Maybe This Year

A long time ago, thirty years ago, in fact, I thought talk radio would be different. We were doing different things where I worked, and I made the assumption that, since it was working, we'd be moving away from old-guy angry political talk radio to something more entertaining, more attuned to the interests of the vast majority of radio listeners instead of the 55+ partisan niche.

Okay, I was wrong.

I still hold out hope that talk radio will chart a different course, that it will endeavor to entertain and that it will veer away from the destructive path it's taken over the decades and, especially, in the last few years. I am, of course, delusional, but it keeps me from screaming and breaking things.

I was at the screaming-and-breaking-things point this week when I saw the Brookings study counting the times major political podcasts and talk radio shows aired election lies, not only because spreading those lies has been awful for the nation and democracy but because it's more evidence of how talk radio lost its way, or, more accurately, just took a path that it didn't need to take and that led to, um, this. It's not just that shows are spreading election lies and anti-vaccine, anti-science stuff; it's that the format forsook independence and speaking for, and to, the interests of most people and is now solidly a niche format supporting a political party (and, really, one man, which is really weird to me) instead of addressing what really matters to everyone regardless of who's in power.

Yeah, we're not in the best spot right now. I still want to be optimistic. As we enter 2022, I hope that more radio stations and groups see the value of talk that isn't angry and partisan and appealing to a narrow and advertiser-unfriendly audience. Maybe the success of all-News and Sports stations on FM might be a clue that there's a vast audience unserved by either traditional talk radio or music stations. Maybe there'll be a recognition that business as it's been done for decades is a poor long-term strategy. Maybe radio companies will even start thinking long-term. Look, if there are no suitors to bail out the current operators and the present outlook is for slow or no growth with the occasional Chapter 11 to liven things up, and podcasting isn't generating enough revenue to be a lifeline yet, you might as well just keep operating and try some new things, right? After all, muddling through hasn't worked that well. Couldn't hurt to try something different.

Or maybe you can look at it like this. What's talk radio's image? No, not what radio people think it is. What's its image among the public? What do people -- not the core partisan audience, but the general public -- think of when they think about talk radio, when, that is, they think of it at all? Is it seen as a diverse, vibrant, growing source of entertainment? Podcasting is, and maybe radio can take some cues from that. (Incidentally, it's fascinating that podcasting is taking cues from radio, but really from old-time radio, with the success of "audio drama," which is really just Golden Age radio drama for a new generation. Everything comes full circle.) Or, better yet, maybe talk radio can be something unduplicated elsewhere -- live, interactive, and talking about things nobody else is, or leading the way by being first and original with topics and stories you can't find on Facebook or a podcast.

Most of all, I hope that talk radio can be fun again. Even political talk, 30 years ago, was more fun, when hosts remembered that they were entertainers first. Back then, you could listen to someone with whom you disagreed, and still come back every day for the entertainment, the shows you loved to hate. Today's traditional talk radio shows aren't nearly as fun. You don't get the sense that the host is winking at you, that they're just looking to get a rise out of people. There's trolling, but it's not fun. It's angry and mean and self-serious. Who wants to listen to that? Enough people to keep it going, but it's a narrow slice of a large potential audience.

Wait, I'm trying to be optimistic here. Okay, then, let's keep up hope that this year is the one when talk radio sheds some of its bad image and finds a larger (and younger, and more diverse, and less fringe-y) audience. It can happen. It SHOULD happen. Make my delusions real.

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Still in the process of moving, by the way. Shouldn't interrupt things much, though I'll be off the week of the 17th doing the actual relocation. And if you're in South Florida, I'll be there by the end of the month, so we should do lunch.

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