The Trump Story and Your Monday Show
The hardest and the easiest shows are the ones where there is a central topic everyone knows about and is being talked about.
What happened to former President Trump at his Pennsylvania rally Saturday night applies. I believe great, relevant shows are about what’s happening right now. So, let’s touch on how to handle this charged topic:
Understand that listeners are looking for connection and humanity around their content. This story is very top-of-mind so share updates of current information. Work to know what’s new before you take to the air. Because you are not used for news, finding someone with news credentials to deliver this information in a conversational way, it might be appropriate.
Don’t ask listeners how they feel about this and definitely don’t take phone calls. Listeners could very easily make this about politics, which is a no-win. Don’t let them take you there. Ditto any commentary from you. You want to be careful listeners don’t misconstrue any of that.
A safe spot to be in is to reflect on the volatility many people are experiencing on social media. Anyone seeing anything even remotely partisan is repulsed. That’s not a bad place to be. Using your power to dial down the temperature is easily rewarded by almost everyone in your audience.
Remember that you control how people feel when they listen to your show. There’s fear and anger – play into that and you accentuate those emotions. But if you are the trusted talent and calm people, that builds you and your show more.
Some guests that might make sense: a child psychologist to talk about how you have this conversation with kids. Another show I respect is finding a former Secret Service agent to talk about the training they go through for just these situations.
You might only need to prepare a half of a show and rerun (or re-do) those segments later. Listeners come to us for very little time so don’t feel the pressure to do several hours of original content around the topic.
It’s very important you know your stuff. Sometimes it’s easy to take what’s read on social media as gospel. Be prepared and know what you’re sharing is accurate. Because having a plan will make doing the show much easier.
Humanity is where radio shines.