Except our home amiable TV/radio star Dr. Redman, this week we have the fortune to listen to the sound recording of two other radio stars, Richard Fidler and Steve Austin, kindly sharing their experiences in the industry during an interview. They talk about the things that we need to be aware of in radio, conversation show, talk-back show, afternoon show, evening show and the way radio survives the new media strike. Also, they kindly offered us some tips for becoming a radio person as a gift.
Richard Fidler 
Steve Austin
l How to be a good radio presenter?
Fidler:
Make the audience feel involved-Let the listener feeling included in the conversation you are having, and to be a facilitator of that as a presenter. Sometimes when you have an interesting guest you may get caught up with it and forget to give the listener to involve, so then it may become a close conversation. You have to listen back and hear it to see that.
A sense of happy-to-help-No matter what your age is, people may still want to know what is current at the moment. As a radio presenter, I want to be useful and give something to people; there is a sense of public service that is involved that is what it keeps you energetic and happy in the job.
Austin:
Your ‘voice’ is the key-The way you pronounce words does matter; you can’t speak like you would normally in daily life. Try to communicate as you bringing down the barrier between yourself and the listener.
Cater audience’s interest-Radio shouldn’t only be only focusing on the presenter’s own opinion, but to cater the audience’s interest.
Good radio story aims for human emotion- A good radio story is about being human and searching or exploring human experience. Human beings respond emotionally and subconsciously. So in the radio, I look for those emotional responses to things because they come from a very deep place. Humanbeings are usually driven by life experience, and people’s life experience is extraordiarily broad. So you got to go for human experience.
‘Listening’ is essential - Especially in nighttime radio, you got to talk less and listen more. If you want to show someone respect, listen to them; if you don’t understand someone, listen to them.
l 1 hour Conversation Show
Fidler:
Maintain your enthusiasm- Often the convention for regular radio for conversation gives you a seven-minute top; otherwise you are boring the listener. But conversation show is often an hour long interview with one or two guest. I got to be genuinely interested for the story; I am fortuned to be a person curious in a lot of things. Sometimes when I meet guests that I’m not really sure what do with, I may sound too hyper and fast as he tried to get himself worked up.
Find interesting guests-It is mostly biographical in nature, they got well know people in. But often the better guests are the one you never heard of, and that required more pre-research for the producers of radio.
Good preproduction = successful interview- 90% of the time I am confident that is goning to work before they even start talking to me and that is the preproduction. The producer will filter out the guests that won’t sustain for 1 hour. By the time they sit down in the studio, pre-interview with them had been done, so they know what it will be like, relaxed and trust the program.
A safe environment for the guests- It is important for them to feel like it is safe place to reveal their story. I don’t use procecutorial style because I don’t think you can get much out of the people in that way. Though that sometimes it is ok to tease the guest a bit and make they laugh when they are retelling stories that had been told; making the guest laugh makes them sounds more human.
Don’t push the guests-It is a real privileged to walk into people’s life. When the guest is revealing something interesting or from their heart, I respect that moment and let the guest talk. Don’t interrupt it unless the guest is a bit lost or not on to it. When they are recounting something that is really dreadful, they fight themselves for self control. The best thing you can do is comfort them, give them the space to where they need to be. By giving them the opportunity to pause and reflect, it is also a prompt in some way, which is a sort of technique. At that moment I will move away from Mic, his body language will be telling them it’s ok. Don’t be afraid of silences it is real powerful in radio it is truthful and revealing.
Austin:
Pursuit the question + different ways of asking-Depend on what he knows about the tale and what he wants to get out from the person. If there is something I really want to find out about someone, I will pursuit people and try to ask it in different way. But if they still don’t answer, at some point I will let it go if it’s making me uncomfortable.
No answer is ok-Even if the guests don’t answer the question, listener will pick it up. The listener is pretty good. People can tell when someone is lying more accurately on radio than on TV, because TV has distraction. In radio, it is all about wavering pace, delivery. If you are fake on radio people can notice it
Body language implies the development of relationship-You can tell whether you have got the relationship with the interviewee from their body language whether they are leaning forward, smiling or relax. Whether their voice sounds relaxed indicates whether they feel like they trust me. I try to reward and keep that trust by not abusing it. Things that we agree not to ask them about, I won’t ask it to them. I try to give them the space to reveal themselves.
Empathy-You often hear their emotion in their voice so I try to empathize them vocally. You have to change you voice to send them subconscious signals. Same reason when you are having someone that you love, you speak tenderly to them and their subconscious is picking up the message. There is a difference in the vocal cord, as it is in life, as it is in radio. So don’t do anything on the radio that you wouldn’t do in real life.
l Talk-back Show
Fidler:
Friendly Tone-As a presenter, the tone being friendly is important. I see myself and the listeners as equal, and as a facilitator of the conversation. It is like a kind of party; listeners are newly arrived guest, and you got to introduce and encourage them to join the conversation. This approach can continue to encourage people to call in to say things and contribute to the show.
Picturing the audience in mind-In order to maintain enthusiasm for the audience that he can’t see, He has a picture of audience in his head as his wife, who just had young kids and stock at home but still wants to be up to date by listening to radio. Also, someone who need a break or laugh and dealing with the kind of pressure from day to day life.
Austin:
Ask simple or emotional question-In order to prompt the people to pick up the phone, you post them the question. I sometimes is more provocative than other radio presenters you can get away with it a little bit in the night time people are not as tensed or else just exhausted. Just post out simple question as “do u agree? ”; and less complicated your question is the faster they will respond. Also, frustration is a good one to get people respond. Sometimes I get a bit too ponderous; like I when want to talk about the ethics in Afghanistan war I might only get two or three calls. So, make it easier on listener as you would in a conversation.
l Fidler’s Afternoon Show
Fidler:
Entertainment + Interaction-After people being fed by all the news and analysis in the morning, they want something fun and entertainment in the afternoon. It is about interactive; conversation is one-on-one, afternoon u encouraged that participation with your listeners, so we have talk-back callers.
l Austin’s Evening Show
Austin:
Marketing matters
It is a 3 hr shift. Night time radio’s competitor is TV; we want to set up something that does matter to the audience.
7-8pm: talk-back- Because it is right after the current affair so they try to grab hold on that issue and give audience chances to answer back. We realize that people who are working longer hours are going back that time so we pick up on this group of audience. Overall, it is about wrapping up issues of day and what might be on tomorrow.
8-9pm: entertainment- This is for psychological shift. We interview interesting and fun people.
9-10pm: Emotional Time- It’s about personal story and human tales. People have time to listen to radio and biologically we are slower and more relax by then; and quite often people make themselves vulnerable at this time.
Diversity within audience: The evening audiences are broad: aging from 8-100, right across the broad, both genders and even people from around the world because of the way time zone works.
l Radio Still Rocks while New Media Rise
Fidler:
Radio takes advantages from tech development-Radio blending into this new platform and even technically advancing from it by building more audience from the podcasts.
Austin:
Time poor- People are under time wise pressure. Radio allows multi-tasking while you are listening to it and it is very human and a strong way to connect to other human beings both subconsciously and overtly.
Aussie radio improves-Australian radio got better recently, as it is more real.
l Tips for Young Players
Fidler: Worldliness, open minded, exposure yourself to various perspectives
Austin: If like me not naturally talented don’t give up. If you really want it go after for it. There are plenty big name people today got told they will never get into radio, television but they don’t give up. If you feel it’s all too much, you’re right, but don’t give up, cause it doesn’t matter. The irony is that, you might actually become a more interesting person after you have a few knock backs.
l My thoughts…
The most important point that I found within this interview is that radio is a relatively intement communication, both Fildler and Austin had pointed out the importance of minding the audience’s need vocally and catering the guests while they are on-air all the time. I suppose this is partly because within the radio, the presenters can only link to audience through sound, so it is harder to communicate than other mediums that provide multi-sensations (ex: TV). Therefore, in order to connect to the audience well, they need to be more audience-centered in order to create a stronger bond.
l Extra Materials
More info about Austin & Fidler:
Richard Fidler’s profile
Steve Austin’s profile
ABC Radio’s website: where Austin & Filder works
http://www.abc.net.au/brisbane/
Discover How To Be A Radio Host
Ten Tips For How To Talk On The Radio
12 Tips For Effective Talk Radio Interviews, Convos & Co-Hosting http://www.unleashamazingyou.com/media-training/tips-and-examples/media-tips/36-12-tips-for-effective-radio-talk-radio-interviews.html
Media Skills – Tips for Radio Interviews http://www.skillstudio.co.uk/help/media-skills/media-skills-tips-for-radio-interviews.htm
Be an Excellent Talk Radio Guest: 10 Tips for Success http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bookbiz/advice/talkradio.htm
Making Your Voice Heard: Tips for Getting on Talk Radio http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/making-your-voice-heard-tips-getting-talk-radio
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