In our constant search
for promotional opportunities for our books, one of the best options for us
seems to be the radio, namely, talk radio. They work primarily in
words without images, just as we do. They need content 24 hours, we
are trying to get ourselves heard by the public. It seems like a
perfect match! Alas, it is much harder to make that match work than
one might imagine.
First, you have to wade
through the majority of radio stations that play mostly music and only
interview celebrities. That leaves a much smaller number of talk and
news shows that will actually consider what you have to offer. You
can narrow down to these stations using the Radio Locator found here. This
will still provide you with a pretty large number, especially if you’re looking
for stations nationwide.
However, when you go to
these stations, you discover a very discouraging trend. Most of
these talk radio stations are dedicated to irrational, angry hate speech, most
of it conservative.
This is not to say there
is something inherently problematic with conservatism. Though I’m a
centralist who leans left, I see value in beliefs on the right; and above all,
I’m a big believer in everyone having the right to their opinion. However,
most extremist talk-show hosts do not. Shock-jocks like Rush
Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are nothing more than authoritarian
bullies. They pretend to be conservatives to gain an audience, but
the truth is, they don’t really care about politics or what’s best for the
country. All they care about is the controversy they spread to raise
their ratings.
This is not where I want
to talk about my books. It has nothing to do with what side of the
political fence I stand on. It has everything to do with the fact
that I don’t want to be on a show that refers to people as “pinheads” and tell
callers to “shut up” just for disagreeing with their opinions. As
for the stations that carry them, that is a bit more of a gray area with which
I have struggled. For a while, I sent my press releases to stations
that carried these shows, but had other programming that might be worth my
time. But I’ve stopped doing this. Part of the reason is
I have such a long list of places to contact now that I’ve narrowed down the
number of places I contact in the interest of time. But another
reason is because I got to thinking about what kind of station manager would
play programming of that sort. Let’s take Rush Limbaugh for
example. When Robin Williams died, he heartlessly said that he
deserved it. When Michael J. Fox came out about his disease,
Limbaugh callously made fun of him. A station manager who plays
Limbaugh actually listened to those things and said, “I want that on my
station!” That is a channel for which I have no respect, and no time
to appear.
What I do instead now is
look for “news” channels. “Talk” channels have become so overrun by
these extremist that they are virtually code words for “duchebags who merely
want to spread the seeds of hatred.” It’s still difficult to get
news producers to notice you because you still need some angle that is
informative for today. (My books being historical in nature often
don’t have any relevance to today, but I try to take advantage of any
opportunity I get.) I also try to get onto NPR. Some like
to say they have a liberal bias; but regardless of whether they do or don’t,
you don’t hear them raging against someone day in and day out, belittling
anyone who disagrees with them, as you often do on talk radio.
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