One Skill separates Great Radio Presenters from The Rest
What is it about your favourite radio presenter that makes them the best? Many conventions make good radio, but one skill makes great radio.
All radio presenters are really trying to do is convince you to spend a little time every day with them, through what they talk about, and how they talk about it. Yet, everyone likes their radio presenters a little different. People love radio presenters who possess admirable qualities, but everyone finds different qualities admirable. It all depends on the kind of person you as a listener want to spend time with.
Some love shock jocks because they ‘break the rules’ / ‘tell it like it is’ / ‘don’t give a damn about political correctness.’ Others find shock jocks arrogant, obnoxious and offensive.
Some love the wholesome sweetheart presenters who remind you of pleasant breakfasts with your parents. Others find this “ideal family member” style of radio painfully boring.
Some love the narcissistic celebrity presenters who exclusively come up with content about their own lives. Some seek the news and knowledge presenters who will teach you about the world. Some like their radio jocks childish and tongue in cheek. Others want restful old souls.
Some want smooth presenters who never stumble over their words and always sound like they are having the best day of their lives. Others are more comfortable with jocks who sound like normal people, with an odd stutter or slip up here and there.
And radio presenters’ voices play a role in this too. Some presenters sound like party animals. Others sound like parents. Listeners gauge what qualities presenters have from what they speak about, and from the voices they use to speak.
So it is really hard to compare radio presenters to find what makes them good, because different audiences want different kinds of people on the mic. However, across all styles of presenting, there is one quality that the very best have which allows them to create great radio, irrespective of style and content.
Conversation Design
The periods when radio presenters talk are commonly called links (because the chat creates a link between songs or adverts or news bulletins). Links are usually made up either of a presenter speaking alone, or talking with contributors or interviewees or callers. Irrespective of who else is on the mic, the best radio jocks consistently create good conversations during links, through the way they design and manage those periods of dialogue.
This is way easier said than done. Think about how many average to bad chats you have every day. You’re talking with a friend and nothing interesting is said. You don’t feel engaged or entertained. Maybe the conversation peters off. Maybe someone gets offended or distracted. Maybe you don’t get the punchline, or your friend doesn’t care about the story you are recounting. Some friends are supremely good at having entertaining conversations. They should be radio presenters.
Radio jocks need to create many good links every show. That means many good conversations, whether they be funny or interesting or thought-provoking or emotionally moving or something else.
No matter what their styles or content interests, the best radio presenters design conversations really well. Before they speak, they evaluate a piece of content and figure out how best to tell it to achieve the full effect of the content. They decide what mood and tone is most appropriate for that content. They gauge the strengths and weaknesses of everyone in studio to figure out how best to utilize their qualities (the conversational dynamic between speakers needs to make the dialogue more entertaining, not less). They have a fair idea of where a link might go.
Crucially, the best radio presenters know:
1. How to begin a link. Like a song, the first three to six seconds are crucial. You need a ‘hook’ that captures attention and suggests that what follows will be interesting and worth staying for.
2. How long to let a link run. Some conversations can meander, because the content is complex and interesting. Some conversations need to be very short, because the content doesn’t have much depth, or because the function of that link is to cover some of the content, and leave the rest for a later link.
3. How to end a link. The best presenters often know how they will end a link if nothing sparks spontaneously. They could have a question, or punchline, or insight on stand-by. But the best presenters are also committed to the potential for a spontaneous, unexpected climax that they cannot predict, and are ready to end links at any time, if they judge that the perfect ending has just happened.
Design for Common Radio Situations
So as a radio show host:
- sometimes the artist you are supposed to interview is clearly shy, or boring, or incredibly high (hopefully you pick that up before you go on air). In this case, it’s a good idea to aggressively lead the interview, by structuring the conversation with many questions through which you can guide the unfortunate interviewee. Ask simple questions too, that have easy answers. Also have anecdotes that you can tell on hand, in case the interviewee loses track.
- sometimes you have hilarious interviewees or contributors. If your news and sport readers are interesting and funny, often all you need to do is let them flourish, by providing interesting content departure points. Throw out an idea or a story, and let them go for it. Keep quiet if you think your contributions will slow the momentum of their banter.
- sometimes your contributors really have nothing to offer except their voices for news or traffic bulletins. In those cases, use content that works in monologues, where you can communicate the full entertainment of the story on your own, with no one else on the mic.
- sometimes, your contributors get how to ‘echo’, meaning they understand when to respond strategically to give the content more impact. This could be through gasping or laughing or objecting in a few words at just the right moments. Incorporate them if your content works best as a monologue, not a conversation (some content does), but would be improved with some on-air audience participation.
- sometimes, your content is about stories, like ‘it is so hard to learn to drive.’ Here, you need to judge whether contributors or callers are good story-tellers. If they are, you then need to decide how to weave their anecdotes into the links.
- sometimes, your content piece is about opinions, like ‘it is never acceptable to hook up with your friend’s ex.’ With this content, you need to judge whether contributors have interesting insights, or whether the debate is too personal for them to participate in happily, and incorporate or exclude them based on your judgement. Side note: if you are still doing stock-standard relationships debates in 2017 after over one hundred years of radio, you need to look at your life. Relationships content can still be good, but has been so overdone that you really need to be sure you have a new angle or wildly unique story.
- sometimes, someone in studio doesn’t have the emotional maturity for a piece of content. It is crucial to keep them away from deep, emotional content, in particular.
