Not Asked, Not Answered

Let me tell you a story I've probably told before.

I was in the men's room when all hell broke loose, and by that I don't mean it broke loose inside the bathroom. Please, that would be disgusting. No, it was happening on the air. I was the Program Director at New Jersey 101.5 at the time, and when I entered the bathroom, I heard my afternoon co-host, John Kobylt, welcome Senator Frank Lautenberg on the phone as a guest. Everything was calm and collegial, but that lasted for less time than I was indisposed. When I opened the door and re-entered the lobby, I heard screaming coming out of the monitor. John was yelling at the Senator, and my immediate impulse was to head to the studio and, well, I wasn't sure WHAT I could do, but I thought I'd have to do something. And then I heard more screaming, but it wasn't John, and it wasn't his co-host (I believe Roberta Gale was sitting in for Ken Chiampou that afternoon). It was the Senator. My host and the Senator were trading insults at top volume. I immediately fretted that this meant we wouldn't ever get the Senator back on the air, that we'd be seen as impertinent and rude, that, okay, I wasn't thinking that clearly, but I heard the commotion and thought bad things were happening.

It was at that very moment that I had a talk radio epiphany: Our politicians aren't heroes and they're not always villains, but they ARE humans and they're no better or worse than hosts or listeners or anyone else. Maybe worse, because they're politicians. They should be challenged. They NEED to be challenged. They should have to answer the questions people really want answered. They should never be coddled. And if that means we'd never get another politician to come on the air, so be it, because a softball interview is an interview that sucks, and an interview that listeners don't want to hear.

Let's flash forward to this week, Tuesday, to be exact. I was perusing Twitter -- don't judge -- when I noticed a tweet about a Congressman who had admitted that the reason he planned to vote for the GOP tax plan despite it likely hurting people in his district was... okay, here's the exact quote: "My donors are basically saying, 'Get it done or don't ever call me again.'" It made national news for a moment (the news cycle being what it is, things move fast). And then, checking the Congressman's own account, I saw that he was making two appearances on local talk radio that morning. I was curious: Would the hosts ask him about that? Would they ask him if the interests of his donors are more important than the interests of his constituents? Who ARE his donors, anyway? Wouldn't you want to ask that?

So I listened. And, no, those questions were not asked. One host allowed the Congressman to spout talking points about the tax plan unchallenged except for the occasional "sounds right to me" and -- Lord help me, it's true -- a few "okey dokes." Nothing went challenged. The other show didn't even ask about the tax plan; They asked him about the San Antonio attack and gun laws and what his reaction was, which was, of course, no reaction at all. And then everyone went on their merry way, which raises the question:

Why have politicians on your shows at all if you don't plan to challenge them? Why bother? They're boring. They're programmed to spout platitudes. They're going to hand you a line of bull. You know it. They know it. Yet you also have access, being members of the same mainstream media you probably mock, so you CAN ask hard questions, and you CAN tell them to drop the talking points and tell the truth. They might never come on your show again? If that keeps them away, GOOD. They're bad guests if they can't answer difficult questions. This is not to say you should brutalize them or treat them badly, although if they deserve it, you can make an exception. No, it's about WHY you have politicians on for interviews. There's no reason to do it if you can't elicit answers other news outlets can't get.

Unless, that is, you think your role is to support one political party or ideology, not to entertain and inform. Too many talk hosts think that way, including those I cited above. And that does two things: It leads to boring radio, and it will restrict your potential audience to the true believers, the people who just want their own views validated. That's a small, old percentage of the available audience. Maybe you're happy being the Monarch of the Men 75+ Demographic, but you can do more.

You don't, by the way, have to yell at your Senator, either. No voices need to be raised. But I'll admit, that moment in the lobby in New Jersey, I knew that if I was a typical listener, I'd be glued to the station for that. And I never had the impulse to keep interviews "polite" again.

=============================

For your non-interview needs, All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics has a lot of stuff you can talk about. Get it all by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. And there's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts. Also, don't miss "10 Questions With... Jonathan Hood,", in which the ESPN Radio, ESPN 1000/Chicago, and SiriusXM NBA Radio host talks about his rise from intern to producer to local host to national host, and the future of sportscasting. It's a great story of hard work leading to great things.

Make sure you're subscribed to Today's Talk, the daily email newsletter with the top news stories in News, Talk, and Sports radio and podcasting, plus my video commentaries. You can check off the appropriate boxes in your All Access account profile's Format Preferences and Email Preferences sections if you're not already getting it.

Subscribe to my podcast! It's "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," a quick (two minutes or less) daily thing, and you can get it at Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, and RadioPublic. You can also use the RSS feed and the website where you can listen in your browser, or my own website where they're all embedded, too.

You can follow my personal Twitter account at @pmsimon, and my Instagram account (same handle, @pmsimon) as well. And you can find me on Facebook (where I also do some live videos about radio) at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

=============================

Saturday is Veterans Day. Thank a veteran. Not that you should feel the need to wait until Veterans Day to do that, though.

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