A Note From Mr. Know-It-All

You can't prepare for everything.

Or maybe you can. But if you're doing talk radio, you know that plans sometimes go out the window with some regularity. You can and should plan things out, do your research, be prepared. And then something pops up that demands to be talked about right that moment, like, oh, say that the President of the United States contracts a dangerous, deadly virus, and all of your show prep circles the drain. Such is life.

Sometimes, you get lucky. The breaking news, the suddenly must-talk-about topic, is something that's fairly straightforward, and you don't need much research before you can dive in. And then there are the left-field topics that might be a little, to use a tired expression, outside your lane. Maybe it will require financial knowledge, maybe it will require sports knowledge, maybe it will require you to know who's who in Hollywood or among social media influencers or K-Pop bands or local politics. You don't want to come off clueless, but, hey, you didn't expect to have to know that stuff, did you?

That's why good hosts have a wider range of interest and knowledge. That's why, when stations are looking for talent -- talk show hosts or music show hosts, it doesn't matter which -- it makes sense to look for people who are comfortable speaking about anything, whose knowledge isn't confined to one area. For all the "stay in your lane" and "stick to sports" blather you hear from critics, the truth is that a good radio or podcast talent should be able to handle talking about anything short of something requiring an actual epidemiologist. (You can book an actual epidemiologist as a guest if you need one.)

Go look at the help wanted ads (few though they may be these days) for air talent and see whether they're looking for education and the ability to talk about anything that gets thrown at you. I'll save you the clicks: Nah. There's always something about connecting with the audience and engagement and, oh, yeah, proficiency in various automation and audio production and editing tools and social media, but there's never anything about education and the ability to turn complicated and difficult breaking news into talk that's not only entertaining but accurate. There's nothing about being capable of going from goofy morning comedian or ranting afternoon political talker to handling an emergency with professionalism. They want storytellers, but don't look for what will happen when the story unexpectedly changes... like now.

If you're a host, and you've been accustomed to staying in your lane, you should be broadening your horizons. Keep up with the news, even if it's about things you might not think you'll ever talk about. Read a lot. Follow social media accounts across the spectrum of political positions, entertainment categories, everything. You may never NEED to know who the latest YouTube stars are or what debentures and derivatives are or which Country artists did which songs, but the more you know about that stuff, the better you'll be at your job if a YouTuber causes havoc in your town by renting a party house (this happens with regularity around here), or a politician gets caught in a financial scandal, or a Country artist generates controversy with a song that expresses a political opinion. You want to be the host people know will have an informed and interesting opinion about anything, so that when things happen, they'll come to you first.

This should be obvious. I mean, it's 2020. If you don't think we're getting buried by weirdness from all sides, you've been asleep since February.

=============================

Speaking of eclectic and show prep, there's Talk Topics. Look, one of the things I've had to live down in my career is that I'm TOO wide-ranging in my interests -- can't pin me down as any one thing in particular. My scattered nature is your bonanza of things to talk about that aren't all coronavirus or election or bubble playoffs (though there's that stuff, too). Click here and/or follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

Make sure you're subscribed to Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting. You can check off the appropriate boxes in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections if you're not already getting it.

When "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," my podcast, returns, you'll want to be subscribed. Click here to do that, or find it on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Radio.com, and all the other usual podcast places, and on Amazon Alexa-enabled devices by saying "Alexa, play the Evening Bulletin podcast." I promise it'll be back. Really.

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.

=============================

By the way, did you know that the "ancient Chinese curse" that goes "May you live in interesting times" isn't an actual Chinese curse at all? Look it up. Okay, that's not knowledge you really NEED to know, but since we appear to be living under a curse right now, I thought it would be interesting information.

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