Giving ‘Em What They Want

I got a coupla ideas.

Normally, I save my Great Format Ideas to Save Talk Radio for people willing to pay me for them, which means they never see the light of day. (The offer still stands, by the way.) But these ideas are more in the vein of Things Talk Radio Should Be Doing Right Now, and they're my reaction to the pile of news items I've been reading and writing about radio's reaction to the pandemic. Most of it involves things like food drives (great) and helping local businesses (fine, though it's giving away ad inventory you can't sell anyway) and shout-outs to first responders (bare minimum). As for programming itself, though....

Let's try something different. Look, for at least the short term, business isn't going to be pretty. You're not going to be selling a lot of advertising, and whatever the ratings are won't matter. Meanwhile, you know from research and from the ratings we've already seen from last month that the audience is looking for certain things from radio, like news and information as well as an emotional connection and companionship, right? Right, so while things are not normal, maybe radio can address precisely those audience needs and demands.

First, news and information. Forget about the talk radio P1s; they're already being served by whatever talk radio is doing now, which, unfortunately, is not always so much informative as feeding existing political opinions. There's more of a need for clear, factual information, and, thus, my proposal: Take one of your stations, preferably an FM, maybe your lowest-rated music station, and go all-virus news with it. Before you respond with "we can't afford that," well, maybe you can, because you don't have to be live 24/7 with it. You can put together a loop, maybe two or three hours' worth, with local news, including your state's current information, what lockdown rules are in place and which are being relaxed, which businesses are open and which aren't, practical tips... you get the idea. You might even be able to sell a sponsorship or branding. And then repeat it all day and night until the next day's edition. Maybe break in to air your governor or mayor's briefings. Keep it intensely local, because that's where the need for information is greatest, and because the audience will define you as an essential part of the community. And do it until things let up, which we all hope will be sooner than later. (I know that a few AMs are simulcasting SiriusXM's Doctor Radio and coronavirus channels, and that's good, but that's national, and you can provide something they can't.)

And then, I'd take another signal and officially declare it a "coronavirus-free zone." Nothing but talk that has zero to do with the pandemic, although, in a way, it has everything to do with the pandemic. Light, fun topics -- favorite movies, favorite delivery foods, what's best on Netflix -- taking phone calls from listeners who have nothing much else to do but who have rediscovered the joy of phone calls and the need to hear and engage with other people's voices. You can play music, too. Just use imaging to tell the audience that if they need a break from the ongoing nightmare, you have just the spot for them. Sure, they could listen to Spotify or podcasts, but if they listen to your non-virus station, they'll get real live people, be able to engage with them on the air, and be assured that, for however long they're listening, they won't be hearing the bad news.

In each case, you can do the good work of raising funds to help those who need it, and you can shout out whoever deserves a shout. But in both cases -- all-virus news and no-virus zones -- you'll be providing something your listeners and the public in general has told you, whether it's in Jacobs Media's Techsurvey or Nielsen ratings or whatever research you prefer, they want and need. There'll be plenty of time to go back to the usual programming, but for now, when ratings don't really matter as much as normal and revenue is evaporating and the entire world is on pause, it might be a good time to try something unusual. The goodwill might translate into post-pandemic growth, but that shouldn't be the primary reason to do it. The primary reason is that the public needs it and you can supply it, even short-staffed and working from home. This is not a time for business as usual, so give unusual a shot.

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Whatever format you're doing, you can find material to talk about by checking out Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, which you can find by clicking here and/or following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

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Ever try to come up with an original column about the radio industry every week? And then have to keep doing it when the industry's in suspended animation? Yeah, not easy. So, I'll open it up to you. If you have ideas you'd like to see me try to turn into a column, go ahead and send me an email with suggestions. It's an all-request column! Or maybe not, but I AM taking requests, even if I might not actually do all of them. It'll be just like a real request line in that way, only without the "what time do you get off work?" calls.

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