I continue to get requests to participate in various radio shows and to help the media understand what goes on inside the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, I was contacted by a range of media, from CBS News to Nature, to help them understand the situation within Pfizer when the company cancelled the development of torcetrapib two days after CEO Jeff Kindler had said torcetrapib was “one of the most important developments in our generation.”
So I didn't expect anything unusual when an executive producer for a large radio station left a message last week saying that she was in the process of working on programming for 2007 and wanted to discuss the possibility of me doing a show on their network.
The only unusual part was that she insisted on talking to me in person to set up a time for the interview. I suggested we could do this per email, since it was easy for me to schedule. Then she explained, that no, she wasn't interested in having me as a guest on a show, she wanted me to host my own show.
And the more I thought about this the better it sounded. After all, if I could do a talk-show called "Question Authority with Dr. Peter Rost," that could be a lot of fun.
In fact, I could ask all the questions people usually don't dare asking of a variety of high-powered people. Glen Beck on steroids, if you so wish.
So yesterday the executive producer called and we had a long chat and she seemed to like my ideas. She also pointed out that they were not covered by FCC guidelines. That comment surprised me for a second, because I thought the FCC guidelines mainly concerned decency, and I have no intention of starting to compete with Howard Stern. I'm quite sure my wife would object to something like that. But at least it was clear that I could be provocative and impudent.
Now it is my turn to do the due diligence and check if this makes sense.
What do you think?
9 comments:
Go for it!
"Jack"
That depends. How would you express the dirty old man in you? I'm not real 'into' listening to that.
If you were serving a public interest, pulling the curtain away from Big Pharm - GO FOR IT!
As you know, I'm a big fan and I think such a show would be wonderful, but PLEASE avoid sounding anything like Glenn Beck! The constant laughing at his own non-funny jokes as well as his ludicrous conservative bias -- I couldn't see you doing that. Can't wait to hear more!
If this is what you feel that your education, experience and years of service in the healthcare industry should culminate in, do it dude. It will be fun to see where you are going to go in this endeavor. Your career has certainly been a series of erratic left and right turns on what should be a fairly straight stretch of highway, so try to keep it between the ditches and don't pull over for the CHiPs or you are toast. Good luck, man.
For you, this sounds like a great opportunity which could lead to other things like being a syndicated columnist (ala Amy Goodman, etc) and tv guest spots.
Don't forget the podcasts. ;)
If they give you CARTE BLANCHE on the subjects you choose to comment and allow you to be yourself and share all your vast knowledge and experience with your audience, I think it would be a PRVILEGE for ANY station to have a talk-show host like you. And needless, to say, I will be tuning in EVERY DAY.
Go for it! There's so much to comment on. Your experience and point of view is enlightening.
Actually, the fact that this situation came up made me look around a bit more for other similar possibilities. I'm learning a lot about how the radio business works and will tell you more in a later post, when I've come a bit further.
If your negotiation was with Sirius, approach XM Radio to see what they think. Those are the only 2 networks I know that are not bound by FCC.
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