Wednesday, January, 20^th, 2020 was Inauguration Day. Joe Biden became President and Donald Trump went to Mar-a-Lago where he is now a former President. For those of us who voted for Donald Trump twice (which I did), or even once, it stinks. Many of us are not confident in the direction the country will go under Joe Biden and there is a lot of recent evidence to suggest he may not be the almighty unifier he insists he wants to, and is going to, be.

But our guy didn’t win and for News Talk hosts, there is a fine line to talk in continuing a story that may be passionate amongst the base, but won’t change anything in anyone’s life moving forward. The President’s legal team went through every legal option it had, although it’s important to note even the legal team wasn’t alleging fraud under oath, and while there are, and will remain, concerns over things like Secretaries of State and judges changing the election rules in the weeks leading up to the election, it’s not going to change the fact that Joe Biden is the President.

For some voters, they will want to spend every day of the next four years talking about a “stolen election”. I compare this individual to the guy who is talking about his high school football career when he’s 48 years old. No one cares anymore. At least most don’t, outside of maybe his mother.

There is a caveat  to all this: If there are stories that come out in the weeks or months ahead that are regarding voting issues, state legislatures passing bills to prevent some of what happened in specific states, etc., then suddenly that’s a topic of the day. That is a news story with legs that is changing and brings new perspective to the conversation.

But barring that, the 2020 Election cycle is over. I admit, it lasted weeks longer than I anticipated, due to events none of us could have ever predicted. However now the real work starts.

The last 3-4 months have been easy as hosts. It’s been politics, politics, politics and, oh, more politics. The questions that need to be of top importance starting this week for all hosts: What is affecting my audience today? COVID-19 vaccines, getting kids back into school and crime rates that are skyrocketing in many cities in the country are just some of the items that immediately come to mind. Those are issues that more people in the audience are likely thinking about when they wake up tomorrow, rather than simply stewing over “stolen elections”. I suppose the P1, that many in News Talk are over reliant on, may want it every day. But I can only speak for myself in saying that I’m ready to move on and get back to serving my local audience in Kansas City as best as I can. Sure, there is a risk associated to it, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take as we try to maintain what has likely been a larger audience in recent weeks due to the news cycle we’ve had. How do I maintain it? All I can say is I’d rather be the guy looking ahead and planning for what’s most engaging to move forward with the audience over being the 48-year-old guy sitting at a bar with a Miller Lite talking about the game-winning catch I made in the 1989 State Championship Game. After two minutes, that guy becomes boring, stale and predictable, and I’m thinking hosts with that mindset soon might as well.