Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Talk Radio

- Lecture 5

Radio: an almost pre-technological medium? Photograph: H. Armstrong Roberts/Corbis


So…. You think Radio Presenting is all about Talking?
Well you’re wrong, it’s about listening.
Listening to your guests
And
Listening to what your audiences want!

The rate of the decline of conventional media is not as rapid as you may think. Sure, we have social networking, online news, pod casts and twitter but good old fashioned radio listening figures don’t seem to be dropping. This oldest form of electronic media is truly here to stay.  Brisbane based ABC reporter and presenter; Steve Austin attributes this phenomenon to the Time poor information hungry population that can multi task and listen unlike watching a show or sitting online.
Driving, shopping, cleaning the house, walking the dogs and all those other ‘mundane’ life absorbing tasks can become somewhat tolerable and even enjoyable in the midst of good conversation.

HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU ANSWERED THE PRESENTER ON THE RADIO?
Now that’s good Radio!

“Good Radio is not so much about facts, figures and rationality it’s an emotional medium, in which listeners need to feel inclusive. Listener’s responses to radio programs are driven by their own emotional life experiences – its what makes the human connection” Steve Austin
  
Just as the written words of text bring about the “Death of the Author”, the audible journey of radio belongs to the listener – why else would radio be considered to be

The Theatre of the MIND?

“Only Radio can create
Colourful visual images in
The brain with nothing
More than the right voice,
And a few well placed
Sound effects.” 
-Dan Acree


Local radio presenter Richard Fidler invites his listeners to travel on outrageous and spectacular adventures into other peoples lives and reminds budding presenters to ;
Act as facilitators
Include the listeners – get inside their heads
Develop a report of trust
Don’t be afraid of silence – it allows for reflection.
  
Conversation radio should not be putting listeners to bed
The time frame of an interview should not exceed 7 minutes if you don’t want your listeners to zone out, Conversation radio on the other hand needs to sustain itself for the whole show, usually an hour.

LISTEN TO THE POD CAST
Conversations with Richard Fidler

Monday, 26 March 2012, 12:58:00 PM | backyard@your.abc.net.au (ABC Local radio)
“Anna Krien travelled to Indonesia to investigate the live cattle trade, and has also examined animal testing in science labs around the country.”

Conventional Radio is effortlessly blending into the modern social media networks with;


Twitter: tell us what you think

Podcast’s  Listen on the go or catch up what you missed.

ADVICE FROM THE GREATS:

OK, so you want to be a journalist / presenter?

Read, Read, Read!
Bring down Barriers
Develop a well articulated voice
Develop you vocabulary Be open minded
“Don’t live in an ideological GETTO!” 
-Richard Fidler

Expose your minds to ideas and thoughts you disagree with.
Expand your world view.



Word of the week

Discombobulate: To throw into a state of confusion.



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