Curse Of The Giggle Bunny

A major market talk station hired a new co-host for its morning show, and while I was writing the story, I checked the station's website to see how it was promoting the new hire. Sure enough, they'd put a bio on the site, and it named the new personality and said that she would be joining the morning show as the incumbent host's "female co-host." And then it went on to....

Hold on.

"Female co-host"?

"FEMALE co-host"?

Is that the official job description?

The first thing I thought when I saw that was that it was a joke, like on "Family Guy," when the news anchors go to a live shot by "Asian correspondent Tricia Takanawa." But, no, there it was, on the real web site, in a bio devoid of other jokes. "Female co-host." I posted this on Twitter, and a friend responded, "Where would radio be without the giggle bunny?" Yep, that's the job in a nutshell. "Female co-host." Designated laugher. Giggle bunny.

Radio has been, of course, like this forever. I don't have to tell you that. If I asked any of you which dayparts have women as lead personalities on music stations, every one of you would instantly have the same answer: middays, and maybe evenings. Practically never mornings, except as news anchor or "female co-host." Same for afternoon drive. Why? Because it's always been that way. Men for drive time, women for your "more music" shifts. Is there a good reason for the "rule"?

Stop asking questions. You're making this too complicated. Take no risks and you won't get fired. Carry on. Okay, if you MUST know, someone tried putting a woman on in morning drive 25 years ago and it didn't work. There. Are you happy now?

It's true, of course, that while there are are a handful of exceptions (that tend to prove the rule), and that while there are a few successful syndicated female talk hosts, it's still, for the most part, a boys' club on the air in drive time. But I don't think any PD worth a damn would deliberately eliminate anyone from consideration who he or she thinks can get ratings and revenue. The issue, however, goes beyond hiring women hosts, or minority hosts, or anything like that.

The issue is about taking risks. Radio has always been, as a default, risk-averse. Innovation is at first jeered, then copied, so it's easier -- and safer -- to wait until someone else takes a chance and takes all the arrows first. If it works, you "borrow" it (and, if you're especially brazen, claim you invented it). If it doesn't, you tell everyone within earshot that you correctly predicted it would never work. Until then, you do what you've always done, which is the same as everybody's always done, because nobody will fire you for just doing what conventional wisdom says you should do.

And that's how you get the "female co-host" and the "midday chick." They exist because they've always existed. It's just how things have been done. You don't seriously consider anyone who breaks the mold in any way, because, well, what if it doesn't work? In 2010, you'd think we'd have moved beyond that.

The PPM is offering an opportunity -- an excuse, even -- to change things. We've been liberated from being slaves to the old methodology, locked into the old ways of "quarter-hour maintenance." We don't have to do all the old tricks to boost recall for the diaries. We can pull whatever custom time frames we want from the numbers, so the daypart distinctions aren't the same. We can try new things and get faster evidence on how they're working. It's a chance to, um, take chances, not just on who to hire but what to do with them.

But that'll take people who can see the opportunities and sense what chances are worth taking. And that's a topic for another column....

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Now, I'm going to start working on next week's column, because by this time next week, all of our heads will be deeply into thinking about the long weekend, and football, and everything other than work.... right, who am I kidding? I'll wait until the last minute and then throw together something incoherent, same as always. Getting it done early and refining it so it makes sense? Too risky.

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
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