A long-time friend of mine will be hosting a political talk radio show before too long, which I will be doing work for. It's been interesting to observe. His Facebook posts have been attempting to offend, prompt comments and generate attention/traffic. Unfortunately, things have gotten pretty heated at times between he and other commentators. In his mind, he's just trying to be a radio-show personality, get under people's skin, get them talking and hope that word of mouth helps with ratings. As he told me, "It's all a game." To him, he wants people to hate him. He wants to be like that car accident, where people are saddened/angered by what happened, yet can't look away.
Unfortunately, it's difficult for many who know this guy to separate the on-air from off-air personalities and when the on-air personality sends a perhaps rather insulting comment in response to one of theirs, they take it personally - like they would from the off-air personality, a friend of theirs. I think it's the most difficult for those who are partial friends of his, people who may know him, may have talked to him before, but don't know him/talk to/hang out with him very much. For those that know him well, like myself, it's easier for me to read his comments and not take things personally, knowing it's all part of the game. For those that don't know him at all, when they're listening to him on the radio, they won't have any knowledge of he the actual person, so the lines between on-air and off-air personality won't be blurred to them either. It's those in-betweeners I think whom have the most difficult time distinguishing the two from one another.
Like I mentioned initially, I find it all to be quite interesting and I'm sure that intrigue will only increase as the days, weeks and months come along, the show airs, the election comes about, word travels about regarding the show, etc. I'm not sure I could ever be a shock jock and create an entirely different personality for on the air, but then again, I won't have to worry about that, fortunately.
Unfortunately, it's difficult for many who know this guy to separate the on-air from off-air personalities and when the on-air personality sends a perhaps rather insulting comment in response to one of theirs, they take it personally - like they would from the off-air personality, a friend of theirs. I think it's the most difficult for those who are partial friends of his, people who may know him, may have talked to him before, but don't know him/talk to/hang out with him very much. For those that know him well, like myself, it's easier for me to read his comments and not take things personally, knowing it's all part of the game. For those that don't know him at all, when they're listening to him on the radio, they won't have any knowledge of he the actual person, so the lines between on-air and off-air personality won't be blurred to them either. It's those in-betweeners I think whom have the most difficult time distinguishing the two from one another.
Like I mentioned initially, I find it all to be quite interesting and I'm sure that intrigue will only increase as the days, weeks and months come along, the show airs, the election comes about, word travels about regarding the show, etc. I'm not sure I could ever be a shock jock and create an entirely different personality for on the air, but then again, I won't have to worry about that, fortunately.
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