Body Count

When I started in radio, it wasn't even a question that however many people it takes to create and perform a talk radio show, we weren't going to attain that number. We just didn't have the budget, I was told. Use an intern. The intern's already a call screener? They can produce, too. And so can you, Mister Program Director. And the hosts can do it by themselves. What do you need producers for, anyway? All you do is open the mic and talk. Easy! And if you need a guest, ask the intern to call. If you're lucky, we'll get you a board op. Don't expect audio production miracles, though; the production studios are busy recording car dealer commercials from now until eternity. Sorry.

I thought it would get better as I moved up in market size, but it was the same in Los Angeles. No matter how many people I needed to get the job done right, we were short. I heard that the competition had a lot more people assigned to each show. I envied that. I never got it.

So I became an advocate for radio treating the job of Producer as something way more exalted than radio producers generally are treated. There are radio producers who are true professionals, with huge virtual Rolodexes (there's an antiquated reference for you), unerring instincts for what works on the radio, a clear vision of what a show should sound like, and people skills to help the talent and other staffers do their jobs better. But they get lumped into the same pile with repurposed interns and call screeners fresh out of school and learning the ropes, and with the "producers" who primarily serve as comic scapegoats for the host. In no other medium are "producers" low-level employees; in Hollywood, "producer" can mean someone who bankrolls the entire project, or runs the show (or it's someone's agent or friend or weed dealer who weaseled their way into getting a credit). Radio undervalues the position. It should be a highly-ranked, high-pay position. Often, it isn't.

It's more than that, though, and it's going to be a bigger issue as we go forward, because of podcasting. Wait, you say, aren't podcasts just someone in their underwear with a mic talking to themselves? Yes, that's my podcast, but look at the ones that actually have audiences, big audiences: Most of them have far better production values than talk radio has. Take the true crime category, for example, and keep in mind that these shows are among the most popular and commercially successful podcasts in the medium. They're... produced. And by that, I mean you can hear the difference. There's music produced specifically for that show. There's slick editing, montages, ambiance. The sound is part of the success. "Serial" wouldn't have been "Serial" without that theme, the pace, the interviews cut into Sarah Koenig's narrative.

But wait, you say, a storytelling podcast like that isn't talk radio. You're right, but that's your competition for people's attention. And, yes, many of those shows are produced by public radio companies or companies spawned by public radio, and public radio has always used, like, 35 staffers when a dozen will do (and commercial radio would use maybe 2 or 3 people to do the same job). Public radio has different pay scales and different budgets. True. Also, they're setting listeners' expectations. You think they're listening to those shows and not setting their expectations for spoken word entertainment higher than "guy with mic"? (Note how the "guy with mic" podcasts, which used to be atop the download charts, have, with a few exceptions, largely faded; the audience has moved on.) Sound matters.

Which is a reason that talk radio needs to reconsider things like the job of Producer (let's capitalize it from now on) and how many people are working on your content. Think about this: Some podcasts and public radio shows have people assigned to research and produce material that may not be released for months, if at all. Commercial radio does not do that; it's all a scramble by a handful of people who have to keep up with the news and track down expert guests and get information to the host and pull sound from a million sources. You may not need researchers digging for news, but you do need more than one or two people tasked with scraping a show together. Sorry that it costs money, but, hey, after Chapter 11, maybe there'll be more cash freed up to finally treat talk radio as something more than a cheap relation to TV. The first step is to give the good Producers the credit and status that they're due, and the second step is to recognize that maintaining and growing your audience, no matter what the platform is, requires recognizing that it takes more resources than commercial radio has traditionally used to do it right.

I know. Expanding staff instead of cutting. Fantasy land. Dream on. But an industry that never stops cutting costs is one that's eventually going to run out of things to cut, and the product will suffer as competitors step into the breach. If the business plan doesn't include spending what it takes to make a product that people want, it's a bad business plan.

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I can't produce your show for you (wait, will you pay me? Let's talk), but the next best thing is Talk Topics, the show prep column at All Access News-Talk-Sports, where you can get material to talk about on the radio or in a podcast or to yourself when you're especially lonely, and it's all free. Check it out by clicking here and/or by following the Talk Topics Twitter feed at @talktopics with every story individually linked to the appropriate item. There's the Podcasting section at AllAccess.com/podcasts.

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My podcast is "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. Spotify, too. 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 at www.facebook.com/pmsimon, and at pmsimon.com.

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Reminder: Register for the Worldwide Radio Summit in Hollywood May 2-4, where I'll be moderating a panel on your future with Tom Leykis, Steve Goldstein, Rob Greenlee, Doug Reed, and Gina Juliano; you can register right here. And I'll be on a panel about podcasting with Seth Resler, Dave Beasing, Sheryl Worsley, and Michael Brandvold at The Conclave in July in Minneapolis. After that, I'll be at Podcast Movement in Philadelphia in July. See you somewhere along the line.

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