Listen: Former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn gives radio a go

While holding down the mayor’s seat at city hall, Mike McGinn found himself the subject of media chatter. But now the former mayor is contributing to the talk himself as he stepped in as co-host last weekend on KIRO Radio.

“How does one end up on KIRO Radio Weekends after having been the mayor of the twelfth largest city in America? What the hell are you doing here?” asked his co-host Luke Burbank.

Take a listen to former Mayor Mike McGinn’s first hour of radio

McGinn said the offer to host actually came as a result of a comment he made in an interview following his campaign loss in his second run for mayor.

“You and Dave [Ross] asked me what I was going to do next,” said McGinn. “I said I’d like to be a radio talk show host, and somebody took me seriously.”

Most politicians have a love-hate relationship with the press, McGinn said. He told Burbank there were many times as mayor he was frustrated with the media, but he also came to have a greater appreciation for its usefulness.

“There were so many times in which the media was our ally and I really did gain a tremendous appreciation for them,” said McGinn, offering the example of getting out a road safety message in a snowstorm.

“We do actually depend on the media quite a bit, so I got a much, much deeper appreciation of radio and TV and the newspapers over the four years.”

He says he also worried less and less about what the media said about him. But now, in the talk seat, McGinn would be the one saying things about others and passing judgment on the news.

While part of being a mayor is watching your words carefully, being a talk host requires being a little more free with your thoughts, Burbank pointed out.

“Do you think you’re going to be able to talk like a normal person?” Burbank asked. “Being a mayor, I would imagine one of the things you have to do a lot is your brain has to always be calculating who might I offend with this thing I’m about to say, who am I alienating, whose help might I need later. You’re factoring a lot of things in.

“It seems the key to hosting a talk show is eliminating all of that sort of thought from your mind. Do you think you’re able to do that, or is your brain very mayored-up?”

McGinn said that is the experiment. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

Take a listen to former Mayor Mike McGinn’s first hour of radio