I have a one hour talk show that airs Saturday night. I'm always on the lookout for news stories or topics to use on my show, but generally I spend about 3-4 hours actually researching news stories from various newspapers, magazines that include news and science types. I'll then spend another hour to two hours writing notes on my thoughts as I'll prepare two, sometimes three topics to be discussed. I generally get 4-5 calls per show and I want to be sure to have enough material to cover the entire hour without having to keep repeating the same stuff over and over. Some talk shows have one topic for the hour and if they don't get many calls, they beat your ear on that one topic, essentally repeating themselves over and over again for that entire hour, which to my ear gets boring. Included in this five- six hours of prep, I also come up with a trivia question for that evening's show. My show's general format tends to be my analysis and commentary on the week's events both local (Wilmington Delaware) and national by me mixed in with calls from the listeners.
What may make my talk show a bit different is that I'm a registered Independent. So I don't have an axe to grind in favor of any particular political party or specific political philosophy like liberal or conservative. Some weeks I may favor a position by the Democrats, the next week I may favor a position by the Republicans as it depends on the specific issue and what each group has proposed, etc.
