EndorsementRadio.com

Hugh Hewitt knows what’s right for you. He knows what’s right for America.

I’m only slightly kidding. Mr. Hewitt, a top 100 talk radio show in the US, is just plain smart. He’s written a couple New York Times best-sellers, graduated from Harvard, is a law professor, and has a continual line-up of very smart people of all political stripes come on his show. You don’t usually get that pedigree with talk radio hosts.

So people often label him “the smartest man in radio”.

And it’s very good, informative radio – your personal politics aside. I’ve got to say that he often gives liberals, centrists and progressives a fair shot on his show, and through listening to the discussion, you always learn something.

He’s also become quite a bit of a cable news star, often stepping in when they want a conservative opinion on a given issue from a well known, well-spoken conservative without the screaming and diatribes.

He can also sell. I guess when you’re a pretty bright guy and people know that you’re not going to endorse just anything, you’re going to be pretty credible.

Ok, so he’s a morale crusader and thinks he knows what’s right for you. But that extends to what you’re trying to sell…assuming it makes sense for his audience.

Got to meet him a few weeks ago:

Hugh are you?

It always amazed me that the funniest people in Hollywood and New York were always politically very liberal – but liberal talk radio has been some of the most boring radio that has ever existed. I mean, Al Franken, a friggin former comic for cry-eye, had me veering off the highway, eyes rolled back in my head, and drool running down my chin when I listened to his liberal “show”.

Meanwhile, you’ve got conservatives – who outside of radio would be labeled boring troglodytes – bring passion and humor every day. Say what you will about Hannity, Beck and of course, Rush; a lot of their content can be funny and it’s eminently interesting radio, whatever side of the aisle you’re on.

People like Randi Rhodes and Stephanie Miller are changing progressive radio for the better. They bring humor through their quick John-Stewart-like wit, their cast of characters on the show with great timing and impressions, and their banter with guests.

It’s what Air America needed but never really had.

I don’t know if it helps a liberal host endorse a company any better – but I’ll tell you this: it’s going to keep listeners, and that’s more than what they did in the past. I think the trick with the typical progressive listener will be suspending their natural more cynical nature and be open to endorsements from their favorite host(s). More on writing for conservative audiences versus liberal audiences later.

The short of it is that progressive radio is embracing what makes liberals more fun: humor. Which makes me think, maybe Tom Leykis should come back to the airwaves – this time, going back to where he started: politics.

Thanks for your show, Stephanie Miller. Enjoy New York!

Here’s a bunch of us meeting with Stephanie at her New York studio.

Stephanie Miller stays awake during boring business meeting!

Some guys were born to do this.

Petros Papadakis is going to be a star. A national star. Yes, he’s fairly well known in the Los Angeles sports community and yes he reaches into pockets across the US through some syndicated radio and cable sports.

But that’s the tip of the iceberg for this cat.

Petros is going to be an empire, a machine, an industry. I’m not kidding. I’m glad I got to meet him yesterday because I think in a few years I’ll have to get through two handlers, a secretary, a PR spokeshole, and some beefy security to say hi to him as he gets into his limo.

Why? After all, he’s basically just a local sports talk radio host with some light syndication across the US. He’s also done some color commentary for football games and I believe he does the PA announcements at USC basketball games (Petros was a tailback for USC in the late 90s into 2000).

But he is magic. He’s so fun, so intelligent, so funny, so off-the-cuff, so charming that he captures a lot of my listening drive home. I think he could easily be as big as Jim Rome or Colin Cowherd some day. But here’s the thing: I think he’s bigger than sports. I think he could be a Carolla or even Stern (heck, maybe he’ll even figure out how to make centrist-politics work on the air instead of needing to be extreme left or right).

He can do sports, and he’s especially good at the college level – he filled in for Rome the day after Duke beat Butler for the NCAA basketball championship and I swear that first fifteen minutes was some of the best sports talk I’ve ever heard. He brought passion, he brought history and he brought humor. When he’s on a roll, it’s impossible to turn the channel.

But he’s much more than sports (and he’s not even much of an Xs and Os or numbers guy – he’s talking from his gut more than anything else). Petros can talk at length about movies, pop culture, all types of music, the Supreme Court, relationships, and English literature, his college major. And I’ll be honest, he’s actually more interesting to me when he is talking about non-sports topics. And he continues to bring the fire and the passion no matter what he’s talking about. He also takes big risks and, a la Charles Barkley, says what’s on his mind WHEN it’s on his mind.

In fact, I have friends who hate sports – hate everything to do with sports – and listen to Petros every day. I’m telling you – magic. You need to listen for yourselves.

What about radio endorsements? Does he bring it? Oh yes. I’ll need to find some examples and post them – but he gives probably the most passionate, knowledgeable read out there. I’m sure programming goes crazy on his live reads – because he’s always giving the client more than 60.

I need to shut up now, before my sales people read this and my rates increase.

Here’s the deal: Petros was born to do this – and his radio listeners and future radio listeners will sure be glad he was.

Here’s me with Petros after copious amounts of red meat.

Greek and Geek

Here’s a video of Petros being Petros. He’s an acquired taste for a lot of people – but that’s true of anything that stands the test of time.