Just Hangin’ Out

We've heard it forever and the research continues to show it: The radio audience wants to feel a connection with our programming. They want companionship. They want that warm feeling of friendship, like they know us.

It's really that simple. Yet, time and again, other media goes right ahead and does that while radio, which has the advantage of being able to go live, take calls, and be the listeners' friend, watches it happen. Social media did it, and so we have Facebook (not gonna call it Meta, unless you're calling Google Alphabet) and Twitter and TikTok ascendant and radio still trying to figure all of that out. Podcasts do it, which is why some of the more popular ones can draw big crowds to large venues for live shows while radio's still in the car dealer parking lot, two street teamers under a canopy looking bored while a 30 year old boombox plays the station for an audience of none. And now....

You've seen the ManningCast, right? The alternate Monday Night Football telecast on which Peyton and Eli Manning do a Mystery Science Theater 3000 job on the game with friends like Tom Brady, Sue Byrd, and Marshawn Lynch joining in? Whether you love or hate it, you have to agree that it's different, that it's engaging, that it has the informal feel of hanging out with friends watching the game and ignoring the announcers, just like real life, except that in real life, you wouldn't get within a mile of the Mannings. So, television's doing it, too.

More to the point, what ESPN is doing with the ManningCast is different. It's not traditional TV sports coverage. It was a risk -- while ESPN itself has tinkered with alternate telecasts of games like "StatCast" or having various analysts do running commentary, this was not going to be like that, or those "Players Only" basketball telecasts with former NBA players talking over each other. This was going to be like airing the unvarnished stuff people say in their living rooms while watching a game. With the wrong mix of people, it could have been boring or off-putting. Instead, it's been a hit, because viewers WANT to hang out with Peyton and Eli, whose personalities lend themselves to that.

Radio can do that, but it needs to remember a few things. First, the personality has to be right. We've gone through a few generations of blanding out the personalities on radio, whether it be by voice tracking or just hiring interchangeable card readers with single names or loading up on "we need a new Rush, so let's get someone who's an angry conservative." It's not an accident that the most successful hosts on radio show off unique personalities every day, and come off as relatable and fun to be with. (Doesn't mean that they ARE fun to be with, just that it SEEMS like they are.)

And you aren't going to find those personalities by telling them to shut up and play the music because that's what the PPM dictates. And you aren't going to find that if "talk radio" means "gotta stick to the formula." You have to take a chance on things that haven't been done before. If that means letting a music jock stretch out and talk longer, or a talk host to confound listener expectations by not being an angry ideologue, that's a risk you have to take to hit paydirt. The goal is to grow, right? You grow by offering something people want. We know they want to be entertained and feel a connection to the hosts. Let's break out of the self-imposed restrictions of traditional radio and see if we can't come up with our own ManningCast, and by that I don't mean copy that precise formula; let's come up with some radical ideas and then try them.

How radical is it, though? There's a need in the market, you fill it. And if there's still a need that isn't being served, you try something different to fill that one, too. Makes sense to me.

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If you're looking for some different stuff to talk about, All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics show prep section is the place to go. Find it by clicking here, and you can also follow the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics and find every story individually linked to the appropriate item.

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Housekeeping note: I will be off for the next couple of weeks. Talk Topics and The Letter will be on a brief hiatus while I take care of some stuff that's part of the changes I referred to at the end of last week's column. It's all good, mind you, but I gotta take care of some stuff to make it all happen. So, enjoy your Halloween candy overload and I'll be back before you know it. Or at least before Thanksgiving.

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