Posted on 06/22/2021 6:05:56 AM PDT by shortstop
Here’s some advice for Buck and Clay on their new job.
Buck Sexton and Clay Travis, the guys who took over for Rush Limbaugh.
This is some advice for them.
First, Rush is dead. I know, it’s sad. We’re all sad. We all miss him. He did a great show. He was our radio friend.
But he was Rush Limbaugh, not Jesus Christ, and it’s time to move on.
No more theme song, no more archived audio, no more voice from the grave. Let the great man rest, and stand on your own two feet.
On day one, you sounded like fill-ins, like somebody brought in from a temp agency, somebody covering because must be the guy from Harrisburg is on vacation and they couldn’t talk Mark Steyn into taking the job.
And that’s not the way to go.
It’s the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show, or whichever arrangement of names you’ve worked out. They put your names on it. It’s your show. And you should drive it like you stole it.
Because, kind of, you have.
You’re not sitting atop 400 affiliates because of anything you’ve done, you’re driving this big rig because of the lingering legacy of the last guy. And that’s fine. But don’t piss it away.
Floor it, squeal the tires, bend some metal. Kick some ass and kick it quick. Don’t waste a minute or a kilowatt. You’ve got America by the balls, er, ears, and you need to do something with it.
Now, before I go further down this road, let’s lay my bona fides on the table. Unlike your bold and successful careers, I’ve been Peter principled in small-market radio since about the time Rush started. If I knew what the hell I was talking about, it’d be my ass in that chair, not yours. So take what I say – like everything everyone tells you – with a grain of salt.
That’s especially true of bosses.
And producers and programmers and everyone else who wants to dissect or preplan everything you say.
Talk radio is a solo enterprise.
Except, I guess, when there are two of you.
But talk radio is about the host, and about whatever internal genius or lunacy drives him. Rush Limbaugh got to be Rush Limbaugh because he was fundamentally and forever different. He created a one-man genre that wannabes have been copying now for 30 years.
Rush Limbaugh took off because he didn’t do what everybody else was doing.
So someone – or two someones – who want a successful show should remember to be different, to offer a unique product, to give rein to their internal genius or lunacy. Sounding like anybody else is death, because if anybody else was what the audience wanted, anybody else would have the job.
But they don’t, you do.
And you must do it.
And you must resist the homogenizing influence of programmer- and producer-driven talk radio. Show prep and topicality comes out of your mind, it doesn’t come out of the pre-show meeting with suits on a Zoom call. If you need that, then come back to small market where I am and get some coaching. But if you’re going to sit in the big chair, be the big talent.
Also, and don’t be offended by this, but forget where you’ve been. And lose any traces of where you’ve been. This isn’t Fox, and this isn’t the Blaze, and if all you have to offer is what they offer, then, well, you miss the point of why Rush succeeded. Rush became corporate conservative radio because the entire industry built up around him. Its various offshoots, the polished and predictable Pablum of the entire conservative media business, are derivative and dull. You don’t want to be that. Your audience won’t long endure that.
Follow your own lights. Read Springsteen’s autobiography, and Willie Nelson’s, and maybe revisit “Private Parts.” Remember that you are performers, this is an art, not a science, and you don’t honor Rush by mimicking him, you honor him by doing what he did – by going your own way.
That’s what America wants.
That’s what will preserve and grow your audience.
Be yourself. Be real. Don’t be too polished. Don’t be corporate.
Don’t tell people what you’re going to do, just do it. Be compelling right out of the gate. Thirty seconds after the intro you ought to be hip deep in a topic, as if the urgency you feel can’t be restrained. And remember that your job is to be good company for people in the real world who are working their asses off and need a little bit of friendship and diversion.
Your job isn’t to make them remember Rush, it is to make them forget Rush.
This is the Clay and Buck show, get out there and show us who you are, and why you should be our new radio friend.
AM talk radio is dead.
Lonsberry has been moving left for quite a while. He had a snippet on a month ago stating that Ashli Babbit was not a patriot but a criminal. Disgusting!
He also suggested that the RINOs should have come up with an ALTERNATIVE to Obozocare while they had the chance and that neither President Trump nor the vapid GOP did anything.
I shot back with an email saying they should have repealed it lock stock and barrel not try anything “new and improved.”
I enjoy Mark Levin and his podcasts.
We get Bongino in Rush’s spot here in Northern Nevada.
This show doesn’t work. Travis yaps and yaps. Spent a lot of time bragging that he didn’t get vaccinated, who gives a sh—? Will not waste time on listening about their polls, with 3 1/2 years to go.
Also, the Rush clips I've heard remain relevant and should stand the test of time.
It is important to illustrate that the crap this country is going through was foreseeable.
It isn't by accident that it remains the EIB Network.
Whenever I watch or listen to Bongino, I feel like I’m being yelled at.
All I can think of is clay pigeons and buck shot
Totally agree. I tuned in for a few minutes. Good explanation of the USSC/NCAA case, but still, didn’t like two. I do like the Phoenix afternoon two, Hunter & Russell, but that’s the only duo I care for.
Wasn’t a Buck Sexton fan anyway.
This article could be rewritten in the same manner as it applies to Jeopardy.
Every single guest host has tried their best to be an Alex Trebek wannabe.
Rush is dead. Alex is dead. Move on.
Here in Ctrl MO, it’s the same as it was a week after Rush died. That Stewart? guy playing Rush sound bites but even more now.
We also get Bongino here in DFW in Rush’s time slot. I like that he is not trying to be a replacement.
Dan Bongino here in south Texas, too. I like him, but I wish he’d take more phone calls. Callers are what really make the shows interesting.
I thought the show mostly went well.
I disagree with this author. I thought they were faster and more entertaining than just about any fill-in I’ve heard so far. Mark Steyn can be funny when he goes off on one of his rants, but he is slow when he has a whole show. That goes for radio as well as when he is on fox.
I think Clay is a little nervous. He doesn’t actually sound nervous, but I can tell he was definitely not letting his true personality rip. He will get better once the newness tension wares off and the producers don’t try to control the exact script.
Maybe he will ease into calls? I agree that caller participation helps.
Yes, the EIB network will be able to continue using it.
I was surprised but pleased that my local AM station, which carried Rush’s show, has switched to Charlie Kirk in that time spot instead of Clay and Buck.
Exactly, he's a smart guy but too loud.
I'm listening to Charlie Kirk now in Rush's old time slot.
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