...with
Ryan McGuire.
I remember years ago when I was doing
sports talk radio, I always measured my daily success
or failure by the number of phone callers I would get
on a particular topic.
Then I would look at my ratings at the
end of 3 months and say: "What the...?"
My general rule of thumb was..."gee,
if I'm getting a lot of phone calls on something...I'll
keep talking about it until I don't get phone callers
anymore."
I've always learned through mistakes...and
this credo was one of them.
Here is the reality of the situation:
callers represent less than 1% of a radio station's total
audience. If you let THEM decide what the flow of your
show is going to be, your catering to the minority; even
though it doesn't seem like it.
The vast majority of people have made
up their minds on how they feel on an issue after about
10 minutes (and some even less). So, if you want to hold
your audience, you need to go into a show with a wide
array of things to talk about.
When you think about it, this DOES make
sense.
Imagine the guy at the office who tells the same joke
to everybody he runs into. No matter how much of a gut-buster
the joke was...it stops being funny by the time you hear
the punchline 4 or 5 different times.
What I always tell my show hosts is...don't
carry a topic for longer than a couple of segments. If
something is REALLY good, bring it back later on in the
show. But keep throwing different things at your audience.
Get them to stay focused before they lose interest.
I know what you're thinking. WHAT IF
WE'RE TALKING ABOUT(insert HUGE topic here). Yes, there
are always exceptions to the rule. But even with the most
earth-shattering topics, there are ways to keep it fresh.
For example, I'm sure that when Barry Bonds breaks the
home run record, KNBR in San Francisco will spend a lot
of time talking about it. Obviously. But Barry breaking
the record can spin off in a whole bunch of different
directions. Instead of spending 4 straight hours asking
people "Should there be an asterisk next to this
record?" You can branch off into 6 or 7 different
relevant questions.
Remember, keep it fresh, keep it
different, keep it moving. Most people like the small
variety packs of cereal instead of the big box of bran
flakes.
Ryan McGuire is the Program Director for WSSP AM 1250
in Milwaukee. Prior to taking a management position in
Milwaukee, Ryan was an on-air talk host, most recently
in the morning drive slot at WTKA in Ann Arbor, MI.
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