Week 5 Lecture

"Radio is the theatre of the mind, television is the theatre of the mindless" - Steve Allen

This week's lecture was a half hour audio recording about telling stories for radio. I procrastinated listening to it as I didn't think I had the attention span to simply sit at my computer and listen to audio for a whole thirty minutes. My intention was to just play the audio and surf the internet simultaneously. However once the recording had started I found it hard to concentrate on anything except the voices of these two men, whose opinions on radio broadcasting were so very interesting...

Radio presenters Steve Austin (left) and
 Richard Fidler (right)

The first guest was Richard Fidler, who hosts a radio show on ABC called 'Conversations'. The show is about ordinary people who have done or are doing amazing things. A few of the key points Richard made included:

• TV and Radio are completely different mediums and are not interchangeable; this makes for "bad TV and dull radio."
• Radio is a more intimate medium than TV - people watch TV from a distance, whereas radio makes listeners feel as if they are included in a conversation. As a radio presenter, you are a facilitator of conversation.
• You are more convincing as a presenter if you are genuinely interested in what your interviewee is talking about.
• A successful radio show is all about pre-production - pre-interviews with guests makes them feel more relaxed and trusting.
• You should always make guests feel safe - Richard prefers to avoid a prosecutorial style of interviewing as this will most likely cause your interviewee to clam up.
• Try to keep your mouth shut - allow guests to take and explain themselves. It is a privilege to be part of their recollections.
• Richard feels that public radio is thriving - it has remained unscathed through the 'deaths' of other old media by utilising new technologies and blending into new platforms such as podcasts and Twitter.
• Richard wants to be of use to listeners and give them something, the 'public service' aspect of radio keeps him energetic and happy.

Richard's pearls of wisdom to young Journalism students were: worldliness is good, read the paper, keep asking questions, be open minded, and most importantly, to expose yourself to different currents of thought.

The second guest was Steve Austin, who hosted ABC 612 Evening for nearly three years. This year Steve took over hosting for ABC 612 Mornings. Steve shared a lot of the same views as Richard, as well as some other wisdom:

• When on air, being yourself is important, but so is proper enunciation - people have to understand you.
• Like Richard, Steve also tries to avoid the prosecutorial style of interviewing. However if you want to pursue some information, find different ways of asking questions.
• On radio, it is very easy for people to tell whether you are lying or being fake. Unlike TV, there is no visual distraction.
• A good radio story involves being human - searching and exploring for emotion, not just facts and data. People are driven by emotional responses and life experiences.
• As Richard also mentioned, Steve encourages radio presenters to talk less, and listen more.
• Steve believes radio is popular because these days people are very time-poor. Radio also forges a human connection, and is more real.

Steve's sole piece of advice for those pursuing a career in radio was to 'never give up.' Pursue your goals and never give up on them, even when people tell you otherwise.

Let's just reflect back to the quote at the beginning of my post, "Radio is the theatre of the mind, television is the theatre of the mindless." Radio presenting is almost an art; you have to forge real human connections, include listeners in a conversation for which they are not present, and most importantly, you have to make pictures with words.