Talk or morning radio doesn’t have to be raunchy to work

By: Steve Yuhas

There is nothing new about shock jocks or people who take to the airwaves only to pull juvenile pranks like fake phone calls or using idiotic voice inflection to make fun of an entire race of people.  If you think about the radio market that you live in there is probably at least one program that you can point to that uses shock value as a method to entertain the masses either on their way to work or on the way home. 

Shock jocks were all the rage over the years, but after Don Imus, a radio stalwart, was fired for his venturing into shock radio (something he was known for) people need to understand that nobody is safe from the ire of the public or advertisers when it comes to bad taste over the air.  Many in radio and commentators on television have said that there is a slippery slope when it comes to radio talk show hosts or morning drive FM teams, but I disagree and think that it is about time that radio cleans up our act.

Granted, I have not made a lifetime career out of radio, but I’ve been doing it for a few years now and I have yet to understand the need for some to go so far over the line that people cringe at simply hearing their name.  Shock value is sometimes used to get people organized in order to affect change and it is debatable whether or not that kind of shock is necessary or useful.  What is not necessary over the air is the type of radio that some markets have come to depend upon in order to make their morning drive profitable.

When radio jocks or talkers send people into churches to have sexual relations virtually everyone agrees that a line is crossed; similarly, when racist terms are used about certain ethnic groups there is little discussion about the consequence and there are firings or suspensions.  There are groups who are not protected from the ire of radio, but that group has shrunk to little more than white Christian males of which anything can be said or done and nobody cares.  That is wrong, but that is the way it is.

When Don Imus used what some considered derogatory remarks to describe women who simply played college basketball there was an uproar that led to a thirty year radio career coming to a crashing end.  After that happened some hosts decided it would be okay to make adolescent style prank calls to an Asian person in order to poke fun at their inability to master the American style lexicon of speech.

Imus was fired, the latter were suspended, but there is a bigger problem in talk radio and morning drive and that is there are far too many hosts who believe it necessary to shock people instead of informing them.  It is one thing to shock in order to inform but to shock simply to be mean and ugly is to shock for no reason at all and those people give everyone in radio a bad name.

Over the years that I’ve been doing radio I’ve constantly believed and my program director agrees that it is better to win a debate by listening and debating rather than by calling names and hanging up on people who disagree with an opinion.  On my program I take extraordinary time to keep people that disagree with me on the line and on the air in order that they get their point onto the airwaves that they own.

I don’t do it to be nice or because I think I’m better, but I do it because I think that it makes better radio to actually debate a caller on an issue than to call them a name if they disagree with me and cut them off mid-sentence.  Sadly that cannot be said for many in the industry who have become so caustic that there are people who are in public office who refuse to go on their program and groups that refuse to debate because of how they know they will be treated.

To shock instead of inform is not necessary and although I can understand why some radio stations allow it – I’m not sure why so many people in America like it.  Howard Stern went to satellite radio when his ability to shock gave the FCC cause to begin fining him and his network for the things he said over the air.  What enjoyment do people get from hearing someone use raunchy language and derogatory remarks about virtually every ethnic group on their way to work?  Is it fun?  Does it bring enjoyment or entertainment to the listener?  I don’t get it.

It totally escapes me because talk radio and morning drive hosts have a unique platform from where we can do more than just entertain people.  We can present facts in a way that people will listen and perhaps even change their minds or galvanize in support of a cause.  At the very least people will listen to what we are saying if we say it respectfully and without using terms that offend just about everyone, but gets a giggle from a few.

Talk radio and morning/afternoon drive has gone from a time when you can get news, weather and traffic to a time when you get those things wrapped up in sometimes vile messages and banter that is more appropriate to a high school or junior high than to grown men and women being paid to entertain the public. 

I like to think that when the red light goes on in the studio that I’m at the best of my game and that during the time I’m on the air I’m not just doing my bosses proud or the people that happen to agree with me a service by putting their ideas out to the public, but that I’m doing it responsibly and with class.

I used to enjoy listening to morning/afternoon drive and many talk radio programs, but some have become so vile and ugly that listening to them is no longer entertaining or funny.  They have become filled with anti-ethnic diatribes and many times what comes with them is a newsletter that uses that same language just to give people the extra oomph necessary to go over the line.

It used to be that I thought that radio that was just full of ugly rants against certain ethnic groups would be expunged from the airwaves because I believed people and listeners too classy to tune in.  I was wrong because some of the highest rated programs are full of ugly repartee that goes over the line almost every day.  As with Imus, though, it is not until people organize against it that anything is done.

I hope that if I ever become that kind of talker that I leave the air on my own without having protests and complaints to the FCC; I would also expect to be fired if I went over the line so much so that I become one of “them.”  Unfortunately there are so many shock talkers and shock jocks doing what they do every single day that it would take an enormous offense for me to end up on that level.

The funny thing is that many people who do that kind of radio end up being promoted and given more money and time instead of being reeled in by their program directors. 

It is a shame because talk radio could be used for much more good than it is and good people who have good ideas should be able to get them across without calling Muslims “rag heads” or Mexicans “beaners.”

I look forward to the day when talk radio goes back to what it used to be – or what my program director expects it to be: informative and entertaining time when hosts do the public a service by being on the air to talk about issues and problems and possible solutions. 

It is too bad that so many people are on the air couldn’t care less about being respectful or informative and have but one desire and that is to be the most shocking on their air in their time slot because people will listen.  Given what has been going on over the last few weeks with radio hosts it would be a good thing for people with a microphone to consider what can happen to them if they go too far. 

If it can happen to a man like Don Imus it can certainly happen to idiots who make people drink water to get into an amusement park or who make prank calls to hard working people whose only crime is to be from Asia.

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on AM 600 KOGO and may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com