Hope the High Road

Are you proud of what you do on the radio?

I've been thinking about that question for a while now, not for myself but for the entire industry. It's something I'm not sure we ask ourselves enough. In the context of what's been going on lately in talk radio, I'm not sure the answer's going to be all that comfortable to live with, either.

Here's the exercise: After your next show, just ask yourself if you're proud of what you just did. Not pleased, but proud. Not "good enough," but "I'm happy that my name is associated with that." Can you say that about everything you do on the job?

Of course not, but that's human. Nobody bats 1.000. (Especially the Phillies, but that's another column.) There are great days, "close enough" days, and "let us never speak of that again" days. The trick is to get the first category's percentage up, and that's not always in your control. If your job is to voice track liner cards, you really don't have a lot of leeway to make things great. If your job is to do entertaining talk radio, part of it IS in your control, and that leads to...

Okay, hear me out. A lot was said about the deterioration of discourse in the wake of the GOP baseball practice shooting this week. (I said some of it in my Wednesday video.) Some people blamed things like social media and the parties' conduct and the President, and, naturally, talk radio came up, too. I don't subscribe to the idea that there's a direct link between what talk radio hosts say and what a deranged person does with that information, and I do believe that the First Amendment applies to all speech. Yet I keep coming back to asking yourself, after every show or every segment:

Are you proud of that?

I think about that every time I hear a host spout a conspiracy theory with no basis in fact. I think about that when I hear a specious argument, a divisive us-versus-them scenario, a bald misstatement of fact. I think about it when a host paints an entire group -- political, religious, ethnic -- with a broad brush, because, you know, demonizing "the other" works. I think about it when I hear softball questions in interviews. I think about it when I hear a host defend the indefensible. Are you proud of that?

Or is it enough that you got the phones lit and the P1s riled up? That IS your job, after all. You're not paid for reasoned, intelligent arguments, are you? No, you're paid to get ratings, get revenue, get attention. You can do all of that AND not sell your soul. Many -- perhaps most -- of you do that. But I hear too much talk radio that makes me wonder if the host can look at himself or herself in the mirror after the show. Maybe they can. I don't think I could.

Radio offers us an opportunity to do creative things and get paid for it. That's a very special and wonderful thing most people don't experience. You don't have a soul-crushing cubicle job; you get to talk on the radio. You can do that job by spouting talking points and parroting whatever you see in social media, or you can be honest, real, and insightful. There's a low road and a high road. Either way can get you where you want to go.

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Whatever road you take, you'll find material galore at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics, all free and all available with a mere click of your mouse by clicking here and/or by following 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. Plus, this week, meet WZUS (Talk 101 FM)/Decatur, IL morning co-host and jack of all trades Scott Busboom in "10 Questions With....." His station has won TWO NAB Crystal Awards and does tons in the community, so THERE'S something to be proud of.

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So, are you proud of what you're doing? Let me know at psimon@allaccess.com and maybe we'll do a "10 Questions" interview and let the world know about it. The really good work many of you do too often goes unreported. Let's change that.

Perry Michael Simon
Vice President/Editor, News-Talk-Sports and Podcast
AllAccess.com
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