On the Varieties of Talk Show
Apr 10th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 1 Comment |
I believe that, in general, talk shows can be placed on a continuum of “content density.” The best talk shows tend to be content-dense. The worst shows tend to be content-thin.
The hosts of content-thin shows tend to try to make up for the content-thinness by making them subject-dense. In other words, they trade a density of subjects (i.e., topics) for a density of subjects (i.e., people).
Content thin shows tend to be call-in shows. They tend to have only one topic of discussion per hour (or maybe half-hour). Content dense shows tend to be interview and monologue-heavy shows.
To put some names with the labels: Limbaugh’s is a content-dense show. He’ll frequently go for long stretches (sometimes even an hour) without taking a call.
Charlie Rose’s is also a content-dense show. He discusses multiple subjects with each subject he interviews on the show.
Contrast this with the usual content-thin call-in shows where the host talks to multiple subjects about the same subject. (”Let’s go to Bob in Springfield, and see if he has anything different to say about the same topic every other caller has been talking about for the last hour [because I decided this was going to be the topic we talked about in this hour!]“)
Charlie Rose and Terri Gross are the two best interviewers I’ve encountered. Ms. Gross’s Fresh Air is usually excellent. I’m also becoming a fan of Peter Robinson.
What I find confusing is that the national talk shows tend to be content-dense, and the local talk shows tend to be content-thin. It’s as if the local hosts don’t want to gain popularity. Do they not see what the Big Guns are doing?
Another difference to note is that hosts of content-dense shows present themselves as giving you information (they are “news and comment” shows [as Paul Harvey calls his]) while hosts of content-thin shows present themselves as posing the audience questions, or as presenting topics to the audience for discussion.
But interviewing many people about the same topic is far less interesting than interviewing one person about many topics. This is one reason panel interviews (e.g., the Sunday TV politics talk shows) are not as good as one-on-ones.
And call-in-heavy shows are like interviews with a thousand/million-person panel . . .
I don’t listen to much in the way of regular talk radio anymore, mainly just sports talk radio, but one of the more popular national sports talk radio hosts is Jim Rome, and he addresses this sort of thing frequently, in a rather blunt way.
Rome takes relatively few calls (he actually went all of last week without taking a call, and was bragging about it all the way), favoring spending time laying out his own takes on a variety of issues, and having segment long interviews with 2 or 3 guests throughout the course of a 3 hour show.
Rome calls hosts who take lots and lots of calls “lazy and unprepared”, and says they are having the listeners do their jobs, because they don’t have much to offer themselves. Rome’s famous tagline as it relates to his listeners: “More of me, and less of you is good for the show.” He frequently accuses the listeners of “ruining” his talk show. Some of that bravado is his shtick, but there’s clearly something to it.