We Care A Lot

Whaddya wanna talk about?

Yeah, it's a holiday weekend, so you probably want to keep things light if you're talking on the radio or podcasting right now. But the holiday won't last forever, and once it's over, you're back to talking about....

Hmm. Now, some things are obvious. If you're a political talker, you don't need me to tell you whats in the national news. It's easy to just take the latest controversy and outrage and milk it for all it's worth. But that might be TOO easy and too prone to attracting your core, which expects to have their worldview validated, and not many others. Besides, you get tired talking about the same, you know, talking points. What else can you do?

This is where knowing what your audience cares about comes into play. If your station or show can afford to research what your listeners want, that's great, but most of you aren't in that position. And the old process of going to the mall to observe and talk to people, as advised by Walter Sabo back in the day, might not help too much in 2022 -- have you BEEN to a mall lately? Maybe you can try a Starbucks.

The alternative is easier. What matters to YOU? You aren't so different from your audience, are you? You have a family, a home, financial concerns. You have to work, you have to shop, you have to pay taxes. Are you thinking about politics all day? Maybe you are, but you're not just thinking about the topics you see on cable news. You have other things to worry about.

So talk about them. Examples? Okay, here in Florida, while the governor is pushing culture war issues, that's not what's top-of-mind for people who live here. What IS top of mind is that homeowners' insurance is cost-prohibitive if you can even get it, and the legislature and governor aren't doing anything much about it. The cost of food and gas are top-of-mind, and instead of playing the blame game, you can have listeners tell where to go for the best deals. Travel issues are getting more and more annoying, with cancelled flights and mobbed airports. Finding day care has always been an issue for parents, but with more people returning to commuting, it's even more of an issue. Have you seen how high rents are getting? Housing costs are a huge topic in many cities. And there are the usual suspects: traffic, property taxes, health care.

And politics, but you knew that already. Point is, there are a ton of topics available to you, many of which nobody else on the radio's talking about right now. If you've talked the usual topics to death, you have options. Use them. It's hard to go wrong talking about what's on your listener's minds every day.

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Talk Topics and this here column will be taking a break all next week, because I'm off for the trio of holidays, Independence Day, my birthday, and my cat's birthday. That's in reverse order of importance.

Perry Michael Simon
Senior Vice President/Editor-in-Chief and News-Talk-Sports-Podcasting Editor
AllAccess.com
psimon@allaccess.com
Twitter @pmsimon