The Industry

     WOOHOO double digits! We are getting serious here. I feel like this relationship is going places. Like if we were dating I would be comfortable to wear that pair of sweatpants that have been infested with moths and are plagued with holes. That is quite a step! Before you know it we will be buying a condo and a yappy dog, so prepare yourself! Today’s post is a double whammy. Networking & one to one communication. Are you ready?

Well today was met with a swift kick in the ass (via words of course) by the Mama-San (aka Maja aka Mum or Mother… depends if she’s bugging me). Here is where I will give her the credit she has been demanding. Besides telling me on a daily basis that I screwed up the “your” and “you’re” ‘s in the posts she is actually responsible for the creation of this project… well actually the makers of the movie Julie and Julia (I watched five minutes… not worth it) and apparently I didn’t get to the part where the main character who was unemployed started a blog about Julia Childs… anyway long story short, she told me I should do the same… minus all the butter, whatever that means.

As I was saying, today I woke up to my Mother claiming her brillance about this blog and how much she likes it, but then she switched into manager mode. Apparently this is a team thing now hahaha. I find it funny. So she told me I needed to get my ass in gear and start promoting this thing. I agreed in the fashion that all children show agreement “yes… fine…ya, ya ya… I’ll do it” while paying more attention to the TV… HAHA I’m kidding… sort of. MAN, I’M RAMBLING! In essence I spent the majority of today emailing broadcasters to get this blog known! That was the point I was getting to. 

A brief overview of networking. Keep every email/phone number of EVERYONE you have talked to. This will come in handy. Today I sent out roughly 25 emails to people in the business that I have talked to in passing and some that I have never talked to before, all about contributing to the blog. Now I know it’s Friday so I probably won’t get a lot of responses. However, I got 2 today and one said he would be game for contributing… BOOM! The message here is: don’t be afraid to call on your contacts and send that e-mail, whether for a job application or a blog. Also, SOMETIMES mothers can be right…. SOMETIMES! And Mum I know you’re reading this so comment below and take your written bow! HA!

Now that I’ve thanked my manager let’s move on to one-to-one.

What is one-to-one?! Well it is the theory that runs through the on-air portion of radio. When you are listening to the radio, does it sound like the announcer is talking to a group of people, like at a concert? Or does it sound like the person is sitting right next to you and just having a chat with you? Well a good radio personality (emphasis on personality) will do the latter. Your goal of being an on-air host is to make the whole audience think that you are only talking to them. Again this is called one-to-one communication. You are one person talking to one listener. Get it? Shweet! There are a few techniques that I have heard to make your one-to-one the best it can be:

1. Point Form Bits. As I talked about yesterday when formatting your breaks, having point form bits will help you sound natural while keeping you on track. This will allow you to speak freely like you do when you are talking to your friends. Pauses are good, your mannerisms are also good (as long as they are radio friendly haha). All these things are what make you sound like you are just sitting beside the listener. The more natural you are the better you will be on-air.

2. Use a Picture: A bunch of the people in my class at BCIT used this technique when we first went on air. We would print out a picture of our best friend and hang it right in plain sight. This would again help us envision that we were talking to our best friend which would cue the mannerisms and the natural conversation tone, instead of the “well-rehearsed/fake” sound.

3. Be a Story Teller. A good host/announcer will be able to engage the listener through the entire break. Think of it this way. If a listener is in the car and just pulled into their driveway as you start your break, and you can keep them in the car, listening to the radio, even though they are at their destination, then you are on the right path. It is key to sound natural, but at the same time you need to use your imagination. We don’t have the power of using images like a TV, so we have to create it. Use adjectives, play it up. I, as a listener would rather be drawn in by a good story teller then an announcer reading a liner card… just sayin’

Those are my tips and tricks and again one-to-one comes with time. I remember starting off on air so nervous that I would write my entire break out verbatim and then just read it on air. I would have no inflection in my voice, I wouldn’t take a second and pause, I would just rush through it to get to the stop-set. Breathe, talk normally, have a purpose and entertain/inform… in what other career do you get paid to talk? So enjoy it!

As always if you have a tip or trick that can with developing one-to-one let me know in the comments below.