It’s been touted as the most anticipated debate this election season. The first Presidential debate of 2024 was a Hail Mary toss for CNN, yet they landed short of the end zone.

It’s the earliest debate ever held. Neither candidate is technically on the ballot in any state (because they are not yet the nominees of their party). It is also the re-match most people in America did not want and the media is failing in it’s duty to be the fourth estate.

In the first debate where mics of nonspeakers would be muted, it was not surprising both candidates had multiple clipped answers. It’s good because it showed that their audio technician is human but it also showed they muted mics equally and without prejudice.

What was ridiculous was both Biden (46) and Trump (45) stepping over each other on 46’s golf handicap. This would have been a perfect opportunity for Dana Bash or Jake Tapper to step in and get the two elderly statesmen back on track. Yet, this is one of the many examples of the pair failing at their moderator duties.

The first three follow-up questions were all to Trump. In fact, 45 was asked the same question significantly more than Biden. It’s not from Trump lacking an answer and Biden providing perfectly coherent responses. It’s from a failure of their journalistic duty.

The point where Bash failed was when she asked “If [Trump] will accept the results of this election?” 45 answered that question the first and third time she asked it. However, if she had been listening, Bash would have heard the first time Trump answered it. This gives left-leaning outlets a chance to say he didn’t answer the question fully. It also provides them an opportunity to praise Bash for “pressuring” Trump.

Conversely, Tapper missed two opportunities to pressure Trump on key issues (likely because his answers could have picked up some moderate left voters). The first: If Palestine should be a recognized country. The second: What would [Trump] do to make child care more affordable?

There were several instances where Biden did not answer a question, fully, completely, or coherently. However, instead of asking the same question again — like they did with Trump — they asked a follow-up question. To Tapper and Bash’s credit, they both noted when each candidate had time left and asked a second question (provided the candidate answered the first question to their liking).

While both moderators tried to “refocus” Trump on certain questions, neither of them tried to refocus Biden when he did not answer (or stumbled through a response).

A most notable failure? Tapper began asking a question (moving on from the January 6th topic) when Biden raised his finger asking for rebuttal time. No, Jake! This showed your bias. You began asking a question. This means it’s time to move on. Not allow Biden to rebut Trump. This is Tapper handing the debate over to Biden and not maintaining control.

Speaking of moving on, CNN (and all other outlets) need to move on from having commercial breaks. It is ironic and symbolic because it shows how the Presidential race has become more of a commercial enterprise than a public service (which is what our Founding Fathers intended our government to be: public service). Other outlets could have seized the opportunity to review the debate.

All the major outlets aired (their own, not simulcast) commercials during the break. The only people to benefit from the commercial breaks were media suits. It’s a sad day for journalism when what should be a service provided to the American public was manipulated into a profit machine for large corporations.

However, there was one major failure of CNN which came before the debate. In 1992, Ross Perot (I) joined President George H.W. Bush (R), and then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton (D), on the debate stage. It marked the first time ever three people had shared the stage for a Presidential debate. True American politics at work. This is what our system was designed for.

Yet, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was nowhere to be found on this debate stage. While CNN claims he did not meet the qualifications to participate, his campaign says neither did the other candidates (because neither is technically on the ballot as they have not yet been nominated by their party).

In May, the Kennedy campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission but to no avail. It’s ironic the debate that takes place on Ross Perot’s birthday is not allowing a third-party candidate to participate. Kennedy instead held a real-time debate on X.

Biased “journalist” media outlets have lost integrity and self-respect. Plus drinking games and bets on which President would poop their pants on live tv first. Yes, the 2024 Presidential debate featured exactly what the other 99% of Americans feared: evidence that we are hopeless to the broken system and biased outlets that used to make our Democratic Republic so great.

Regardless of who wins in November (I hope it’s none of the above), we Americas and the American Media need to put our bias aside and unify as a country, something CNN moderators Dana Bash and Jake Tapper did not do. Supporting the President — regardless of party — is extremely important because if the President fails so does the country. We need a media outlet to unify the country. CNN is not said outlet.

Last Friday, I wrote about the critical need for news/talk radio stations to reduce on-air clutter and give audiences a reason to listen more often and for longer periods. We arrived at the best solution, the only solution really: drastically cut the spot load. I mean cut it in half or more.

Now that we’ve agreed to give your listeners and clients a premium product with greater personal service by reducing your content-killing spot and promo load from 24 minutes to 12, what will you do with all that extra time? This is the perfect opportunity to reexamine your program content in detail with a mind toward cutting out anything that’s not an audience grabber. Without putting too fine a point on it, let the dog wag the tail again.

I did my first news anchor shift in 1976 and nearly nothing has changed in the 48 years since. We had network news straight up at the top of the hour, traffic reports every ten minutes, weather at scheduled times, and sports and business news reports also at specific times. Radio programming was managed by the hour, minutes, and seconds.

In 50+ years, the only thing that has changed in all-news radio is the size of the spot load. It’s the radio equivalent of the fabled Great Pacific garbage patch.

No, I’m not saying your clients are garbage but asking your listeners to wait through five or six-minute commercial breaks four or five times an hour is unrealistic, trashy radio and frankly, you’re ripping off your paying customers.

The problem is the clock, the 60-minute hour. That’s what causes the trouble, isn’t it? Everything we do has to fit into 60 minutes.

Why?

Let’s dump the clock. I’m serious. Let’s stop thinking in terms of sound hours illustrated by analog clocks, circles with pie charts, dots, and numbers. Except when you need to be someplace or do something at a specific time what difference does it make? Clocks are just tools but in radio, the clock is a prison. We still do everything in circles, starting at the top and returning there sixty minutes later so that we can start all over again.

Technology has advanced. We can program our very specific personal needs each day. Why can’t radio people jump into the 21st Century and realize that listeners no longer need us to pack their lunches and make sure they catch the school bus on time?

When’s the last time you as a listener punched a station preset in time to catch Traffic on the Fives? And when was the last time the shotgun approach to radio traffic reports gave you any useful information that Google Maps or Waze couldn’t deliver instantly, with real-time details on traffic conditions at your precise location and the best current route to your destination? Never. Radio has never been able to do that.

Back in the good old days traffic reporters were personalities, part of the show. In the best major and medium market stations they flew in airplanes and helicopters, able to describe the tie-ups, alternate routes, crash sites, fires, police activity, and everything else they were seeing. It didn’t usually pertain to your personal location but it was descriptive theater of the mind from a friendly, familiar voice.

Now we have voices from a Los Angeles studio reporting traffic in Salt Lake City, though the reporter has never even been there and can’t pronounce some of the street names correctly.

As a news anchor or talk host preparing for your on-air toss to traffic you know that your L.A.-based reporter has no time to listen and chat with you on the air. She/he is also filing for three other stations in drastically different markets. They don’t even hear your show and may not know your name.

Besides, most of those traffic reports were recorded ten minutes ago. We don’t tell listeners that, of course.

Dump scheduled traffic. Seriously, you’re trying to maintain a useless old-school illusion for your audience. You’re being the Great Oz behind the curtain.

When the big traffic-related stuff happens your newsroom editor or producer can interrupt with the breaking information: “A big rig has crashed at the Hollywood split, 101 to the 134 interchange. Check the News 1280 traffic map for exits and alternates.”

The News 1280 traffic map? Sure, why not? Link your live stream to a real-time traffic map provider. It’s right there on the commuter’s in-dash screen and won’t interrupt the radio show for listeners miles away.

So, that gets rid of another six minutes of tedious, unnecessary, and largely useless information clogging up your content. What else?

Ah, yes. Business and sports reports.

I’ve never understood the point of doing business reports that sound to most people like yodeling cattle auctioneers. People who want that information have far better sources than your radio station. And, sports? If you’re in a market that has its own local or regional sports station, leave the details to them. When there’s big sports or money news that you can’t ignore, stick it in a newscast or make it a segment.

That goes for weather, too, depending on your market and the time of year. Here in North Texas, we get tornados and baseball-sized hail in spring and autumn. That’s worth talking about in detail but usually, “sunny and hot through the weekend” says it all.

Now, we get to the fun part. What do we do with all this newly created extra air time? More news? Maybe, if it’s a busy news day. Longer stories? On less busy news days you can take a little more time with those fascinating, complicated tales now that you don’t have to break for traffic and six minutes of spots. But longer stories in general? Nope. The point is, extra time is extra. You shouldn’t stretch news to get to the next formatted break. Nothing should be predetermined in length.

Why do we still draw pictures of “sound hours” that map out three and five-minute newscasts, spot breaks, and whatnot, specifically down to the minute? That’s exactly what we’re trying to get away from. Somedays your air talents need seven minutes to tell compelling stories, other times 30 seconds works. You’re paying them to have the judgment, talent, and craft to deliver the goods, not to watch the clock.

Do what radio does better than any other medium: Entertain me. Help me like you. Don’t BS me.

I’m not saying anything you haven’t heard a million times. People want a human connection with radio. We want the company of other real people we can relate to, laugh with, and who share our annoyances. We have countless varied and questionable sources of news and information. You only have one morning team and I really like them. I trust them. Give me more of that, people talking about the news and life itself. Give me something to think about and a reason to smile.

Technology is taking us to a new level of creative efficiency but it will never – trust me on this – it will never replace us. It will never have a heart and a soul.

For God’s sake, give me people radio again.

If you’re old enough to remember the days when newspapers actually meant something to the community, you might remember the power of the local crusading columnist, the writers who would keep an eye on local politicians and alert the public to corruption and malfeasance, usually with a combination of wit and anger. Most big city papers had news columnists like that. A few – Mike Royko, Jimmy Breslin – became well-known outside their markets. But the bottom line was always that readers knew someone was on their side, watching, commenting, and not letting the politicians and bureaucrats get away with anything.

Those days are mostly gone, and the rough equivalent of the crusading columnist tends to be someone with a Substack or social media account. That’s not the same thing, because some writer with a Substack doesn’t have the audience the old-time columnists have. A look at the polls right now should tell you a lot about how little the public knows about what’s going on, even as the internet allows for an unlimited amount of information to flow. The problem is that there’s too much to process, and too much disinformation, and too few trusted news reporters and analysts to go around.

But that’s not to say that someone can’t fill those shoes. I can point to KUSA-TV Denver’s Kyle Clark as one example, a local reporter who’s building a national reputation for several reasons, not the least of which is how he handles debate moderation. Perhaps you saw the clips of his debate evisceration of Lauren Boebert on social media, but he’s also known for being tough on Democrats as well as Republicans.

He asks the tough questions, which tend to be those simple and obvious points from which other reporters and anchors shy away, and doesn’t stand for non-answers. (I’m writing this the day before the presidential debate, and I hope the right questions get asked and non-answers aren’t tolerated. We’ll see.)

He’s not alone. WFOR-TV Miami has Jim DeFede, a former Miami Herald and Miami New Times columnist and reporter who mines the spectacular corruption in local politics. Maybe you have someone like that in your market, someone who knows where the bodies are buried and isn’t afraid to go after the powerful.

Or maybe you don’t, which means there’s an opportunity, even for radio, newspapers, and podcasts. What’s missing in news coverage and talk radio are the reporters and hosts who don’t parrot conventional wisdom (or, worse, political party talking points) and instead take on the powerful and privileged, standing in for the audience, unconcerned with access. Anyone can commit talk radio, talking about the election exactly the way every other host does it.

It takes a particular talent to do the work of networking, research, and compiling the deep knowledge of local politics and customs and turn that into entertaining content.

Here’s your test: Who’s the news media personality whose name is synonymous with your market? If you can’t come up with anyone, that’s your opportunity. Go find that person. If that person works for another outlet, try and hire them away. If you can come up with that name and it’s someone on your staff, promote the hell out of that. And if that name is yours, congratulations, and keep doing what you’re doing.

You wanna attract an audience even though people are telling you that your medium is dead or dying? Make content that people in your market absolutely have to listen to, watch, or read to know what’s really going on in your area. There’s a huge opportunity to become the local news institution. Why not you?