On Wednesday, CUPE announced it was planning a strike next week if there's no deal for its education members. I'm not here to debate who's right, just who took the lead on the coverage. 

CityNews 680, of course, had it as part of its regular run. But it was the different choices made by CFRB and CFIQ that caught my ear. Both took a lot of the dueling press conferences starting at 9:45 AM, where each side accused the other of being in the wrong. When that was over, Alex Pierson on 640 took about 15-20 minutes of predictably irritated phone calls from parents, union members and others. Then, she moved on to "other topics," noting there are other things going on. 

Over on 1010, Jerry Agar also kept the school conversation going with listener reaction that spread all over the place. The difference? His phone-in segment went on until 11:30 AM - about an hour and a half on the same topic, something most talk shows never do. 

Whose approach was better? I have to admit, I tuned into 1010 during most of it, if only to hear Agar's usual outrage, but also because I thought it really was THE story of the day. And while talk shows rarely do two segments on one subject - let alone 90 minutes - I thought 'RB got it right in terms of judging how big a deal this is to a lot of people. They extended the segment while 640 moved on. 

Not sure if anyone here was listening to either, but if you were the producer, would you have stuck with the potential strike and all of its offshoots or gone elsewhere using the typical talk show logic that you have to keep changing the subject to keep the audience tuned in? 

I produced a lot of talk shows over the years and I can honestly say we were flexible on this. If the unfolding news demanded it, we would stay with it until we perceived the audience had had enough or we were all talked out. Finding that point, and not letting it go on too long, is the trick. Hopefully most of the time, we performed it successfully. I think 'RB did that on Wednesday morning.