Turns’ career taking off on talk radio

Earlier this year, UNLV alumna, Ciara Turns, was in the running to win a talk radio personality spot on KXNT Las Vegas New Radio.  Turns won the contest and is currently co-hosting a show on Sunday mornings.

We caught up with Turns to see what the future holds for her radio career.

The Rebel Yell: What is the next step for you now that you have won the Radio Star contest?

Ciara Turns: I [am] co-hosting a Sunday morning talk show called “Jodi and Friends.”  The current host Jodi Jay, was also a Radio Star winner.  The show currently airs Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

RY: Will you be given your own radio show? If so, when?

CT: I am not sure what the future holds or if I have my own show to look forward to.  For now, I am very excited get started working with Jodi and the rest of the station’s staff to learn as much as I can about radio, how it works, and what makes a show successful.  I hope one day to have a very successful show of my own, but for now I am taking my first steps and will work very hard to make sure that I can bring something positive to the show; something that lets people know what I am all about.

RY: Would you only discuss politics?

CT: Discussing politics is definitely my passion, and the topic I know most about.  However, I also understand that not everyone is like me and spends 23 hours a day thinking, reading, learning or talking about politics.  I hope to spend much of my time on air discussing political issues, yet, I also recognize the need for topics that are more light-hearted.  I want to be able to talk about things that people are passionate about and can relate to, even if that doesn’t mean all politics all the time.

RY: How many hours a week will you devote to talk radio?

CT: I will only be doing a four-hour show one day a week.  But in order to make a successful career out of talk radio I need to put in much more time than that.  So the answer simply is, all of my free time.  Show prep, I am discovering, takes a lot of time and effort.  I would rather go in with too much to talk about than not enough.  Ask anyone who has spent an hour with me and they can tell you that finding things to talk about is never something I have a hard time doing.  But, that doesn’t mean that things I want to talk about, people want to hear about.  All of my extra time is used learning what other people are talking about and what the popular news stories are.  I figure if I can get a grasp of that then I will be better able to talk about things people really care about. 

I will devote as much time necessary to make my part on radio the most fun and interesting it can be and pray that one day that hard work translates into something as big as Rush Limbaugh.  I am a very ambitious person and work hard to make my dreams come true.

RY: Will you use your new public platform in order to try to convince people to open their eyes to conservatism?

CT: This is exactly the reason I wanted to do radio in the first place.  I think a lot of people are misinformed about conservatives, what we believe and how we think government should operate.  I blame this on the mainstream media.  I want more than anything to be able to educate people, in a way that makes listening fun and interesting, on why conservative ideals and principles are the best way to run government.  I am of the belief that liberalism represents all that has gone wrong in our country.  The United States was founded on the idea of a limited government.  Liberals seek to expand government’s power and use the better of the middle class as their reason for doing so, even though all they are doing is destroying the middle class.  People so easily buy into this argument, and I want to help explain why liberals have it all backwards.