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Kojo is great - you might be new to the area but its understanderble. When you settle in the local culture you will like Kojo more. In the mean time, just a reminder you are in the minority!
I like this, actually. With multiple guests on a topic, they are all going to be reasonably well-versed on most aspects of it, and by pointing the question to the "wrong" person, you flip the dynamic and instead of getting the typical canned responses of A (always) says this and B (usually) responds that A suffers from incorrect thinking, B has to be able to make his/her own talking point and gives A an opportunity to poke a few holes in B's argument. To me, it can show which guest has a better grasp of the big picture.
Except as often as not B says the conventional wisdom because B doesn't really know that aspect of the subject well, and A never gets to respond cause the show has moved on - or B has segued back towards his own area of expertise.
and no they often are not all reasonablly well versed on all aspects of a topic.
He and Rehm are my two favorites. He is absolutely never thrown off even by the most irrational callers, and treats everyone even-handedly and with respect, thinks quickly on his feet, etc. That is a very tough skill to master and apply. Ask any teacher...
One of my best friends works in radio and when they have a specific topic they want to discuss, they bring someone in with the knowledge and experience in that topic, but also someone else (a third party) who has general knowledge and/or an opposing view. As a previous poster mentioned, it avoids the canned and predictable responses.
Also, when I went on-site one time the hosts and guests did do some prep questions but it was very general, kind of like an outline. I guess it was a way of being spontaneous. Neither guests nor hosts profess to know 100% of a topic; it's just a discussion of several viewpoints, lots of questions, and shared experiences.
I like Kojo and Diane Rheem 85% of the time (not if a topic bores me).
One of my best friends works in radio and when they have a specific topic they want to discuss, they bring someone in with the knowledge and experience in that topic, but also someone else (a third party) who has general knowledge and/or an opposing view. As a previous poster mentioned, it avoids the canned and predictable responses.
Yeah, I know. But most talk shows (i am talking NPR here, not the screamers) lets say they are doing something on traffic in Northern Virginia, they have a traffic expert, maybe an expert on development and planning, maybe an enviro, maybe a business/growth type. Someone calls with a traffic question, it gets tossed to the traffic guy, a development question goes to the development guy, a policy question gets debated between the envir and the growth guy.
On Diane Rehm, somebody calls in and asks "will Tysons Corner continue to grow given the economy?" and ms Rehm turns to the poor traffic engineer dude and says "Well Tom, what do YOU think of THAT" and the poor befuddled guy stammers something out. As often as not when she does that we never get to hear what the development guy thinks, unless he takes an answer to a DIFFERENT question and segues back.
That is what I find so frustrating about Rehm. Not that she brings in folks with different view points, (Which any decent talk show does) but that she brings in people with different areas of technical or policy expertise, and doesnt optimize their use so to speak. If I wanted someone whos an expert in traffic engineering discourse on whether Tysons will grow despite the banking crisis, or an expert on US congressional politics discourse on whether Libya has nukes, etc, well theres the interwebz for that.
I always assumed that guests present in the studio gave a signal when they wanted to jump in, e.g., to raise a hand/finger, and that there might be a way for those connected via telephone could do so. I have not noticed many times when guests are surprised by being called upon.
Well, if anyone is interested in a really great program, in addition to the regular goodies on NPR, check out Radio West. KUER NewsRoom. There is such a difference between Doug Fabrizio and Kojo Naamdi.
Obviously there are occasional topics that are specifically pertinent to Salt Lake City or Utah, but most topics are much broader.
NPR Ate my brain. i think kojo is okay, but most if the topics are not if interest to me
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