On his ESPN radio show today, Tony Kornheiser talked about the difficulty of hosting a daily radio show.
While this might be the definition of a first world problem, it’s instructive to anyone who aspires to a profession which requires one to churn out almost-daily content.
Here’s what Kornheiser had to say:
Everybody you meet says, ‘You know, I listen to your show here and there. I could do that.’ And I go, ‘You know what? I bet you could. I’ll bet you could do it for a day. I bet it wouldn’t be hard at all. I’ll bet you could probably do it for two days — maybe even three days. But I want you to tell me what your Thursday show is going to sound like, okay, because that’s your fourth day, and now you’re not as adrenalin pumped as you used to be. So what is your Thursday show gonna sound like?’
His point, of course, is that being good at talk radio (and, I would argue, being a good columnist/blogger) is as much about consistent quality, endurance, and longevity as it is about being brilliant.
The average reader could probably do just as well as most columnists on any given day. But never mind day four — what are you going to write about on year four?
