Talk radio interviews are one of the bases of a writing homerun. In fact, they’re custom-made for non-fiction authors who want quick, affordable national exposure for their titles.

Let’s face it, where else can you:

* Kick-off a coast-to-coast publicity campaign in less than three weeks?

* Create promotional “buzz” for your book at the grass-roots level?

* Reach America’s greatest urban markets – Boston to LA – from the comfort and convenience of your own home?

* And, talk directly to fans and fans-to-be?

Publishers and best-selling authors understand all this. They know the marketing and promotional value of appearing as a guest on talk radio. And, of course, so do we, as we’ve been arranging interviews for almost 20 years now.

And, during that time we’ve certainly learned a thing or two about the preparation that goes into booking guests on talk radio.

Let me share some tips with you:

TIP #1. Stay Current

First off, you need to follow the news. What are people talking about? What is the media saying? What’s the buzz? Why is this important? Because, in case you haven’t noticed, talk radio is all about current events. Current events in politics, in sports, weather, health, culture. So when you know what’s current, you can package your message to fit the news: making you an attractive guest for a talk show. Your job is to scan the network and cable news channels, the newspapers, look at news Websites, and, most importantly, monitor the talk radio landscape. Take time to listen to some local and/or national talk shows, hear what they’re talking about – get a feel for the rhythm of it. Most of all – get a pulse of the public listening in.

TIP #2. Tie-Ins To The News

I mentioned “packaging” your message? That’s a key. As you follow the hottest stories in the news, think of ways you can tie the message of your book into them. Look for controversy or big names, big money or even relationship issues: These are always tantalizing topics for many talk show hosts (and their listeners). Developing a good angle for your book that’s newsworthy means you might even be able to get on the air with your novel – we’ve had success doing that a number of times.

TIP #3. Pitch Your Topic, Not Your Book or Yourself

As you develop your message, keep in mind that radio hosts are interested in what you can do for their listeners, not what they can do for you. They want an interview, not an infomercial for your book. So, when pitching to hosts and producers, put emphasis on the issue you want to talk about on the air, rather than on your book. The fact that you’ve authored a book gives you credibility “currency,” so spend it wisely when pitching your cause. There’s no need to worry: once on the air, you’ll be given plenty of opportunity to plug your book during the interview.

TIP #4. The Right Press Release Formula

Nothing is more important than the press release itself – it’s your key to the media’s door. The quality of our press releases have everything to do with our success in booking guests. You want to make sure your headline is enticing – it’s got to grab the media’s attention. The text of your release should elaborate on the subject matter and what the “on-air” conversation will be about. It’s always good to include a couple of juicy or provocative quotes. Also include a short, but impressive bio, and 5 to 10 questions you’d like the host to ask you.

There’s plenty more to learn about, but these few tips can help jump-start you into the world of talk radio.

Whatever business you are in, you are also in the communication business. Nothing gets done in the human world without lots of conversation and that makes your choice of phone system one of the most important investment decisions you will make. By buying into a hosted PBX (private branch exchange) service you will get several business advantages:

Ø Your total phone investment will be lower. The start up costs investment of a normal non-hosted PBX could easily be $10,000 or more. It will typically last only 5 to 7 years too. So you would have to renew it after that time. Compare this to hosted PBX systems that are priced per user per month. This lets you pay out only for what you need as well as improving your cash flow over time.

Ø Hosted PBX puts you in control. The administration tools for hosted PBX services are usually Internet based. Extending the number of users, changing extension location and number, and changing ‘hunt routines’ or call queuing is simple as using as mouse. Imagine no more service engineer appointments and total instant responsiveness.

Ø Employee support wherever they are. With hosted PBX services, people who work from home or out on the road can be plugged in to all the services of your main phone system – without fuss, equipment or technical input. Just so long as they have broadband Internet – and let’s face it who doesn’t these days? Every one of your people can have a phone link and telecoms network support.

Ø Your business on the move. Your employees may be out of office but they never feel out of touch. The appropriate hosted PBX service can make their cell phone their lifeline to the company phone and decision making center. Anyone looking to use their extension will be put right through to their cell, and they’ll be able to deal with queries and forward calls as if on home base. Cell phone users might prefer to use their laptop as a communication center by having the soft phone, a computerized solution cuts down on equipment.

Of course there is always a downside with every phone system and the hosted PBX is totally dependant upon your Internet connection. Now these tend to be 99% reliable these days but the hazard of viruses, network problems, or other breakdowns causing your business to go offline, even temporarily is still there.

Now most people can find other valuable stuff to do while the Internet sorts itself out but to be out of voice communication for any length of time is very disorienting and can be costly. Hosted PBX services do have a reliability edge however. When your Internet service lets you down, your people won’t be able to make or take or make calls, but calling you is still on due to your fully customized PBX. It’s still on down at your phone provider’s data center and not your office. This means that customers will still hear recorded messages and can leave voicemail. Thus limiting the disruption.

It seems that everyone is looking for the “secret’ to success.

Well, let me tell you that there is no one single secret.

Success involves many different steps or “secrets”.

I am going to give you one of these secrets. It’s illustrated in this story. It is a true story.

I have not seen the show myself (since I don’t speak Arabic), but it is a very well known story in the Arab world.

Prince Talal bin Waleed was being interviewed on an Arab talk show.

If you don’t know who he is, Prince Talal bin Waleed is one of the richest men in the world. As of 2007, his net worth is estimated at US$20.3 billion and he is ranked by Forbes as the 13th richest person in the world, and the richest Arab.

Anyways….

The talk show host asks Prince Talal, “What is the secret to your success.”

Prince Talal doesn’t reply.

Instead he reaches into his pocket and takes out his cheque book. He writes a figure on the cheque and offers it to the talk show host.

The presenter takes a look at it and is stunned.

The cheque is for a whopping one Million dollars ($1,000,000).

“Here, take this,” says the prince.

To which the talk show hosts replies, “No, thank you.”

The audience is holding their breath. There is pin-drop silence as everyone in the studio is waiting to see what happens next.

“No really, take it. It’s yours. No strings attatched,” says the prince.

To which the talk show host replies again, “No, thank you.”

To this day, I have no idea what was going on through the host’s mind. Maybe he was being polite… Maybe he didn’t need a million dollars….

In any case, the prince asked him one last time: “Here, take this cheque for a $1,000,000. It’s yours to keep.”

And sure enough, the talk show host again said that he did not want it.

Prince Talal then takes the cheque, tears it up and proclaims:

“This is the secret to my success. I saw opportunities and I immediately took them. I received a chance to make money and I took action. You had a chance to do the same just now, by accepting the million dollars that I offered you, but you hesitated and did not take it. That’s the secret of my success.”

There you have it. This is one of the secrets of successful people. You have to take action once you get a money- making idea.

As Dr. Joe Vitale (from www.mrfire.com) likes to say, “Money likes speed.”

And he is absolutely right.

Your online neighbour,

Koorosh Vahabi

I’ve been focused on this loan mod frenzy since the start – and 96% of my loan mods succeed? I created the 60 Minute Loan Modification Kit…to help others succeed with their mods.

Now, in 2010, with so much press about loan mod failures, I often asked why I’m still getting such a high success rate. My answer? It’s all about “file inertia”.

That’s how I describe the fact that files in motion tend to stay in motion. And, files that are stopped tend to stay stopped. So, your loan mod application needs, more than ever before to be perfect. Perfectly presented, perfectly complete, perfectly accurate and perfectly approvable.

Lenders are swamped. That’s not news. One way to get more time to work on the files and get management “off their back” is to reject as many files as possible for whatever reasons are plausible. Think about it. There is a ton of incentive to put your file into a holding pattern by identifying anything about it that is not perfect – and assigning it to a support team to fix. That takes weeks!

Here are my tips to get file inertia working for you on your loan modification application.

– Income must be documented correctly and extremely clearly:
1. Self employed P&L – notarize it!
2. SSI and EDD – send checks AND send award letters
3. Calculate monthly for them – show at least three bi-weekly checks and at least three semi monthly checks…run the math for them.
4. 1099 – explain the logic you are using…like showing the last 90 days of comm. checks or showing direct deposits to my checking A/C. Total and underline and explain in notes.

– Rental property must be handled correctly – Esp important if you are applying for MHA mod.
With 3 or more present your rental properties on a separate form and go to great lengths to make sure they evaluate it separately – the gross income is the issue.
If you only have one or two properties, I merely show the net of Rent minus PITIA as an expense item (or an income item if you are so lucky).

– Front-end DTI must be right

– Back-end DTI must be right

– All debts on credit report must be addressed

– Cash flow must be zero

– You must be late on your payments

– Your application must be flawless (no loose ends) and exceptionally easy to understand. Craft it as if you are across the desk presenting each page:

* Cover fax/letter
* Contents (with page numbers)
* Notes whenever needed
* Use their forms and mark thru the cells you are not using and fill-in EVERY one you can.
* Sign/date bottom left of every page – all persons on the loan
* Number bottom right
* A/C# middle-bottom of every page
* Highlight important info –circle, notations, etc.

Get these right and your application will sail through in no time and get approved for a great mod…just kidding! But, at least you will have inertia working for you!.

The History of the Television Talk Show Host

Early TV programming was live, most of it produced in television studios before real audiences in Manhattan. The major networks – CBS, NBC, ABC and the early TV stalwart, Dumont – all maintained a presence in New York City.

In those long-ago days, ABC and CBS had their offices on Sixth Avenue (now known as Avenue of the Americas), NBC, the peacock network, was then and is now at Rockefeller Center in the very heart of town and Dumont, later to become Metromedia, was located almost out of the business district on east 67th Street.

There were no TV studios in Los Angeles and all programming – and all of the TV stars – lived and worked in New York. That was certainly true for the very first talk show hosts.
Beginning in the early 1950s, CBS hired a soft-talking Indianan by the name of Herb Shriner. He would sit on a chair by a small desk and amiably interview celebrity guests. He may have been the first, but he was by no means the last.

The first breakout star in the “talk show” business was a performer named Jack Paar. Older readers may remember him for his somewhat “off-the-cuff” style, his clever banter with guests and his ability to keep his one-hour show fluid, fast-moving and entertaining.

Paar may have been the “model” for all who followed him, like the multi-talented and always-laughing young Steve Allen. A prolific songwriter, Steve Allen also was very funny as a talk show host, forever giggling out loud along with his guests and also in the silly, but often hilarious, skits that took place on every show which also included his legendary “Man In The Street” interviews with Don Knotts, Tom Poston and others.

And then there was Ernie Kovacs. Often referred to as a creative genius and a man who was “way ahead of his time,” Kovacs, who was married to Edie Adams, had audiences laughing with him as he performed his often wacky, but inspired, skits and when he interviewed his guests, as well. Sadly, he died prematurely in an automobile accident.

The “king of all talk show hosts” followed Steve Allen to NBC. He was, of course, Johnny Carson. There were many who competed with him, many more who have followed, but none have ever matched his greatness as a talk show host. He had a remarkable ability to connect with his audience, in the studio and at home, that made him immensely popular for about thirty years.

It’s probably fair to say that Carson’s amazing achievement will never be duplicated. He was, and always will be, the greatest talk show host of all time.

By: Frank Bilotta

Please feel free to use this article as long as credit is given to the resource box.

© Copyright Arthur Levine 2007

Words 865

Keywords: Dialectic Materialism, Talk Show, Guru, Prophet, Charlatan, God

Johnny refused to take his handlers advice and prepare for his big TV interview with the famous talk sow host, Maxie Big Mouth. The day of the meeting Johnny seemed calm and content. He was convinced that God would give him the ‘words’ no matter what Maxie threw at him. Maxie wasted no time lacing into Johnny.

Maxie: So Mr. Oops or shall we call you Johnny? Are you really a guru and a prophet or are you a charlatan? And do you really walk on water?

Johnny: It’s for my flock and your audience to decide what I am and what I am capable of doing Mr. Big Mouth.

Maxie: I had my experts check and they say when that picture of you walking on water at South Hampton, New York was taken you were really water skiing barefoot. Isn’t that the truth?

Johnny: Who gave your experts the ‘word’? Who do they speak to? I am the messenger, and it is I who delivers the ‘words’ of the ultimate expert of them all.

Maxie: So now you are saying you talk to God. Are you divine?

Johnny: I talk to God all the time. Whether he answers me, or whether I am becoming a prophet is up to our common Lord. I don’t presume to speak for him, and a big mouth like you with your phony experts shouldn’t presume to speak for him either. It is all in God’s hands and not yours.

Maxie: How can a fictional character like you who is really promoting a novel called Johnny Oops really expect to have us believe that you are a prophet who is divine?

Johnnie: I am as real as people perceive me to be. Maybe you are not real. Maybe you’re a fake; a phony promoter just looking to get big ratings by sensationalizing things and putting honest hard working people down. I have news for you Maxie Big Mouth. I think my flock and your audience are wise to your antics and we are not going to put up with it any more. Maybe this is the last show of yours they will watch. Maybe in protest they will switch channels just as the next commercial comes on and stop watching your show. We are about to give you people in the media a lesson in the power of the public.

At this point Johnny turned to the audience and flashed his most heartfelt smile. The audience started to applaud.

Some shouted out, “We’re with you Johnny. Throw the bum out.”

Maxie: You can’t do this. You are threatening me and my TV station. You could cost us a fortune in advertising revenue if my audience listens to you.

Johnny; What are you worried about? You don’t even think I’m real. How can a fictional character cause you financial harm? If I were your TV station I would dump you to make sure that didn’t happen. Can you hear me America. Switch off as soon as the next commercial comes on, and don’t come back on until this Big Mouth is gone. Show them we, the common people are not going to put up with this any more. They can’t put us down.

With this Johnny jumped up and stormed off the set to the unbelievable loud applause of the house audience. The TV station tried to go to commercial, but that just made the audience shout louder that they weren’t going to be dumped on any more and down with the fat assed bog mouth named Maxie.

Shortly after this incident Maxie Big Mouth was fired. The TV station used the excuse that he had been caught snorting cocaine in the Ladies Room just before a show. Big Mouth Maxie was last seen pedaling little red pills on a street corner at 147th street in Harlem. No one would take the chance of hiring him on TV again. Johnny became a powerful national force on television. Everyone wanted to have him on their show, but made sure to be properly respectful and treat him like a prophet, hanging on his every ‘word’. In the eyes of the public Johnny was becoming a divine miracle right on prime time television, and they loved it, but the IRS didn’t think that Johnny was so divine. They were checking his charitable receipts and something wasn’t adding up.

MLMF (More later my friends)

*** IMPORTANT: I am about to embark on a nationwide tour to promote Dialectic Materialism and my new found well deserved fame as a guru of renown. If any of you have any suggestions for the topics of my speeches as I travel the country please let me know through the comment section of my blog, but remember I will have the last ‘word’.

The advent of the Internet and the subsequent proliferation of Internet technologies have opened up many new career opportunities. Let’s take a typical scenario. You’ve always been praised by your friends for your business acumen. More precisely, you’ve always found yourself to have a keen interest in, and a good understanding of, business matters. You also possess good verbal skills and can easily initiate an engaging conversation with others. And finally, you’ve always been excited by the prospect of hosting your very own business talk show on television or radio where you would be the business talk show host at the helm of affairs.

Unfortunately, the television or the radio has always remained out of your reach. There’s just too much competition to get a break in those media. So, are your dreams of becoming a business talk show host about to get crushed forever? Don’t despair; the Internet is your savior. It’s time to turn your attention towards becoming an Internet business talk show host.

An Internet business talk show host? That sure sounds strange! Well, it’s not entirely unnatural to feel a bit confused about this new designation. It is, after all, a relatively new thing. So, let’s start at the beginning to better understand the term.

At the center of it all is the phenomenon called Internet Talk Radio. Now, anyone who has been around cyberspace for a while will agree that Internet radios or e-radios are not a very new concept. They have been around for quite some time now. However, it is only with the recent proliferation and improvement of Internet technologies that they can be called to have come of age. Internet radio today offers more choices, better sound, faster streaming and more stability.

Internet Talk Radio has evolved from Internet Radio. Its rise in popularity can be attributed to the fact it provides the serious listener, looking for something more than just music and commercials, with engaging content and stimulating programs. Internet Talk Radio networks today feature talk shows on a wide range of subjects ranging from international news, religion, lifestyle, sports, business, women’s issues, health, entertainment. There’s always something for everybody on Internet Talk Radio.

Herein lies the golden opportunity to become an Internet talk radio host. If business is your area of interest, just jump on to the bandwagon and become an Internet business talk radio host on your very own business talk show. In fact, it has never been easier to host your own Internet Talk Radio Show and be an integral part of the phenomenon. Many Internet Radio Networks provide excellent opportunities for becoming Internet Talk radio hosts. They are not only providing the technology to host the show but also giving the support, marketing and interactive solutions that help you to make your mark among the ever increasing Internet audience.

If the prospects of becoming an Internet Business Talk Show host interest you, be sure to check out outstanding services like wsRadio and Voice America. If you want to discuss business and share your ideas with the world; if you want to voice out your opinions on business matters and engage like-minded people in animated discussions on your favorite subject, don the robe of an Internet business talk show host. It’s easier to give shape to your dreams than ever, thanks to the Internet.

Sometimes it takes more than a display easel, funny jokes, and a pretty face to be a talk show host. In most cases, shows fail because of poor ratings. Here are some famous stars who never got to claim their fame through broadcast.

Pat Sajak- Due to the low ratings, “The Pat Sajak Show” was cancelled after one season in the years 1989 to 1990. Or was it because of Chevy Chase? Chase was the first guest on the show and the covered sensitive topics such as abortion and affirmative action. The studio audience was so upset that by the middle of the show the guests had already cleared out.

Alan Thicke- Though he experienced much success in Canada, Thicke did not do so well with the American audiences. His talk show “Thick of the Night” first aired in 1983 but was quickly cancelled because it could barely compete with “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

Rick Dees- It seemed like “Into the Night with Rick Dees” would be a happening show. It included comedy, live music from the top of the charts, and interviews with both celebrities and sports entertainers. But it only lasted one season and was taken off air in 1991 due to low ratings.

Keenen Ivory Wayans- In 1997, “The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show” debuted on the Fox network but was cancelled after only one year.

As far as NBC goes, good luck to competitors Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jimmy Klimmel, the prime timers. And a farewell to the not as funny as Leno guy, Conan O’brien.