This week's All Access newsletter, whenever it hits e-mail boxes worldwide, deals with how you know it's, um, time:
For my next trick, I'll use Halloween candy as a way to get into a discussion of talk radio. Nothing up my sleeve... you'll note that this appears to be an ordinary e-mail, nothing unusual... and here we go.
We have a lot of candy left over from Halloween. A LOT of candy. We bought what we thought was enough for all the trick-or-treaters we'd get on Wednesday, we filled up a huge bowl (with more bags in reserve), and... the doorbell rang four times all night. Four times. And now, we have more Airheads and Sour Patch Kids and Sour Skittles than we'll ever be able to eat.
My first thought was that it's all over for the Halloween holiday. (Actually, my first thought was "At least we don't have to buy candy for next year," but just go with this for now) We've been getting fewer and fewer kids coming every year, and I've been reading articles lately about parents afraid to let their kids trick-or-treat in the neighborhood. So, naturally, I jumped to the conclusion that Halloween as we knew it is finished. And if I'd had to do a show on Thursday, I might have gone on the air and said just that.
But then I talked to a friend who lives in another L.A. neighborhood, and he said that he had a lot of kids come by Wednesday night. And he said that if he lived down the hill instead of up a steep incline, he'd have had even more. So Halloween's not dead after all. Or it is. Or... I don't know.
As a talk host or programmer, you want to have your finger on the pulse of the listening public. You want to know what's interesting to them, so you can talk about it for that all-important "relatability." But it's easy to misread the signs, and it's way too easy to take your own experience and think that it's universal with your audience, too. If you'd asked me on Wednesday night, I'd have sworn up and down that Halloween for kids is over. Ask me on Thursday and it was a different story.
But you're not going to be talking about Halloween. You have something far scarier to talk about: the election. I've heard people in talk radio insisting since early this spring that the listeners were deeply into the '08 election, that it was critical to talk about the election and the candidates and everything related to the horserace even almost two years before the big day. And others said no, people aren't into it yet, it's way too early, even now, a year before the election. Both sides were adamant about this, and both said that they knew they were right because they'd done the research. And many of the PDs I talk to were pretty convinced one way or another.
And then I saw a poll a few months ago that said, yes, everyone's quite involved in election stuff, and I wondered why nobody I knew was similarly afflicted. A few days ago, I saw another poll that said people are only "modestly" interested in the campaign -- barely over half the respondents said that they were following the campaign fairly or very closely. Which is it? Do you hammer away on the election or ignore it for now, or mix it up?
I don't know. I don't know about Halloween, I don't know about the election, I don't know about Sour Skittles. All I know is how I feel and how my friends feel. The general public? Who knows? But if I'm programming or producing or hosting a show, I'd sure want to find out.
How do you do that? One thing NOT to assume is that people who know you have that answer. Your friends and family are not representative of the general public. For one thing, they know you. They know you're "in the media." In the same manner that people will tell a pollster something that diverges from the actual truth, they'll tell you -- subconsciously or not -- what they think you'll want to hear, or what they think will impress the media professional radio star. And if non-friends-and-family types recognize you, they'll do the same thing. The chatter at the station is likewise suspect: you'll find a lot more news awareness at a talk radio station than, say, at the mall... which is one place to start if you want to hear what people are talking about. The best thing you can do is get out among the public and listen. Listen to the chatter at the Starbucks. Listen to the guys in the locker room at the gym. Eavesdrop at the fast food place, at the supermarket, at bars and clubs. Talk to the other parents at your kids' school (taking into account that they may know you as "the radio host"). See what's really on people's minds. Ask people what they think. Ask them what THEIR friends are saying. You're not going to know that if you stay home and watch the cable news channels and read political blogs and the papers.
For my part, I'm not known around where I live as "the radio guy." (I'm known as "the guy who's always home, so he must be unemployed") I've been trying to gauge interest in the election, and what I'm hearing (from non-radio people, at least) is that there's limited interest so far -- if you push someone, he or she will come up with a name or two, always Hillary, sometimes Rudy or Obama, that's about it. Unless you're in an early primary or caucus state like Iowa or New Hampshire, the election seems too far away. And you don't want to be spending an hour on whether Mike Huckabee's religious background will harm or help his candidacy when most of your audience will hear his name and think you're talking about that weird movie they went to see because the critics loved it but was just confusing and strange and not all that funny. But that's all extremely informal "research" by someone who doesn't need to do a show tomorrow. Your mileage may, and probably will, vary.
(And you also have to weigh listener's expectations. If you're Rush or Hannity or someone like that, your audience expects the election stuff. They're probably coming to you specifically for that. But if you usually talk about local stuff, or lifestyle stuff, that's when it becomes a risk)
All I'm saying here is that you can't assume anything about what's on your listener's minds. Appearances, and conventional wisdom, deceive. Try to get out of the house and studio and see for yourself.
Or you can just hire a consultant to tell you what to do. (Rates negotiable -- call today!)
And it's not like there's nothing else to talk about. Why, at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep column alone (slick segue), you'll find links and stories and items about why you can't listen to Justin Timberlake records while running a marathon, an offensive song about baggy pants, allegedly drunk and sleeping airplane pilots, an untrustworthy waitress, the tourist trade New York hopes you won't notice, idiot street racers, Dog the Bounty Hunter's career self-destruction, the hurricane season scorecard, a dead deer in the kitchen, why those huge new planes may not be your ticket to the Mile High Club, peanut-free baseball, foreclosure trouble, pop-up ads, a creative use of manscaping for illicit purposes, and many more, including "real news" like the wildfire aftermath and the Attorney General hearings and, yeah, the election (look, as long as we can still accurately say "candidate Dennis Kucinich," it's very, very early). You'll also find "10 Questions With..." Sirius OutQ morning host (and trade magazine refugee) Larry Flick and the rest of All Access with the industry's best/fastest/most complete news coverage, message boards, job listings, charts, ratings, all that stuff, all free.
By the way, keep in mind that even if people aren't in an election frame of mind today, all it takes is one big thing to hit the headlines and suddenly everyone will be paying attention. I'm thinking scandal here. Like that story circulating this week about (name deleted upon advice of counsel) and (name deleted upon advice of counsel) and how they (activity deleted upon advice of counsel) with a (kitchen implement deleted upon advice of counsel). Now, THAT would be interesting.
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