Talkster

As talk radio listeners, we've all groaned through listening to bad calls in the past. These range from a caller who is purposely rude to a caller who is misinformed to the truly clueless. If you do decide to take the plunge and put your name and voice in front of, potentially, millions of your fellow listeners, here are a few hints to help things go smoothly.

1. Turn off your radio. Hardly a talk show goes by without the host having to tell the caller this. If you must hear yourself on radio, set up a recorder in another room. If you have your radio on, it generates feedback making it impossible for the host to speak with you.
2. Minimize other background noise. While a TV, squalling child or barking dog isn't as bad as having your radio on, it's still pretty bad. It's rude to make someone at the other end of the phone line compete to be heard. Which leads to...
3. Practice good phone etiquette. As you would with any other phone call, give the host a short, polite greeting including your first name and where you are from.
4. Call from a quality landline. Don't use a cellphone, cordless phone or speaker phone.
5. While you do want to give a friendly greeting, remember that time is at a premium. At least one host, Alan Colmes, doesn't like to be asked «How are you?» or told «Thanks for taking my call» by every caller, as it gets redundant, so a simple «Hi, Alan» will usually suffice. Rush Limbaugh fans use the famous «dittoes» greeting, though even that timesaver has now turned into a game with everything from «dittoes» to «megadittoes» to «megaconservative dittoes» being offered.
6. Get to the point. Again, time is at a premium. If it's an advice show, give the short version of your story and leave time to fill in details that the host asks for.
7. Keep it simple. If it's a political show, try distilling your point to a logical syllogism - two premises and a conclusion. «Securing liberty is the highest purpose of government. Abe Lincoln secured liberty for more people. Therefore Abe Lincoln's government successfully fulfilled its highest purposel.» Again, leave time for give and take with the host rather than rambling about Abe Lincoln's relationship with Mary Todd when your point is that he freed the slaves.
8. Write down what you want to say. Don't read it verbatim, but write it down, look it over a few times and see how it sounds. Have notes handy in case you get off track.
9. Know your sources. If you are going to assert a fact, have a reliable source to back you up. If you're going to accuse the host of saying something previously - have a tape ready and offer to play it. If you don't have verifiable sources and the host disagrees, he'll call you on it every time.
10. Know the show. Alan Colmes doesn't like «How are you?», Rush Limbaugh prefers dittoes and Sean Hannity (and Bill Cunningham, originally) exchanges the phrase «You're a great American» with callers.
11. Listen from the beginning of the show you are calling on. Nothing's quite as annoying as the caller who calls in during the second hour asking a question that was answered fifteen minutes before his call. If you think you missed something, check the show's website, don't call and ask for material to be repeated.
12. Be original. Don't be the ten thousandth person to call John Gibson with the standard anti-McCain talking points. Don't be the 5,000th Ron Paul supporter to call Mark Levin under 20 different assumed names in a futile quest to get his approval of your candidate. Add something new to the conversation.

Talk Radio hit Broadway again February 25 with the revival of the Pulitzer Prize nominated play by Eric Bogosian, starring Liev Schreiber (Cotton Weary from the Scream Trilogy), as a controversial late night talk radio host.

«Ads for the upcoming Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's play have been rejected by a number of radio stations. The reason is that the spots contain a phrase from the play: 'pet's orgasm'.»

Eric Bogosian’s Pulitzer Prize Nominated play TALK RADIO, about a controversial late night talk radio host, will begin performances on Broadway at the Longacre Theater (220 West 48th Street) on Sunday, February 15th. The production will be directed by Robert Falls, whose credits include Death of a Salesman (Tony Award), Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Shining City.

Liev Schreiber will play Barry Champlain, the vituperative and mesmerizing radio host. He was last seen on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he received the Best Featured Actor award for his portrayal of Ricky Roma. His other recent stage credits include Macbeth, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, and Neil LaBute’s The Mercy Seat.

Liev will be joined by such talents as Peter Hermann â€ūLaw & Order,” â€ūUnited 93,” Erik Jensen â€ūLaw & Order,” The Exonerated, and Stephanie March â€ūLaw & Order: SVU” & Death Of A Salesman.

The board of the largest US radio broadcaster, Clear Channel Communications, is considering a possible leveraged buyout by the Mays family, which holds a controlling interest. Mark Mays, the CEO of Clear Channel has overseen a spinoff of «the company's live entertainment unit, Live Nation Inc., and sold shares of its outdoor advertising unit, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., in an IPO.»

Clear Channel subsidiary Premiere Radio Networks syndicates 70 radio programs including several of the most popular talk radio programs and personalities. Among others:

• Rush Limbaugh
• Glenn Beck
• Dr. Laura Schlesinger
• Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and Art Bell
• Maria Bartiromo
• Matt Drudge
• Donald Trump

Bloomberg.com: U.S.