Ian gave a young caller advice on how to get started hosting a talk radio show. he said "If you can't talk for 3 hours alone without a guest, you aren't ready to host a show."
What does this say about his tendancy to dominate the conversation, I wonder.
I remember that caller and the conversation.
To be fair to Ian, I also remember the rest of Ian's point, which was this: he believes the the host is the constant, whereas the guests change day-to-day or night-to-night, and the discourse of the guests can vary widely. In his opinion, it's sometimes up to the host to be able to carry the show, and that was the point he was trying to make--that a radio host needs to be prepared to do most or all of the talking if necessary.
I remember one God-forsaken night when Ian had been called in at the last minute to sub for Noory, and simultaneously, the guest Ian planned for pulled out. He got some 11th hour idea to contact a guy about the history of sideshows, an idea which sounded pretty cool to me on paper (I'm attracted to those quirky kind of topics Ian often does).
Only problem: the sideshow guy couldn't do more than mumble single word answers, and Ian had him booked for 2 hours.
That's the kind of situation he was talking about.
Think about it. Why were Art's open lines so much better than Snoory's? Yes, better callers, but why better callers? Because a host worthy of talking to and responding to the callers was at the mike. We even see that with Ian and Knapp.
That said, as much as I'm defending him here, Ian does get carried away sometimes. Diarrhea of the mouth. I can understand. I suffer from the same problem sometimes, especially on the keyboard. E. B. White's "Be Concise" was never my best virtue, nor is it Ian's.
Poll