Sound!!

This week we didn’t have a lecture to attend.  Instead we had to listen to it online, well duh, it is on sound.  It’s cool, sound broadcasting, and it has been around since time began basically... well not quite, but you know what I mean.

The first interview featured Richard Fidler from the ABC Local Radio.  This interview was based on how to tell stories for radio.  He first explained how he got into radio himself, stating that it was ‘accidental’.  He began in Canberra as part of a comedy group, which made its way onto television.  Eventually, he was asked to fill on for radio host, Tony Delroy, and it all went from there.

The move from T.V into radio is big; the two are very different mediums.  Radio is much more intimate than television he said, while television is high impact.  This means that while watching T.V, that is the only thing that you are doing, listening to the radio on the other hand is often coupled with something else too; walking the dog, driving to work, making breakfast, yada yada yada...  While television is generally more entertainment based, in radio it is necessary to let the listeners feel involved and included in the conversation, sometimes, in an interview with someone really famous or sought after, the interviewer can become caught up in closed conversation.

As host of ‘Conversations’, Richard is used to speaking to high profile people, so while the conventional interview is around 7 minutes, maximum, Conversations is an hour with generally only one guest.  The program contains a nice mix of human interest story and more telling interview.

While talking to a celebrity for 5-10 minutes is nerve racking, an hour is much more so, the most nervous part is preproduction.  This goes for the person being interviewed too, which is why they are preinterviewed and given an overview of the program so that they feel comfortable with what they are going to partake in.  It is important that the subject feels safe in the environment – they will generally reveal more if they can trust the interviewer.  If the guest is being tense, Richard said it was a good idea to tease the guest, make them more comfortable and smile and laugh.  Another important factor is not to interrupt them, instead give them time to talk and explain themselves and their opinion.

An important part of radio is to maintain a friendly voice; the interviewer must display empathy and trustworthiness.  An excellent way to do this is to picture the listeners in your head, want to give them something back (remember, they pay tax!), work hard to keep them interested and listen agin in the future.

Richard spoke of how public radio is thriving, they blend seamlessly into new technologies and are embracing podcasts and Twitter.  He departed with a few words of wisdom, read the paper, ask plenty of questions, be open minded and expose yourself to different opinions and ideas.  Just some greatness from a great host!!

Our next guest was Steve Austin another local host on the ABC.  Steve had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, until one day he had a realisation – a voice telling him to get into radio.  And what a wonderful idea it was.  Steve studied hard for 5 years, and has now become a successful radio broadcaster.

He first started by saying that you can’t speak as you would at university or with friends, you need to be professional, yet not too ‘wordy’, bring down any barriers between you and the listeners.  He said, “Radio is theatre of the mind”, you need to provide the listener with enough information for them to paint the picture in their heads.  Steve too is the host of a talk-back radio show, his advice was

• Don’t use entrapment or gotcha techniques
• Pursue the question if you really want to know, but stop if you are making either yourself or the guest uncomfortable, they’ll just close up
• Change your voice to empathise with the guest
• Be truthful, the listener will pick it up if you lie
• Give the guest time and space to reveal themselves
• Never do anything on the radio that you wouldn’t do in real life
• ‘Do you agree?’ is a good question to ask - the less complicated the question is the faster the response

That is it for this week; it was a really cool experience listening to two radio greats! It was also a good way to set up the lecture.  The two guests were so interesting!!

See you next week!! :)