P.S. You'd Better Be a Good Guest, Too!

As a follow-up to last week's posting about how to get on radio talk shows, it's worth noting that it's more important than ever to be a good talk show guest. More and more stations are using a device called the Portable People Meter to monitor how listeners respond to programming. The PPM is so precise in its evaluation of listening habits that station programmers can determine what PPM users were listening to when they decided to change the station -- and which station they switched to.

Program directors are, in fact, using the data to decide which guests do and don't get invited back.

The implications for us as radio talk show guests are pretty clear: We had better learn how to be good guests if we want to

1. be heard
2. get invited back
3. enjoy the easy publicity that comes with referrals from one talk show host to another (and that happens)

The solution? Get educated about how to be a good guest and consider getting professional media training. If you don't have access to media trainers, ask a local jock who does a lot of drive time interviews to spend a few hours with you doing practice interviews and critiquing your responses. Feedback is essential -- it helps you identify what listeners will and won't respond to.

Are you a great radio talk show guest? What do you do that gets you invited back?