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HOT SHOW OR MUSEUM EXHIBIT?
By: WALTER SABO
In the November 2001 GQ magazine, CNN journalist Jeff Greenfield writes:
“In the first days After, I heard many people who live in the worlds of diversion and escape bemoan their lives: ‘How Could I spend my days writing about the sex lives of the demimonde, the games people play, the fate of a network sitcom and ---yes---the shape of next year’s sport jackets?’
“In the first place, such diversions and escapes are part of how any society lives; in the midst of World War II, gossip columns flourished, comedians drew laughter on the radio and in movie theatres, and there were even high-society sex scandals and murders to titillate us. More fundamentally, there was a kind of Utopian quality to these diversions.”
Greenfield goes on to remind readers that hours after the attack, Mayor Giuliani gave away the bride at a wedding of a deceased fireman. A commitment to a promising future.
It’s a natural response of entertainers to be attracted to the crowd. In September, the crowd was serious. But in those moments, Mayor Giuliani himself sought the solace of joy. It’s appropriate to regularly check if your show is in synch with the people you want to talk to. Otherwise you stop doing a modern radio show and start making airchecks for the Museum of Broadcasting
On Thursday, September 20th, I was listening to Phil Hendrie live on KFI at about 8:45. He proceeded to do the most riveting hour of radio I’ve heard in years. It was a brilliant expression of his difficulties in doing his normal show under the circumstances of the world. He then speculated that it was a good time for radio talent and execs to review what we did and how we did it. Time to do everything new.
A few weeks later I was listening to a highly respected traditional AM talk station and heard host after host put all of the day’s events and all of the caller’s opinions in the dusty boxes marked: “those liberals,” “those democrats,” “that Hillary.” They ignored what the callers were actually saying and bombing them right back to 1988.
Before traditional AM talk becomes a parody of itself, a museum piece stuck in 1988, it would be wise to pay attention to Phil Hendrie and mirror the present. It’s easy to know how to change and to communicate more effectively, it’s just going to take a little courage.
If you want to make your show 100% current, 100% appealing to a broader range of listeners, there is one thing you’ve got to do: Turn off the radio. You’re a “radio guy” and when you listen to the radio, it’s your instinct to copy the things you like. Every time you copy, you step into the past. Someone else’s past show, someone else’s past moment.
When you talk about how you really feel, what you really see and hear, when you talk about your real life, in your words, from your heart, you turn out a fresh, original show.
Totally current. This may sound touchy feely, it’s not. It’s practical. When you speak from your experience in your voice---not imitating one of your radio heroes---you become irreplaceable. Practical enough?
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