Born in the USA
with Gian Spadone
A popular topic that is discussed is how professional talkSPORT is and how it compares to its biggest rival in BBC Radio Five Live. talkSPORT does often compare their audience figures to Virgin Radio and Classic FM but in reality their biggest rival and the station they would love to take listeners from
is the BBC's home of news and sports coverage at Radio Five Live.
Living in the United States has given me the opportunity of listening to a lot of talk radio so I thought it might be interesting to compare what you hear on talkSPORT with what is on offer here in the USA. Based in Indianapolis, I hear two main talk stations in 1070 WIBC and Newstalk 1430. The line-up of these stations is very similar to the old Talk Radio station and, in fact, you will find that, originally, they modelled themselves on the traditional American format of talk radio. The schedules include general phone-in programmes, sport, agony and advice phone-in shows and magazine formats involving medical advice and, even, motoring.
However, as you'd expect, there are some major differences. The first and most obvious is amount of advertising and product trailers. It is also not uncommon to hear presenters such as Greg Garrison extolling the virtues of a local tradesman or business. Even the guys who do the traffic and weather reports advertise. Can you imagine Mike Dickin or James Whale on talkSPORT suddenly singing the praises of a "No-Win, No-Fee" Lawyer or "For all your palletised freight distribution needs; Use Palletways?"
The other big difference is that there is no attempt whatsoever at political impartiality. You might think that certain talkSPORT presenters make their political viewpoints known but it is nothing like what you will get on US radio. They have no problem in endorsing one political party over another and will tell listeners to vote for one particular candidate. As you are no doubt aware it is election time here and radio stations do not even attempt to be impartial. US talk radio is predominantly right wing, from the local programmes to the nationally syndicated programmes such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. These guys have no time for liberals and will give anyone who is even slightly left of the political spectrum a very hard and sometimes unfair time. In fact it is like having a presenter such as Charlie Wolf on air 24 hours a day.
When listening to American talk radio, and this is particularly relevant to the local programming, you will find political discussions of a much greater depth than what you would hear on talkSPORT or even BBC Radio Five Live. They discuss the legislature, local and national issues in a way which would could bore people in the UK though they do discuss issues which people in the UK would be familiar with. Illegal Immigrants, crazy leftist proposals and the state of policing to name but a few but you will still hear white van man calling in. Here though, I like to call them "unfeasibly large pickup man with a confederate flag bumper sticker". They make such statements as "in a few years the Spanish will be the national language" or "send 'em all back to Mexico" or "if we don't stop these immigrants in a few years there will be a civil war".
Other popular topics are the separation of church and state, interference of federal government and, of course, the war on terror. These stations do cover sport but, unlike the UK, local sport is covered in a lot more detail. It is not uncommon to hear high school and college football and basketball and not only being broadcast with live commentary but discussed on phone-in shows. The coverage of sports is very similar and the post-game sports phone-in showsare exactly what you will hear on talkSPORT. We all know better than the coach or referee and if we lost we were robbed or the manager should be sacked or fired from his job.
The talk stations and programmes I have listened to could do to have a bit more variety and that is what you have on talkSPORT. At the moment every discussion on the stations I listen to, seem to be ridiculing the Democrat candidates who are hoping to get the nomination to run against President Bush in November. I am hoping that once the election has passed more variety will be heard on the talk stations I listen to.
Regular visitors to the talkSPORT Forum will know one of my major gripes with talkSPORT is the abysmal website that seems more concerned with producing advertising revenues than actually giving the station, its programmes and presenters a higher profile. Whilst the recent revamp is welcome, it still needs a lot of work.
Unlike talkSPORT, commercial radio stations in the USA understand that utilising the internet can be a formidable tool in attracting listeners and the web sites of various radio stations reflect this. Have a look at wibc.com or newstalk1430.com. Both of these sites show how a commercial radio station should present itself on the net. There is plenty of information and the pages are easy on the eye and interesting. There are still plenty of adverts but these blend in well and whilst you are aware they are there it is obvious that first and foremost the site is about advertising the radio station itself.
On the whole I find UK talk radio, and in particular talkSPORT, much more enjoyable. I have yet to find a presenter who is the quality of someone like Ian Collins or Hawksbee and Jacobs. You may think that talkSPORT covers the same topics again and again but compared to the USA stations there is more variety. For all its faults I prefer talkSPORT and miss being able to listen to the station in the car or when I'm in the bath and as much as I enjoy Charlie Wolf I don't want to listen to him 24/7.
Born in the USA
with Gian Spadone
February 2003 |
