Top Of Mind

Once upon a time, radio hosts were given sage advice about the topics they chose. Talk about what's important to the listeners, they were told. Make it eye level -- imagine what your listeners experience in their everyday lives and talk about those things, the things that matter, whether it's their kids, their bills, traffic, whatever's on their minds. (H/T Walter Sabo, who always insisted on topics being relevant and resonant to the target audience.)

These days, radio is different. Talk radio is Trump 24/7 on most stations. Music station morning shows are about pop culture. With a few exceptions, that's what radio's serving up, and it's understandable, because for some stations, it works. And that's what you see on social media, a parade of Trump memes and "Bachelor" comments, so that must be what people want to hear, right?

Yes, a lot of people -- perhaps the majority -- do, but what about those everyday concerns? Did they entirely vanish? That came to mind this week when I was sitting alone in yet another exam room at yet another medical office, waiting to see yet another specialist. Health care issues are a major top-of-mind topic for a huge percentage of the population, yet you don't hear anyone talk about that on the radio other than as a tangential issue in the presidential horse race, and even then only on a superficial, "who's gonna pay for it" level. Sitting there waiting for the doctor, I could think of several topics that would resonate: health insurance costs and how your coverage, especially HMO plans, dictates who you see and what care you get; doctors' tendency to order countless, sometimes invasive tests for the sake of "ruling things out," which translates to "we don't know what's wrong with you but we can make some money on this anyway"; what happens when treatment you DO need isn't covered by your insurer; doctors' bedside manner and how sometimes they really don't listen to you....

Nobody's talking about that on the radio, yet it's a reality for the audience, and talking about specifics -- prescription drug costs, insurance deficiencies -- can be informative and entertaining if you put it out there on the radio. (I'll again point to the podcast "An Arm and a Leg" as an example of how you can talk about this stuff and make it entertaining as well as infuriating.) And that's just one thing. Driving back over the hill in traffic snarled for no apparent reason reminded me that while Waze can tell me that there's traffic, it doesn't tell me about the state and city's terrible transportation management or lack of planning, and doesn't let me talk about it except to myself. The signs posted at the grocery urging me to try their pickup and delivery services prompted thoughts about the problems of brick-and-mortar retail and whether the convenience of shopping online for delivery or pickup is worth not being able to pick out my own produce or missing that feeling when you see something on the shelf you didn't know you wanted until that moment. There are any number of local issues, too, whether it's the increasingly desperate homeless crisis in many cities and states or tax proposals or, well, you know better than I do about your town. You know there's stuff going on about which people care. And you know radio isn't talking about that.

Some do. Since there are always exceptions to the rule, I'll salute any and all stations and shows paying attention to the everyday real-life issues listeners deal with every day. I know that here in my market, KFI talks about the homeless problem in Southern California a lot, as does KOGO, and whether you agree with the hosts or not, it's top-of-mind, local, everyday-issues-affecting-everybody stuff. And all-news stations like KNX do report on local, top-of-mind issues. But these are very big markets, and even here not every station does that, nor is that necessary. Obviously, the elections are going to dominate the conversation, as well they should. Yet, the elections are far from the only thing on people's minds. Even in an election year, and especially once the election's over (only nine months to go!), there's a massive opportunity for talk about what people deal with every day that isn't being served, not even in social media where it gets drowned out by national politics and "Masked Singer" predictions, and not on television. (Some podcasts do it, but rarely on a local level and rarely easy to find.) If radio is looking for an opening, a market it can seize that others can't or won't, and if there are stations tired of being the third or fourth AC or the third-tier talk station in the market, going back to what worked when local radio meant local might be a means to survive.

And, as always, the caveat: I know. I know the large companies are moving in precisely the opposite direction. I know it's all about debt reduction and body counts and "centers of excellence." I know that. But there are a LOT of radio stations out there, and not all of them are owned by the big guys. Somewhere, someone can show how to do this, even if it's one show in a lineup of national talk, or a morning show that is looking for a way to stand out amidst a dial otherwise dominated by reality show talk. Radio that talks about what people actually deal with every day isn't an archaic concept. Lord knows we could use it now.

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That stuff is among the many options for you at Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, where I try to give you a mix of important topics and balderdash and folderol, whatever those are, the kind of stuff you can talk about and keep listeners engaged and interested and amused. Just click here and/or follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And at "10 Questions With...," iHeartRadio and KFI/Los Angeles correspondent Steve Gregory talks about the art of investigative reporting; like Alex Stone last week, Steve's covered everything and has the stories to prove it, plus insight into media relations for public officials and technology's effect on reporting. It's another good one, so don't miss it.

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Next week, I'll be at Podcast Movement Evolutions, specifically February 12-15 in Los Angeles (yes, a convention on Valentine's Day); the BSM Summit in New York February 26-27; Talk Show Boot Camp in Cincinnati March 5-6, where I'm moderating a roundtable panel with a great lineup including WSB/Atlanta's Drew Anderssen, iHeartMedia's Chris Berry, WBAL/Baltimore's Scott Masteller, KNX/Los Angeles' Ken Charles, WINS/New York's Lee Harris, and Alpha Media/Portland's Bruce Collins; and All Access' own Worldwide Radio Summit in Burbank March 25-27, where I'll be moderating a panel as well. Something approximating fun will be had by all.

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