A letter to the editor of the Herald recently claimed that the one thing that talkback hosts would never talk about is talkback itself. So that night, I opened up a discussion about talkback. I readied myself to public pillory - but what resulted was a love-fest as listeners called in to say how much they enjoyed talkback and Willie Jackson and John Tamihere's show in particular.
Of course, I was preaching to the converted but it also made me realise that all the bloggers, tweeters, texters and letter writers who have panned us as evil spawn intent on dividing and shocking the nation for ratings, do not actually listen.
Talkback is not even very right-wing these days. On RadioLive, you have Marcus Lush, Sean Plunket, Duncan Garner, Karyn Hay, Andrew Fagan, myself, Ewing Steven, Emma Lang and - until recently - Jackson and Tamihere. Not very Fox TV is it? I do not wish to speak for the guys at Newstalk ZB, but if you look at its line-up as a whole, it seems moderately conservative.
On talkback, listeners like you if they agree with your views and dislike you if they do not. Unfortunately, it does not work if you try to tailor your opinion to what you think the audience thinks. Callers seem to be adept at spotting a phoney and do not respond. That is why talkback hosts soon learn that playing devil's advocate does not work.
What we talkback hosts really want are great New Zealand stories and well thought-out opinions from listeners. We would prefer not to have to blab on by ourselves; rather to sit back and let you do all the work. Sometimes it is like that - and sometimes the discussion is banal or just plain ghastly. Often, I come home after my talkback shift and cringe at what I remember I said and how I could have said it better. But it is a live medium dealing with the issues of the day. Those issues are often polarising and contentious, and for most talkback hosts, it is not a matter of if they find themselves in the firing line, but when.
