Goofus and Gallant

This week had some shining examples of what talk radio does right. While Hurricane Ida slammed the Gulf Coast, you could hear WWL in New Orleans do what it did so well under impossible conditions during Hurricane Katrina: get the news out, provide critical information, put listeners on the air even when there were problems getting incoming calls through, getting answers from city, state, and Entergy officials. It was what radio can do better than anyone else, and they did it. I can't praise it enough, and I'm sure there were other stations doing similarly excellent work (the all-newsers in New York and Philadelphia were on it as the remnants of Ida caused massive flooding and tornadoes there, and even ol' pal Walter Sterling had live coverage on his syndicated show last weekend), just as I'm sure some didn't (I don't know where I stand on the stations that just flip a switch and air audio from a local TV station; it's better than nothing, I suppose, but it's not radio). Happens every time, but there are always stations coming through with the kind of public service that radio would like you to think is the norm, and some who just don't.

I wonder which image is in most people's minds when you say "talk radio." Let's do a little experiment: Go to Google News and search for "Talk Radio." Go ahead, do it right now. I'll wait.

Okay, then, you might have noticed that most of what came up on the first couple of pages was negative. Most of it was about the death of talk radio hosts from COVID-19, with emphasis on how they all to varying degrees dismissed the danger of the virus and the desirability of the vaccines, possibly to the detriment of their own listeners. It isn't pretty.

The lingering image of talk radio is the latter. The goodwill engendered by the positive things talk radio does -- news coverage, emergency reliability, entertainment -- gets overshadowed, to say the least, by the image of angry guys ranting and spreading lies and misinformation. Not gonna debate the specifics here, because it doesn't matter which way you go on that. Believe what you want. All I'm saying is that this is what talk radio's image is right now, what it's been for a while, and what it'll likely be if we continue with what got us here, which is to say a medium relegated mostly to AM and targeted squarely at a very old, rapidly shrinking segment of the population.

Yet, it's also a medium that could do so much better. Listening to the hurricane coverage, I heard a real connection between the callers and the hosts, borne of necessity and tragedy but very real and unlike what you'd get on, say, social media. I watched TV coverage and it wasn't the same, either; after a few hours, the same video on repeat and long stretches of meteorologist vamping in front of a radar map doesn't convey what's happening better than a live voice reporting something beyond the TV news crews' reach. Reading a tweet saying "we need help," or even seeing an Instagram video showing flooding and devastation, is not the visceral and immediate experience that listening to callers describe what they're seeing or having hosts ask officials from the government and the utilities the questions listeners need answered and getting those answers right away. You think podcasts are good at radio drama? You like reality TV? This was reality drama, live. Radio is great at that.

But, thank goodness, there isn't always an emergency happening to bring out the best in talk radio. That makes it triply important for the rest of talk radio, the talk radio that's around for the 99% of the time when there's not an emergency happening, to get its act together and, whatever the politics, be known not for being of questionable reliability but for authority and accuracy along with the entertainment. Is it a good thing that the general public is seeing talk radio hosts get sick and die after, at best, being skeptical of the vaccines and at worst being outright hostile towards any attempts to get the virus under control? Is this the image you want for this medium? Whether you're a host or management, are you proud of what talk radio has become?

Are you?

You can be. Deep down, you know what's right, and you know what to do. Maybe someday, when you type "talk radio" into that search bar, the news will be about good things and high ratings. Beats what you'll get now.

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Whatever you decide, you'll find plenty of material at All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep section, which you'll find by clicking here, and you can also follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics and find every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And don't miss "10 Questions WIth..." Jeremy Ratliff, morning news anchor at WOKV/Jacksonville, who talks about the early morning shift, the job, family, influences, and the ultimate in remote working situations.

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Programming Note: I'll be off not just for U.S. Labor Day Monday, but on Tuesday as well. I think you'll manage without me, but for anyone who needs to know, I'll be back Wednesday. Talk to you then.

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