BY LARRY UPDIKE

I’ve been asked many different questions about my 33-year radio career. One that I’m asked often was how I made the transition from a rock format to news-talk. I switched radio stations in 1995 and created a night-time call-in show, which is still on the air, albeit under a different name. I was delighted at the opportunity to try this experiment inside my new station.

We tossed different ideas around and came up with a program that would run weeknights between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. and called it “Two Hours Each Side of Midnight.” I was adamant that this show be caller-driven. I also said that (except in instances where the news cycle demanded) I did not want any guests. None.

I sensed a hunger among younger potential listeners for discourse that was more interactive and horizontal — even though it was the mid-1990s and the wave of social media had yet to arrive. The show was a gamble on many levels. Would the audience respond to something that was people-up and not expert-down? Could I get an audience away from the television?

A further gamble lay in the approach. I wanted to bring some civility to the program. I had never bought into the conventional wisdom that only the sound of conflict produced ratings in talk radio. It certainly is a winning formula, but I wondered couldn’t I be a compelling, entertaining host without coming off like a paternalistic know-it-all?

Then there was the matter of my sensibilities. I hated tired, ideologically based talk. I was a post modern pragmatist at heart (and I still am). I disliked simplistic either/or categories and the hot air that went with it.

Worse, my own personality didn’t really suit the format. The caricature of the typical talk-show host — fairly or unfairly — is of an angry person out to set the world right. My comfort zone lies in humour, irony and sarcasm. Would an audience take to a guy who didn’t have a nightly score to settle? A guy who loved to laugh?

Ratings outstanding

I still have a tape of that first show. As I invited the audience to phone in, it occurred to me that the movie Show Girls just had its premiere earlier in the evening. People would be coming out of the theatres about this time. I asked for some reviews and the phones went nuts. Shortly thereafter, a professor’s strike loomed at the University of Manitoba. It was all over the news and my show turned into a town hall forum every night. My first ratings came in and they were outstanding.

Those two events put me on the map: a camp-classic movie and a potential labour dispute.

I think about my transition a lot. I also think about how the concept of transition plays such a huge role in the work at Siloam Mission. Life can be a gamble. Not everyone wins. Some lose temporarily and fall through the cracks.

At Siloam, we extend hands of compassion without judgment or prejudice.

We seek to transition those who are affected by poverty and homelessness into more generous, self-sufficient lifestyles.

And hope that their transition was just as rewarding as mine.

—Larry Updike is the senior communication and advocacy officer at Siloam Mission.

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