Different Voices For Different Times

It's been a recurring theme of this column and my big mouth at conventions (as recently as March, at the last conference before the pandemic) that talk radio has failed on the diversity front, and I can sense your eye-rolling from here. But as many times as I've brought up the homogenous nature of talk radio, it doesn't change. There are a few younger voices in the format, but they're mostly the same -- overwhelmingly white, male, conservative. That's not news. Nor is my contention that this really needs to change.

You know why I always bring that up? You want to know what difference it would make?

Now. Now is why that matters.

This is not an argument for a particular viewpoint. It's simply this: We've arrived at a moment. We're experiencing history. It's not just political. It's a massive cultural and social change. And talk radio has few people able to explain or even understand what's going on, because talk radio has few people who have experienced anything that would inform that understanding.

Right now, you need hosts who understand why this is happening, beyond just reacting to the George Floyd killing itself. You have to have hosts who know the history, who get why an increasing number of Americans see what's going on and have had more than enough. The hosts don't have to agree, but they do have to grasp where this is coming from. And if your staff is all cut from the same cloth, if they're all from the same background and live the same kind of lifestyle, you're not going to have the same kind of personal understanding of the moment.

Example? Last Monday, Rush Limbaugh was interviewed on "The Breakfast Club," which, for a growing number of listeners, IS relevant talk radio. The brief debate between Limbaugh and Charlamagne Tha God over white privilege was something you don't hear on "regular" talk radio, and Rush's bafflement over the concept of his own privilege reflected "regular" talk radio's insular world view. That's an issue that's going to be part of the political conversation now, and talk radio's not terribly well prepared to discuss it. Same for police brutality, which is now live on TV or in video clips everyone can see; if you've never been subjected to the kind of treatment black people have been dealing with forever, can you talk about it with the same deep understanding as someone who has?

Some of the best talk radio lately hasn't been on talk radio. See the aforementioned Breakfast Club challenging both Rush and Joe Biden. Dan Le Batard's show on ESPN Radio has had some of the more powerful commentaries on what's going on, and I'll point to producer Roy Bellamy's emotional comments about the challenges his daughter will face as she grows up as particularly on point. There are plenty of podcasts providing a wide variety of viewpoints. Public radio, too; Thursday night's incident in Buffalo went viral from a video caught by a WBFO reporter.

All of this is to say not that current hosts need to be cleared out, but that having a staff -- not just hosts, but everyone -- with a more wide-ranging set of experiences is valuable when, as now, the entire world is turning upside down. Chances are that someone who sees things differently from you might help you clarify and better communicate your own perspective, different though it may be. You can't get that if everyone in the building is the same.

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The segues to plugs for Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, are getting more and more awkward, but here you go, and I'm continuing to update Talk Topics, and you can find the parade of stuff to talk about 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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I have absolutely no clue how to close this one, so... um... have a good weekend. Yeah, that'll work.

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