Been thinking about the last show, and I think there are a couple of elements that made it super-awesome.
With podcasts, we basically sit down and "tell it like it is". Well, that's okay, and we do that on the site as well, but it's more of a "take it or leave it" kind of thing. That works, but maybe to a more limited extent.
As I mentioned before, we are even getting a lot of readers on the site who we might not have gotten before, perhaps due to the increase in the Level of Interestingness of the current times. IOW, things are heating up, and if your normal sources of info/leadership aren't "getting it", you go with somebody else who you may not totally agree with about everything, but you DO agree with them on some key points that really concern you. Well, that works for me!
This is what I shall call: The Jason Factor.
Jason said he is a conservative republican, which was interesting. Technically, IMO he is not a conservative republican in the modern sense of the term, just as communism in the Soviet Union was not really true communism. This kind of thing will make everyone think. For example:
a) Those who know him go, "What?! Oh..."
b) Those who don't know him and are modern conservative republicans go, "Oh... What?! [Oh...]" (text in [ ] is optional)
c) Those who don't know him and are NOT modern conservative republicans go, "What?! Oh..."
Instead of "divide and conquer", it's "unite and accept". In all 3 cases above, everyone is forced to stop and listen and think, regardless of their views.
Included in "The Jason Factor" would also be Joe's method of taking calls. As the hosts, they all said what they thought, provided data, blah blah blah, but when it came to taking calls, it was always, "What do you think about XYZ?" Unlike podcasts, these are discussions. Suddenly, the people who think in "The World for People who Think" are the listeners/callers. By that I mean that with talk radio, listeners do not have to be (and hopefully won't be) passive. The more people who engage, the more interesting the show becomes, and the more people will hopefully also want to engage.
Sure, we have Reader Comments on SOTT, but that's nowhere near the same as a live discussion. It's not just words on a screen; it's a live talk with real human beings with real voices, complete with emotional undertones and cues and all that jazz. It's more real.
Also, I think Niall sounded far more natural in the 2nd show. I don't know how to describe this exactly, but for example his closing of the show was very "radio smooth". Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but he was just "on" somehow.
Well, anyway, that's just what I've been thinking. Seems to me we may have a real winner of an idea/team on our hands here...
We'll see what happens next.
Jason, Kniall, Joe...GREAT job. An actual inter-view occurred :) Also, Betsy, very nice to put a voice with the text I have enjoyed reading here on the forum. Can't wait for the next episode!!
