Appearing on a Radio Talk Show

Once you’ve gained some experience around particular issues, you are ready to approach a radio talk show. Particularly in smaller communities with limited radio coverage, it’s comparatively easy to pick and choose the shows you would like to be on.

Call the hosts with your idea for the show. Much the same as with calls to editorial writers, you need to be prepared with a concise and enticing “hook” to pique their interest. If you get them interested, they will trust that their listeners will be interested, too.

It’s important to prepare a hook when calling a talk show host, talk about current issues being covered in the news. For example, the release of major legislation, such as the impending passage of a piece of legislation being introduced in Congress, will carry more weight with talk show hosts than a general conversation about a particular issue. Be as specific with them as possible. Given the current climate of war worldwide an peace activists at an all time high, members of the media are actively looking for media on the peace movement. Pull out some information about current legislation from our campaign info download page to be prepared to have a general conversation about the issue. Have notes in front of you.

The two most important things you can do to prepare yourself for a radio talk show are

(1) to practice by having someone interview you over and over and

(2) to write up four or five main points you’d like to see covered during the interview. If the interviewer isn’t bringing up these issues, you can weave them in by saying something like, “Let me digress for a minute and tell you about a piece of legislation before Congress right now….”