Picking Up The Pieces

Some of you are going to be reading this column next week, after Tuesday, and if they've invented time travel by then, could you come on back to Friday and let me know if we survived? Because it's hard to tell as of this writing, what with the rhetoric and stress and stuff. It's been an interesting show.

Another thing I'd like to know is what talk radio's going to look like a year, two years, five years from now. I've been incessantly talking about that in this column for ages, repeatedly reminding you that your "now what?" moment would come soon after the election and you'd better have an idea as to what you're going to do once the races are over. But I should clarify: I fully expect that there will continue to be political talk radio for the foreseeable future, in a form recognizable to those of us here in the pre-Tuesday age, and that, albeit with an audience that will continue to age into the unsalable demographics, it will find enough of an audience to survive. That doesn't mean that there aren't some additional problems you'll have to address.

So many of you -- hosts and stations -- went whole hog into supporting one candidate or another, or opposing a candidate, that you're going to be identified that way in listeners' minds for a long time. You're the Trump Guy. Or the Hillary Supporter. Or the #NeverTrump one. Or the Gary Johnson Alepponian. Or the Bernie Bro. You've branded yourself. Because the rhetoric in this campaign got dirtier and more personal than ever -- and after the last several elections, that took some doing -- you, by choosing sides, will carry that baggage around, and people on the other side(s) will not see you as a viable option for their entertainment and information needs anymore. Unless you're spectacularly entertaining, you will no longer get the Rush or Stern effect of people who hate you still listening because they want to hear what you say next. Nope, not this time. Hillary fans think Trump hosts are idiots and evil. Trump supporters think anyone who didn't support their savior are traitors. Anyone who didn't like either candidate tuned out the moment you chose one. The polarization of the electorate is also the polarization of talk radio, and it not only split between party lines, it split the parties themselves, too, not just Hillary-Bernie and Trump-NeverTrump but even Trump-#NeverTrump-TrumpOnlyBecauseHe'sNotHillary.

The job you'll have in post-Tuesday world, should you plow ahead with traditional political talk, is figuring out how to heal some of those divisions, at least on your "own side." If you were vehemently pro-Trump, you need to figure out how to bring back the #NeverTrump folks, because they used to be part of your constituency and they probably detest you at the moment. Clinton-leaning hosts still have to get the Bernie Sanders-Jill Stein people back in the fold even if they think you're on the war-mongering Wall Street-appeasing establishment side. The audience is not just fragmented, but divided into fragments that, at present, hate each other with a passion. That's the kind of election this is. I warned you about picking a side other than the side of protecting and promoting your listeners' interests, but you didn't listen, so the audience is going to need some reassembling.

How do you do that? Like I said, no matter who wins (hey, time traveler, who DID win? Because I can be in Vegas in a few hours, if you know what I mean), you're always best served, on every level, national, state or province, local, by identifying not as a Republican or Democrat or Libertarian, not as a fan of any particular politician (really, how CAN you be a fan of a politician in 2016?), but as someone who, issue by issue, identifies what's best for the listeners and advocates for that, no matter who's in office. If you were, say, a Trump supporter and he wins, you have to hold him to as high a standard and as strictly to his campaign promises as you would have held Clinton if she won. And vice versa. And that goes double for state and local politicians. It's actually very much like how the candidates run for office, a form of populism that doesn't require lying or false promises or pandering. Your listeners want something done about problems they directly face, and you can be the conduit through which they make that known.

And you can do it in an entertaining and compelling manner, which is the other part of your job, perhaps the main part. I trust you know how to do that. After a year in which the format was driven by outlandish and insane political news that sort of drove itself, you're going to have to take the wheel again soon. You remember how to do this, right? Like riding a bike. Just grab a helmet and hop on.

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I've been plugging away with political AND non-political items for your show prep needs at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics, and now would be the ideal time to bookmark it and check it out on a regular basis by clicking here, because, especially after Tuesday, you'll need the interesting topics and news stories and kickers and horrific jokes you'll get there, and I highly recommend you follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And there's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts. More on the way, too. So much more.

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

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Oh, yeah, time traveler, while you're at it, since I'm already planning the Vegas drive, some college and NFL scores would be nice, too. I'm not above being a Biff Tannen, if you know what I mean.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
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Twitter @pmsimon
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