Playing Small-Ball

I was thinking about talk radio earlier this week when the iPhone 4 was released. No, I'm not going to go into that topic here, or how cell phones are the new radio; that was last week's column, This week's about content, and I was listening to a talk show dissecting every syllable of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote. Then I heard another talk show do the same. There was a lot of good, smart conversation about the new phone and what it can do and whether it'll be worth the upgrade.

Did I mention that none of this was on broadcast radio?

Yeah, I was listening to a bunch of tech podcasts. And I was doing that because a) I'm interested in that stuff and b) I can't get that talk on the radio. I understand why that is, of course. Tech talk works on the weekend, but it's not going to bring in the big numbers on a weekday. It's specialty talk, meaning that it's going to end up either a weekend thing or a podcast thing. Fine.

How about "Lost"? Did your show obsessively analyze every twist and turn and meaning-laden moment of the big finale? Sure, you mentioned it, but did you talk about it the way the people who watched every moment of every show of every season and searched the Internet for clues and cared perhaps a little TOO much about what would happen did? You couldn't, not on the radio. You'd be blowing away the people who didn't watch (like me) and the politically-obsessed would have rebelled. So you mentioned it, maybe talked about it for a segment, and moved on. Perfectly understandable.

And there's so much more like those. The World Cup. "Glee." Parenting. Talk about music. There's no place to fit this stuff in "regular radio." But it's the kind of stuff real people -- the listeners -- DO talk about, all the time. I've discussed here about how I think there's room for non-political, pop culture talk on the radio, but I'm not expecting to hear much of it anytime soon.

Yet talk radio CAN address ALL of this. And it should. Because someone else is.

Go back a few paragraphs. Those tech podcasts had to be produced by somebody. Radio stations didn't. But while radio talks a good game about moving into "new media," there doesn't seem to be a lot of innovation for most stations beyond throwing a streaming version of the main signal on a website, maybe podcasting the regular shows, and calling it "digital assets." Yet radio still has the talent and the ability to create any kind of audio programming and doing it better than anyone else. So... why are radio's "digital assets" pretty much the same as the "analog assets"? Why not produce shows just for online distribution that do the kind of talk that might not be appropriate for the "regular" station?

Look, the advertising pie is already being sliced thinner. The audience will continue to scatter to things like customizable music streams and podcasts. It's that "long tail" thing again. Those smaller niche audiences are looking for, and finding, shows that talk about the stuff they're really passionate about. Shouldn't radio stations be going for that audience now, too?

I've suggested before that local talk hosts try doing separate shows for podcast or separate streaming use, and maybe that's where someone who's always talking politics can stretch out and talk about what he or she REALLY cares about. Let listeners hear another side of you (assuming, that is, you have another side). You really love tennis? Shopping? Fixing cars? Talking about your favorite bands? Do it into a mic for an hour, stick it on the station website and iTunes, let people know it's there, and maybe the sales department can get a sponsor. There, simple, cheap, and a way for talk radio -- any radio -- to get a better foothold as the audience increasingly seeks talk programming that's in tune with what they talk about themselves.

Hey, couldn't hurt.

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The End. (I've wanted to end a column like that for ages)

Perry Michael Simon
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All Access News-Talk-Sports
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