I Hate When This Happens

This week's All Access newsletter really was a salvage job from an inadvertent revisiting of a recent topic. Maybe it makes sense anyway:

When you do something long enough, you can't help but repeat yourself. In the case of talk radio, that means you resort to your "greatest hits" topics. I do that, too, because a) there are some things that bear repeating, and b) there's just so much you can write about radio. Seriously, you try it sometime.

So, I wrote a column this week and realized only after writing quite a lot of material that I'd really covered the topic a couple of months ago. You'll recall the last column of 2009, in which I offered sage advice on interviews, and, well, I said almost everything I needed to say on the subject. And then I sat down this week and wrote much of it again before that sickening deja vu washed over me.

But there's a reason I went back to interviews, besides a lack of imagination. This is Super Bowl Week, and, naturally, the sports radio stations and networks are all down in Miami at Radio Row doing the musical chairs thing with a parade of guests. I imagine that being on Radio Row ranges from exciting (a Hall of Famer or cool celebrity drops by) to excruciating (no guests in sight, or you're stuck with some guy you don't want).

And then there's what it's like to be a listener. Sometimes, a guest is interesting, has something to say, is engaging and compelling. Too often, though, you get tedium. It seems self-indulgent, and if I'm sitting in traffic and hearing a guest plugging some hair product he was paid to endorse for five interminable minutes, I'm not having a good time.

I wrote in December about the value of NOT being deferential to your guests, the value of positioning yourself as your listener's surrogate to ask the tough questions. That was in the context of political guests, but it applies, in a way, even to sports and celebrity guests. You have to remember that it's YOUR show, not the guest's. YOU control the interview. If there are ANY off-limits areas where you're either afraid to tread or have been told not to go, don't do the interview. You don't have to play that game. You owe it to the listeners to ask what they want asked. If the guest pulls a Mel Gibson and curses you out, well, you're just doing your job.

And, please, if you're going to interview someone, tell your listeners who it is several times DURING the interview, not just at the beginning and end, okay? This is not a Specially Designed For The Personal Portable Purple People Meter suggestion, it's common sense. If I tune in and can't tell to whom you're talking within a minute -- seconds, really -- I'm not going to stick around to find out. All this week, I've heard long conversations where I had no idea who the guest was. I still don't know. And I changed the station.

All right, then. I'd like to think that I didn't repeat myself so much as elaborate on the theme. I'm deluding myself, of course.

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One place there's always fresh material is Talk Topics at All Access News-Talk-Sports, and this week is no exception. Really. You'll find topic starters and fresh ideas and kicker stories galore: for example, how about the amazing advance in ketchup packet technology, or the new "Richter scale" for shark attacks, or another girl auctioning off her virginity? And why some folks think Facebook is bad for your relationship, how a Lego gun got a kid in trouble, what happens when cops decide to enforce a cell phone ban, why gravel roads are making a comeback, why wind power wasn't such a good idea in Minnesota, why Men at Work are suddenly in the news again, another kid kept from school because of his hairdo, the glory that is Super Bowl chili, how drinkers are coping with the economy, a truly freakish pregnancy, the continuing consternation over Wall Street bonuses, how investors are finally demanding actual growth instead of cost-cutting, Toyota's troubles, and a reality show judge whose comments about a contestant managed to top anything Simon Cowell could ever say? Plus plenty on the economy, politics, sports, Haiti, and, you know, other important stuff? Yeah, you can use that. Plus "10 Questions With..." a guy who's done about everything in the News and Talk formats, KNX and KFWB/Los Angeles Director of News Programming Andy Ludlum, and the rest of All Access with the usual complete news coverage, columns, resources, and, like, yeah.

Don't forget, too, that if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can now download the All Access app to keep up on industry news and even submit tips; click here to download it, or search for "All Access Music Group" in the iTunes Store. Did I mention it's free? Because it is.

Enjoy the weekend and the Super Bowl. Who am I rooting for? Don't care. I'm an Eagles fan, which means I'm just waiting for baseball season now.

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com
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