How should I prepare for Internet talk radio shows?

BY TJ Walker

You should prepare the same way you do for any other talk radio interview, but try to keep a couple of differences in mind.

  1. Most internet radio shows don’t have a very large live audience. Most people will hear you on demand. And that means your messages and material should not be time specific since people might be listening to the show months or even years after you recorded it.
  2. Anyone can host an internet talk radio show, so the standards of the host and the quality of the listeners can be even more of a wild card than typical AM and FM radio.

You could spend a lot of time asking internet talk radio hosts and producers to give you data about their audience, how large it is, how many downloads, how long they listen etc. In my opinion, this is a complete waste of time because #1, for some reason, everyone in the radio business seems to lie about how big their audience is and #2, it will take you more time going back and forth trying to find out demographic information about the show than the actual interview will take. So I advise just doing the show and forgetting about it. If it has a huge audience, great. If it has a tine or n on-existent audience, what did you lose other than 5 minutes on a phone call, something most of us do with prospects or clients every day anyway.

 

There are a few internet radio shows that actually have sizeable audiences. If you get booked on one, try to go to the host and have the interview in person. If it’s not a huge show, then just do it by telephone.

 

Here are more reasons to do Internet radio shows:

  1. They are good proactive for other media interviews with larger audiences.
  2. You can link from your website and social media sites to the Internet radio show to give yourself more credibility with your clients and prospects and friends.
  3. You can benefit from the media’s herd mentality. The more media interviews you do, the more media want to interview you.
  4. You build relationships with hosts and producers. Today’s small time internet host could be tomorrow’s booker on MSNBC so it pays not to say “no” to requests that can get you blacklisted in the future.

In the end, I don’t think it pays to think in terms of “internet radio,” “traditional radio,” or “satellite radio.” From your perspective, you are doing an interview where you get to talk to people, answer questions from a host and/or callers and share your ideas and passions in an audio format. When you are a guru, this is a wonderful thing! I wouldn’t gout of my way to pitch myself on every internet talk radio show on the web (it’s too easy to get on bigger audience shows on traditional broadcast, cable TV and other outlets). But I would also be very careful to say “yes” anytime an internet talk show host or producer invites you to be on their show. It can’t hurt and it’s another tiny brick in the wall of your guru media kingdom.

 

For more information on media and presentation training please visit https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com http://www.mediatrainingworkshop.com and continue reading https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com for news and analysis to help you communicate more effectively.

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