Don’t Waste Your Time: Talk Shows Aren’t Meant To Be Fair

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and Howard Stern has a new book out
called Howard comes again or Howard
Stern comes again debuted number one on
the bestseller list doesn’t have an
audiobook because it’s basically
transcripts of audio interviews so you
you know you they they’re they’re not
making an audiobook of it which is kind
of sad because I’m a big fan I’m not a
big fan of his type of humor but I’m a
huge fan of his marketing skills and his
ability to understand his brand and to
extend his brand and to just be
absolutely certain that he is on the
right path for his particular approach
to entertainment
he’s a talk show host I was a talk-show
host and the other day I did a video
about you know the idea that sooner or
later I’m gonna say something or do
something that’s gonna tick you off it
wasn’t always like that it wasn’t always
like the fact that every so often I
would say or do something to tick
someone off for a long time my job was
to tick someone off every single hour of
every single show that I did because if
you think that the goal of a talk-show
should be or is to be fair and balanced
or to be even-handed or to be respectful
not even close that’s not what talk
shows are all about talk shows are about
finding a controversial stance on
something digging your heels in as the
host telling people exactly why you feel
the way you do in as provocative terms
as possible and then giving them the
phone number and letting them call in to
talk and not wavering one bit the whole
point is to generate controversy to
generate conversation that’s how talk
shows make money you there you know
there’s no prize for being oh that’s
really interesting tell me more about
that I’m open to your your point of view
you’ll never hear a talk-show host say
that you’ll hear a talk show host call
you an idiot
you’ll hear talk-show host say you’re
you’re brainless you’ll hear them when
you agree with them tell you you’re the
smartest person in the world as a
listener you know this is whole notion
of you know why wouldn’t you want to be
fair why wouldn’t you want to be nice
isn’t that gonna make better ratings not
even close
no the highest-rated people are the
people that are the most controversial
the most divisive the most I’ve got my
position if you don’t agree with me
you’re wrong
lots and lots of social signaling and
the proof is in the pudding you know
back in the mid 90s
Howard Stern’s first book called private
parts was made into a movie and one of
the one of the passages in the book was
a moment when WNBC New York sales
manager came into a meeting you know the
general manager was wringing his hands
what am I gonna do about Howard he’s
killing us and the sales manager was
like yeah I know he’s not he’s not
killing us and the gentleman was like
what are you talking about people hate
him yeah we like those people that hate
him why do you like the people that hate
him well the people that liked him
they listened about three times as long
as the average listener you know if you
ever was in a Marv if you ever in a
market where the news talk station says
give us 22 minutes and we’ll give you
the world that was the original 1010
wins positioning statement that’s
because the
average time spent listening during the
morning for a single person is 22
minutes that’s how much time they’ll
spend with your radio station so if you
give us 22 minutes we’ll give you the
world was what their their slogan was
the general manager was told by the
sales manager of WNBC about Howard Stern
people who loved Howard Stern listened
for just over an hour every morning
that’s three times as long as the
highest-rated station at the time 1010
wins was getting people to listen he
said well yeah so we should be you we
should be figuring out how to attract
more of those and the general sales
manager said no no the people that hate
Howard Stern they listened for an hour
and 45 minutes on average because
they’re screaming at their radio they’re
driving in from further out to the city
they spend more time in their cars
during the day they are an even better
target for all of their advertisers so
the point of a talk show is not to be
fair it’s not to be balanced the point
of Fox News is not to be fair and
balanced even though that’s what they
say they are I mean that’s all showbiz
the point of MSNBC the point of NPR is
not to be fair and balanced the only
really good example here in the states
of something that is fair and balanced
because they’re not allowed to take a
position on anything is c-span which is
basically the government broadcast of
our Congress and House and Senate and
and events and stuff even when they
present things they’re not allowed to
when they take phone calls on something
they make sure that both sides of an
issue get the same number of calls on
the same number of minutes there’s
nobody on c-span that is like an opinion
a pundit somebody who has an opinion but
all of the other networks all the other
shows even CNN even the news cast they
have a point of view you know and if you
think they don’t you’re just fooling
yourself
now you may agree with their point of
view and so it may not be apparent they
have one but that’s
their job that’s not their job and when
you listen to a talk show on Radio know
that what the host is trying to do is
tick you off there you go so if you
didn’t know that a little behind the
scenes stuff some of you already know
because you worked in radio what do you
think what talk shows do you listen to
and like because you hate the host or
like because you like the host let me
know in the comments below if you’re
watching on vo – go go leave me a
comment let me know what you think about
all this if you’re watching anywhere
else go to vo – go go calm because we’ve
got some great stuff for you there this
by the way is the 150th episode of the
365 or is it 366 this year I’m not sure
I’ll do is yeah well maybe we’ll do an
extra one just to make sure just to be
absolutely sure we did one per day for
the entire year
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I’m David H Lawrence xvii thank you so
much for watching and I will talk to you
tomorrow.