I can only speak for myself. In 1994 I began interviewing authors on the radio. Listeners often inquire how I decide which writers to interview? There are many aspects to this process — the main one is that I want to talk to people who might be of interest to the radio audience. I don’t care what their politics are. I only hope they are compelling, entertaining, perhaps even fun.
Of course it really helps if they like being on the radio. I have had every kind of guest. I interviewed a woman who was camped in a redwood tree in California. Her name was Julia Butterfly. She had been up there for months preventing a logging company from cutting it. I can hear you now, insisting that Ms. Butterfly sure sounds like one of those liberal tree huggers. Yes, she was. She was also living in a tree. The radio audience loved it. That’s what I look for; guests who make it difficult for listeners to tune out.
I saw a guy at the post office. He complained about a guest I had the other day; claimed he wasn’t interested in her. I asked, did you listen to the whole show? He admitted that indeed he had. He so loved hating it.
I interviewed the late Charlton Heston. That formidable actor had written a memoir. While he was known as a liberal early on, he marched in civil rights demonstrations during the 1960s, by the time I spoke to him he was a hardcore conservative best known for leading the NRA. We had a lovely chat that day.
In 2002 I spoke to Ann Coulter about her No. 1 bestseller “Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right.” Does that sound like a book with a liberal bias? Around that same period, I had Lt. Col. Oliver North on as a guest. Do you remember the Iran-Contra affair? North was accused of channeling the profits from U.S. arms sales to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua during the Reagan administration. If you called Ollie a liberal, he would object.
Ted Nugent. When I spoke to him, he was making the transition from a guitar slinging rock star to right wing provocateur. We talked about his book “God, Guns, and Rock and Roll.” Nugent was a handful. It was a live interview. The following day his publicist called to say Nugent wanted a rematch. I declined.
Twenty-seven years ago, I had a guest on who was a real estate tycoon. Donald Trump had written “Trump: The Art of the Comeback.” Was Trump a liberal? A conservative? I’m not sure and I did not ask. For me the bottom line is creating captivating radio. That is all that matters to me. This is what I strive to accomplish on public radio’s WYSO.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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