How Valuable Are Celebrity Interviews?
written by Dave Ryan
Sometimes I say some bone-headed things. “This ‘Twitter’ crap isn’t going to catch on”, for example. Or “No one’s watching, Senator Craig, come right in here.”
And sometimes I say things that some people don’t necessarily believe, but I really feel are true. Last year, I encouraged you to be careful about relying solely on entertainment news to carry your show, so you could spend time building your character’s identity.
Remember, everyone can talk about American Idol, but only YOU can talk about how YOU got in fight with mall security for stealing laundry money out of their fountain.
Driving home from work today, I heard a jock interviewing a contestant on next season’s Dancing With the Stars. It was semi-cool to hear her, even though the most exciting thing I learned was that she was “kinda nervous but more excited.” Wow, that’s compelling stuff right there.
We radio people tend to love having celebrities on our show. Maybe it’s because we’re sort of frustrated celebrities ourselves. Maybe it’s because it helps fill a break. Maybe it’s because we truly believe our audience wants to hear Big Hoss from Pawn Stars talk about old coins.
But really, how valuable are celebrity interviews now that we have PPM? On our show at least, they’re not as compelling to the audience as we thought. In fact, we’ve figured out that unless it’s a big star, listeners start tuning to other stations after just a minute or so. So that means Bethenny Frankel had better hurry up and be entertaining!
What would people rather hear than a minor celebrity interview? Let me answer that question with another question. Who is one of the most important people in your life? It’s YOU. Wouldn’t you like to hear a way to make your life better? This is why Oprah was so big. You could learn how to make your own life better by watching.
What would you rather hear? Three No-Miss Tips to Lose Weight, or a cell-phone interview with a sleepy Gordon Ramsey? How to Instantly Make a Good Impression or Rita Ora talking about her album?
Remember, we are pretty selfish creatures. I’m really happy Carley Rae Jepson is having such a great career and just bought a pet dolphin. But like your listeners, I’m really much more interested in ME.
What do you think? ME content or a celebrity interview? Leave a comment and let me know.
Learn more about Dave Ryan here.
