Hitting The Reset Button

Okay, then. Now what?

We're at the end of the year and talk radio is coming off an election year like no other, and I imagine that for your garden-variety conservative talk radio station, they'll be able to ride the post-election, post-inauguration Trump madness for a while longer at least. It's likely to be a course of diminishing returns, because it's still a very old and shrinking potential audience, but is there anything more you can do with a broadcast radio signal, especially an AM station, in 2021?

Well, you COULD, and I'm just being a little crazy here, back off of airing falsehoods and phony "experts" and conspiracy theories. I know, it's extreme, but hear me out. You may have read the story about Supriya Dwivedi quitting the morning show at Global News Radio 640 Toronto and citing the station's airing of falsehoods and racist and xenophobic commentary by both guests and other hosts, resulting in a torrent of trolling. I'll leave the details to Vice's extensive reporting of the situation, which you should read, but, essentially, the station's management and ownership's position, according to the report, was that a) that's "talk radio as practiced in North America,î b) you gotta put up with trolls who threaten you and your family, and c) it's not the station's fault, it's the listeners. The listeners are responsible, not the programming that riles them up.

And whose fault is that? If you're creating a product that causes that kind of reaction FROM YOUR FANS... maybe, just maybe, what you're doing is part of the problem.

Nobody is going to argue that free speech is a bad thing. Nobody wants to see management order hosts and producers to have prescribed, approved opinions. Yet here we are, with even mainstream talk radio airing flat-out lies, conspiracy theories, and fantasies that feed the core audience's desires but are, well, lies, conspiracy theories, and fantasies. And it's the end result of the thinking by management that there's really no upside to taking chances and it's safest to just do what's already worked over and over and all day and all night, because nobody's going to be blamed for following the leader. That leads to one monolithic "format," a bubble maybe even more impenetrable as those in social media, and it encourages going further and further beyond the fringe, because, the thinking goes, the P1s demand it.

Do they? Sure, some will complain if you stray from their idea of acceptable thought, but that's always been the case. It used to be the rule that if you did talk radio and nobody called the General Manager to complain about stuff you said on the air, or his or her buddies at the Rotary or country club didn't give them a hard time about you, you were doing it wrong. Now, talk radio is programmed to avoid those calls. The entire format is afraid of its core audience.

You -- hosts, producers, PDs (okay, PDs are probably the least able to guide programming in this era), GMs, corporate PDs, and CEOs -- can make a difference, and I hope that in 2021 we'll see some sanity prevail. You do not have to air racist, xenophobic, or misogynistic material in the name of "free speech." What goes out over your station (or show, or podcast) is in your control. You're not, I assume, the government, so it's not "censorship"; to the contrary, it's YOUR freedom of speech. You CAN say no to airing falsehoods. You CAN refrain from having guests who espouse that kind of stuff. You CAN stop inviting "experts" who aren't actually experts (speaking of which, do you check the credentials of people you position as experts before you book them? Because there are a lot of sketchy "experts" getting on radio and cable news). You CAN do talk radio of ANY political persuasion that DOESN'T promote the worst of humanity AND entertains and informs. You CAN do that. It's easier to yell your side's talking points and parrot what the latest YouTube "evidence" of questionable provenance is showing, but nobody said your job had to be easy. And programmers and managers should be looking to be more inclusive in who gets to be on the air, because just finding younger people who are in every way but age identical to their forerunners isn't going to cut it long-term.

What's my wish for talk radio in 2021? Dial back the crazy and address the important issues AND the fun stuff. Entertain and inform, whatever your political position, without pandering to the basest instincts and wildest fantasies of your P1s. Be smarter without being boring. If "talk radio as practiced in North America" means indulging and accepting the worst of your audience, maybe we can change the practice. Here's to a better year all around for 2021, for talk radio and for all of us.

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

You can find things to talk about in abundance that don't bring out the worst in everybody at All Access' show prep column Talk Topics -- 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.

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.

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

And with that, we're at the end of another year of columns. (I don't know how many it's been; I lost count a long time ago, but it's somewhere north of 20 years' worth.) I'll be wrapping up Talk Topics for the year next Wednesday and will be back in the New Year; until then, stay safe and enjoy the holidays.

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