Connect with us
Barrett News Media Summit 2024

News Radio

Election Fallout Creating Interesting Times for Talk Radio

This is the kind of scenario talk show hosts dream about. Every day it feels like the shows write themselves, kind of like a sports talk show host following his team to a World Series or Super Bowl.

Published

on

These are emotionally charged times for talk radio. We are over a week from election day and there are still debates being had over who won the presidential race in certain states, the U.S. Senate is hinging on two runoffs in Georgia, and the House still has several seats up in the air, and it looks like Republicans will net seats.

This is the kind of scenario talk show hosts dream about. Every day it feels like the shows write themselves, kind of like a sports talk show host following his team to a World Series or Super Bowl. 

With that being said, there is a hint of a circular firing squad going on right now within conservative circles. Was the election stolen? Was it “stolen enough” to flip states? Did Joe Biden just win and we all need to move on? Are you mad at FOX News for their Election Night coverage? Are you not? 

All these conversations are happening within conservative circles and in many ways, depending on how you answer, it is dividing people. 

As hosts, this can be frustrating, but fun. Heck, we are all supposed to be on the same page here, especially in an election cycle! But we’re not. 

However, this can make for incredibly entertaining talk radio. And in the end, that’s my job, plus there is a moment here to take advantage of. 

I’ve spent much of the week getting yelled at by all sides. “Pete, you’re not taking election fraud seriously enough!” “Pete, you’re nothing but a Trump lackey!”

Both things can’t be true! But, it’s made for a fun week and allowed every show to be unpredictable and entertaining. It’s brought moments of happiness, sadness, laughter and frustration.

However, as of right now there is no end in sight. But we can still do our best as hosts and stations to use this momentum to our advantage from how we host the show and handle the callers to how we image the station. On KCMO Talk Radio, we added new rejoins, liners and promos with our voice guy saying “Yell at Mundo… or compliment him… 576-7710 on KCMO”. We can use that as a rejoin or an imaging piece, or in a show promo with callers ranting and raving or complimenting in the same promo to have several voices and keep it moving forward.

Every talk show should want to curate callers who are going to disagree with your opinions as to avoid too much of an echo chamber. This can be tougher to do for a political show than a sports talk show. But in the wake of the most hectic election seasons in modern American history, we are now at a point where many who likely agree on policy and agenda are breaking from each other.

I believe a lot of this will settle down once the outcome of the Presidential election becomes official, but in the meantime, shows and stations can continue to capitalize with entertaining imaging, promos, show moments and callers, while riding the wave to hopefully a strong fall ratings book.

Subscribe To The BNM Rundown

The Top 8 News Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox every afternoon!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News Radio

Dom Giordano: Joe Rogan Needs to Remember He’s an Entertainer And Stay Away From ‘Dangerous’ Topics

Giordano called Rogan a “major, major figure who I think is insane in what he’s saying here and doesn’t have a thumbnail knowledge of anything.”

Barrett News Media

Published

on

A photo of Dom Giordano
(Photo: 1210 WPHT)

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan has never been afraid to wade into controversial topics or interview less-than-desirable guests on his podcast. 1210 WPHT host Dom Giordano believes it might be time for him to start.

In a recent podcast episode, Rogan claimed he believed Israel’s treatment of citizens in Gaza since the October 7th terrorist attacks from Hamas has bordered on genocide. He sat idly by as a guest equated the situation to that of the Allied Forces bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II, which killed an estimated 25,000 people.

Rogan claimed the message would be “We’re basically saying genocide is ok as long as we’re doing it.”

After hearing those comments, Dom Giordano admonished Rogan.

“Look, I get Joe Rogan’s prominence, but this is a dangerous area. The guy throwing Dresden — and a lot of listeners might remember that the firebombing of Dresden — the allies took it out. They did. I forget how many people were killed. World War II was not pretty. That, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, but it was exactly the moral thing to do,” said Giordano. “That’s exactly what needed to be done. So we’re not committing genocide here and then blaming the other side.”

Giordano called Rogan a “major, major figure who I think is insane in what he’s saying here and doesn’t have a thumbnail knowledge of anything…he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about here.”

Subscribe To The BNM Rundown

The Top 8 News Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox every afternoon!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

News Radio

Buck Sexton: NBC News Paying Contract of Ronna McDaniel is Nothing Compared to Megyn Kelly

“$600,000 for them is a rounding error. The amount of money these corporate news outlets can put toward stupid decision making — in both of those cases firing talent — is remarkable in and of itself.”

Barrett News Media

Published

on

A photo of Buck Sexton and the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show logo
(Photo: Premiere Networks)

NBC News severed its ties to former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after intense internal backlash. Radio host Buck Sexton says paying out her contract will be a simple one for the network, especially after what it paid to Megyn Kelly.

In 2018, Kelly insinuated it was ok for people to wear blackface as long as they were impersonating a black character. The subsequent backlash led to her departure from NBC News, with the outlet paying her the rest of her contract.

A similar situation unfolded with Ronna McDaniel, who has signed a reported two-year, $600,000 contract with the network to serve as a political analyst after resigning from her role with the Republican National Committee earlier this month.

After her hiring, many at MSNBC and inside the NBC News organization pushed back against the idea of hiring someone who had been intensely critical of the mainstream media, and also touted lies about the validity of the 2020 Presidential election until joining the network as a contributor.

NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde revealed it was his decision to end the relationship with Ronna McDaniel.

“I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it,” he wrote in an internal memo to staffers.

After the news of McDaniel’s departure became official, The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show began the show with the topic, leading Sexton to argue this isn’t the first time NBC News has been in this position.

“They did it. They actually fired the former RNC chair. I think she did one interview. The reports are they’re gonna pay her $300,000 for both of the years of her contract. For NBC, that’s nothing. Remember, NBC had to pay out Megyn Kelly’s contract a while ago at like $70 million or something,” said Buck Sexton. “$600,000 for them is a rounding error. The amount of money these corporate news outlets can put toward stupid decision making — in both of those cases firing talent — is remarkable in and of itself.”

At the time of her exit from NBC News, it was reported Megyn Kelly would receive $30 million from the outlet.

Co-host Clay Travis argued that while listeners of the show may not be big fans of McDaniel, people should be concerned about the treatment of Trump supporters. “They aren’t interested in talking to half the country,” he posited.

Subscribe To The BNM Rundown

The Top 8 News Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox every afternoon!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

News Radio

Eric Von Haessler: I Have Never, and Will Never, Win a Radio Award

“They can go through the motions all they want, but I know me and my career, and my career is nothing.”

Barrett News Media

Published

on

A photo of Eric Von Haessler
(Photo: 95.5 WSB)

95.5 WSB afternoon host Eric Von Haessler has had a long radio career. However, he says his trophy shelf has been, and will forever be, empty.

The deadline to submit applications for the Gabby Awards from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters is coming up, and Von Haessler joked with his team that entering a submission would be an exercise in futility.

“It’s never going to happen. You’re wasting your time. Nothing I have ever done in radio has gotten an award, anywhere. And never will,” Von Haessler said when producer Jared Yamamoto shared that he was being “forced” to submit a clip of the show to be nominated for an award.

“They can go through the motions all they want, but I know me and my career, and my career is nothing,” The Von Haessler Doctrine host continued. “What might happen, something like 15 years after my death, my grandchildren maybe (will see me get inducted).”

He noted that he doesn’t ever believe he’ll be inducted into any Hall of Fame, and said he learned a valuable lesson when he first got to Atlanta.

“I learned my lesson very early on. I was here for two weeks in 1998. And there was an award thing, it doesn’t exist anymore. We had just come to town, and they worked it out to where we would present some award, because we hadn’t been here long enough to do anything. And I watched this person who worked in the same building as that station. And she won like five awards. I had just came into town. I was like ‘Wow, she must be untouchable.’ Then she was fired like two weeks later.

“And that’s the lesson that hit me with just like, man, I was 34 years old. That was a great time to learn the lesson ‘awards don’t mean anything.’ Audience size, audience size, audience size. That’s all that matters. And that’s how I felt.”

It is worth noting that Eric Von Haessler finished in second place — behind KFI AM-640 host Tim Conway Jr. — for BNM’s Top 20 Major Market Afternoon Hosts in 2023.

Subscribe To The BNM Rundown

The Top 8 News Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox every afternoon!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Advertisement
Advertisement

Upcoming Events

BNM Writers

Copyright © 2024 Barrett Media.