot of shows are aimed to the conspiracy crowd so I'm glad they're not on around Providence & Boston. As for a show that I'm liking of late, Overnight America via Dial Global. That show is funny!

 

[ProducerGuy]

I don't know about Genesis being used mainly to sell gold, but a list of "great" shows that is almost exclusively Genesis programs is awfully suspect.

 

[MR. JAROME_CALVIN]

I find Genesis' programs to be mainly to sell the gold of Midas Resources or whatever the name of the parent of GCN is. That being said, a lot of shows are aimed to the conspiracy crowd so I'm glad they're not on around Providence & Boston. As for a show that I'm liking of late, Overnight America via Dial Global. That show is funny!

Thank you all for your reply. I also liked "Overnight America" when it was recently on "Newstalk 96.9" now called "HOT 96.9"

 

[FreddyE1977]

Simply doing a political show that's contrary to the predominant political bent of the community isn't "risk", it's suicide. It never works.

What makes you say that? A number of conservative hosts have done well here in Pittsburgh for
many years. As did Lynn Cullen, a Liberal host with a loyal following for many years (until her
station switched formats).

The area I would say leans Socially Conservative/Economically Liberal Democrat.

Unless you're talking Nazis or Anarchists or something, which would fall
into the "shock jock" category.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Simply doing a political show that's contrary to the predominant political bent of the community isn't "risk", it's suicide. It never works.

What makes you say that? A number of conservative hosts have done well here in Pittsburgh for many years. As did Lynn Cullen, a Liberal host with a loyal following for many years (until her station switched formats). The area I would say leans Socially Conservative/Economically Liberal Democrat. Unless you're talking Nazis or Anarchists or something, which would fallinto the "shock jock" category.

I'm with Freddy on this one, though I would add one more criteria for success: ETIQUITTE. Common submission to civility and respect could serve to boost ratings for any "Talk" format, regardless of its home ideology. On a different thread I've cited the example of Alan Colmes' old radio show on WNBC AM. That 1980's show was delightful and captivating. Why? Because for Colmes, it didn't matter if callers agreed or disagreed-- he always honored them with respect. True, sometimes things turned hostile, but only when the caller broke protocol by getting nasty.

 

[boombox]

What makes for great talk radio?

To me it's a couple of things, the first one (in my view) being that the host needs to actually have an opinion, and express it.

I've heard some shows (usually not big syndicated ones) where the host seems so equivocal that it's just flat out boring. Non-compelling radio doesn't make for interesting listening -- at least for me.

The second one is actually having callers, and talking with them. That's one thing that bothered me a lot of the shows that are popular. One hour and no callers. And these are big shows with big audiences. Or, if there is a caller, they either completely agree with the host, or they're shouted down.

Where's the dialogue? Some of these shows present as much actual dialogue as your average infomercial.

 

[N1WVQ]

I half-agree with ya, Boombox although I find most callers don't add much to the show so the host being on for an hour straight doesn't bother me, unless said host is also boring!

 

[scott salvatori]

the best hosts often give the audience what it wants, before the audience knows what it wants. huh? what im sayin is those big names, and large broadcasting companies who over analyze and over think markets, age groups, bead music, show topics, male, female, etc tend to get/create overly manufactured hosts. yep, id rather watch corn grow, than listen to mr talk star, patter with his mid 20 year old cutesy female min wage/producer/intern, while going into a break with some college student hipster trendy rock music, in a contrived effort to connect with some demographic young urban market. the best talk hosts are the ones who do it their way, by heart, and often not open to corporate manipulations from bean counter suits in the glass building. they start from one small/med market station, and they get better from experience and grow their talent, audience and ratings side by side with parent broadcast corporation profits. ya, im talkin savage, jones, and bell.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Sometimes I drive by a car dealership and right out front is a yellow car. Somewhere between hamburger mustard and school bus yellow. Why on the worst day of my life would I paint a car yellow at the factory. And before the day is over I see someone in traffic, proudly driving a yellow car!

What is a compelling host? What is a compelling guest?

I am a sucker for tuning in C-SPAN because so often in the evening or during the day on the weekend, they will be interviewing the author of a book. One day it was someone who had written about The Battle of Pea Ridge from the Civil War. How many times have I driven past the entrance to Pea Ridge Battle Park at 3 A.M. in the morning taking the kids to see their grandparents. It turned out to be a COMPELLING hour for me. For people who have no attachment to Arkansas or no attachment to Civil War history.... b-o-r-i-n-g-!!!!

To play the "Big Boy Game" like Rush and Hannity and others, you have to focus on what is compelling to a large group... which turns out to be the very worst turn-off for a lot of other people. But compelling to enough to make it financially a winner.

But once you have had an hour... or two... or three of Rush, do you need another 8 to 12 hours of the same thing?

What is sad is the really "gut bucket" level of talk that ends up on some of the 2nd and 3rd tier stations trying to do talk. If you can't get Rush on your station... maybe you ought to try the author of Pea Ridge and the author I heard recently who has researched the political views and realities of the Founding Fathers during the period when they composed our Declaration of Independence, and then a bit later they did the masterpiece we call The Constitution. Then there was the author who wrote about the founding of New Orleans. That was a book full of surprises.

There is room for styles that are different than "Big Boy Game" radio... but it is apparently being kept secret from people who own and operate struggling radio stations.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

the best hosts often give the audience what it wants, before the audience knows what it wants. huh? what im sayin is those big names, and large broadcasting companies who over analyze and over think markets, age groups, bead music, show topics, male, female, etc tend to get/create overly manufactured hosts. yep, id rather watch corn grow, than listen to mr talk star, patter with his mid 20 year old cutesy female min wage/producer/intern, while going into a break with some college student hipster trendy rock music, in a contrived effort to connect with some demographic young urban market. the best talk hosts are the ones who do it their way, by heart, and often not open to corporate manipulations from bean counter suits in the glass building. they start from one small/med market station, and they get better from experience and grow their talent, audience and ratings side by side with parent broadcast corporation profits. ya, im talkin savage, jones, and bell.

And don't forget Frasier.