Absolute Newbies Guide To Being a Radio Announcer

I was going to call this article, “Absolute Newbies Guide to Being a Radio Talker”.

I like that. “Radio talker”.

But then I use the term ‘wireless’ often when talking about radio – its a kind of term of endearment nowadays.

(As an aside, was ‘wireless’ as a term for ‘radio’ restricted to the UK and Australia?)  

Anyways that’s what this article is about. Talking. On the radio.

Even better, it’s definitely an absolute ‘newbies’ guide (part one).

I’m writing this for a very specific reader. 

You see, I’m writing it especially for you if:

(a) You currently help out in an on-air capacity for your local community radio station or;

(b) You have a burning ambition to become a radio announcer and haven’t had any experience whatsoever.

When I’ve held training sessions for new announcers a lot of the stuff you are about to read here – is the very stuff I teach. Most of it is common sense but it’s amazing how easy it is to forget them when you open the microphone.

Two other things to say before we go on. One is that these aren’t ‘hard and fast’ rules; they are tips to help you deliver a better program. The second thing is that you must ‘be yourself’ on-air as much as possible. People warm to real, genuine personalities – so long as you sound as if you’re in control of your program and ‘know what you’re talking about’.

Let’s go.

Keep your time calls simple.

Instead of saying, ”It’s twenty minutes past the hour of 1 o’clock in the afternoon”, keep it simple.

So, you should always try to simplify your time-calls down to something like, “twelve-twenty” or “twenty past twelve”. 

Just like all communication, a combination of natural language and brevity are the keys to success.

When managing a community radio station, I’d often hear things like, “Twenty-one and a half past the hour of three o’clock” whereupon I’d walk into the studio when music was playing and ask the announcer what the time was. They’d look at the clock or their watch and say, “Twenty past three”.  Use natural language when you’re on air.

In Australia at least, once you’re past the 30 minute mark, use ‘to’ the hour. For example, if it’s 3. 38, don’t say, “Thirty-eight minutes past 3″, rather “Twenty-two to four” works better.

When things go wrong, don’t highlight them.

Let’s say there is a problem with a piece of equipment and it’s just affected something that’s gone to air. As a general rule, don’t highlight what happened. Chances are high that listeners didn’t even notice the problem. Of course if you do come on-air and blabber on about the problem and start appropriating blame at the technicians or whoever was seemingly ‘responsible’, listeners will definitely notice that. It’s a bad look for the station and it just makes you sound unprofessional.

Remain positive about the station

There shouldn’t be any reason you should say anything negative about the station you work for on-air. Full stop.

Tell people who you are – but…

Do tell people your name. But really, once or twice per hour is usually adequate. We’ve all heard announcers who feel compelled to say their name in every talk break. It’s almost a truism that you can tell people with either the biggest egos or the biggest insecurities on radio, by counting the number of times they say their name…!

Don’t talk over vocals in a song intro

If the format allows you to talk over the ‘ramp’ or ‘intro’ to a song, be clever about it and be sure not to talk over the song’s vocals. 

While on the subject of ramps, I’ve heard announcers rave on for a minute over a song’s intro – just because the song happened to have a 60 second intro! 

Another thing NOT to do is forward announce a song, letting the intro play under, then for all intents and purposes stop talking, only to open the microphone another twenty seconds later with a time call, then shut up for ten seconds, then talk about the weather… you get the idea. Say what you’ve got to say then zip it up and let the music go, baby, go!!! 

Timing to the top of the hour

If you’re in a format that is constrained to on-the-second at-the-top-of-the-hour news bulletins PLEASE learn to time out correctly. Nothing sounds dumber than: (a) a song being played for 43 seconds then being cut off abruptly for the news (b) playing an instrumental piece up to the news (very ‘old-school’) or (c) deathly silence leading up to the news. Timing IS easy. If you have track running 3:47 it needs to start at (hour):56:13 to time up perfectly (assuming the song has a ‘cold’ – which means a ’sudden’ ending).

If you are in a market that needs ‘to-the-second’ timing for news etc, it’s YOUR responsibility as the on-air presenter to ensure the clocks in the studios are synchronised correctly.  If you’re just using Windows-based programs, all you have to do is double click on the time at the bottom-right of your screen, then select ‘Internet Time’ before clicking ‘Update Now’ (assuming of course, you’re online).

Help your listeners feel like it’s their station

If you’re talking about an event in your coverage area, but the suburb you’re referring to is 35km from your studios, don’t refer to the suburb as ‘over there in…’. Remember, for people listening in that suburb, they’ re NOT ‘over there’. And that simple little phrase – telling people about an event ‘over there’ - ever so slightly erodes the feeling that your radio station is truly ‘theirs’. If you’re in Ballarat, why would you say on-air, “It’s happening this Sunday over there in Delacombe”, or in Inverell, “It’s always a terrific day at the races over there in Glen Innes”? See what I mean? Remove the words, “over there” from these examples and it sounds more like your Delacombe’s or Glen Innes’s station.

Smile…!

Yup. People can’t see you, but they CAN hear a smile on air. It’s a subliminal thing. Listeners may not be absolutely conscious you’re smiling yet your delivery will be guaranteed to be warmer.    

Be prepared before you speak

It can sound like you’re unprepared if you say something like, “I think now we’ll play a song by…”

You don’t want it to sound like you’re making it up as you go along. Be confident. In a music-based station for example, “Genesis, Invisible Touch  –  TotalRock Radio’ sounds a lot better than, “I think now we might hear a song by Genesis called, Invisible Touch”.

That might do for part one. I’ll post part two of The Newbies Guide to Being a Radio Talker soon. As always, comments welcome…!