Radio, the ancestor of today’s Mass Media, the perennial juggernaut still maintaining a sizeable audience well past it youth. It is encouraging to say the least that radio is still a heavy hitter in today’s media saturated society, and fills me with endless glee just thinking that one day I might have a show to call my own. Yes as you may have guessed, week 5’s lecture was on the topic of Radio and presented to us through the medium of sound, an mp3 download. Before I begin, I would like to say that having it as a downloadable file in my mind, was the best move for something like radio and makes my attempt to write about it seem strange in comparison. The lecture was sectioned into two halves, one consisting of an interview with Richard Fidler of Conversations fame and one with Steve Austin the host of mornings. Considering the first half dealt with Richard, I feel it would be fitting to begin with him.
Richard Fidler is a literal jack of all trades, stumbling blindly through life opportunity to life opportunity, going from busker on the streets, to a recognisable face in the world of sound. This journey has left its mark too and has provided Richard with a wealth of experience in the world of radio, some of which he was willing to disclose to us, the very lucky listeners. Some of his words of wisdom were fairly straight forward, but on recollection, it’s amazing how easily they are overlooked.
Certain advise like being enthusiastic and interested in the topic may sound like obvious information, but it is a trap to think that you can get away with it, because the audience is unlikely to invest themselves if the host is about as interested as a vegetarian at pork sampling convention. This particular advise stands out, as it highlights what makes radio unique, the voice. The key, as was stated by Richard, is that when on radio you cannot simply act as you would on television, radio as a form of media is intimate, it lives within the mind of the listener and this intimacy has to be captured through thoughtful questions, astute retorts and a genuine attitude that can only be described as trustworthy. The host needs to use his/her voice to paint a picture, describing the beauty of a sun drenched flower or conveying the tremendous solemn sadness of a car crash.
Another significant piece of information, was that silence is sometimes the best response. As was said in the interview, silence can often be a subtle hint to the interviewee that we want to here more, that what they are saying can and should be continued at length. This is something I think more interviewers should adopt, because it appears to give (based on what Richard said) the interviewee a chance to really reveal something they haven’t thought about in years and create this aura of empathy and trust between them and the interviewer, something the audience will love and feed on. If I had to provide any advise of my own, it would be that Fidler needs to perform these interviews more often, because the advise on offer in this short interview was exceptional and it would be highly beneficial to here it provided more often.
The story of Steve Austin was a rather different tale, instead of a man of the world, we have a man without guidance, a man lost in the world. Steve Austin had little idea of where he was going, he had no tertiary education, he hadn’t even finished high school, yet while on a prolonged motorcycle ride it hit him, he was destined for radio. Starting out at the bottom of the bottom, Steve clamoured his way through the ranks, his resolve his only companion. Eventually through true spunk and determination, Mr. Austin emerged the victor and is now a well know (at least in Queensland) host of the ABC program mornings, as well as various others.
While that introduction did drag on for a bit, it does actually hold a purpose and that is to highlight what we should all aspire to be like. As Steve said during the interview, not all of us are born to be successes right out of the gate. For some of us, it’s a struggle just to get into the business let alone progress beyond that. If we truly want to be successful in this world, it is going to take more than a can-do attitude, it will require, neigh demand that we put our all into it, that we strive to attain our goals with the fervour an aptitude of a renaissance man and never let failure prevent us from obtaining our dreams. Only then, after all our energy has been spent, that all we can give has been given, will truly obtain whatever glory is waiting for us. This part really stuck out for me in Steve’s interview and it is some of the best advise I’ve been given.
So far, this has been one of my favourite lectures yet, with the quality of the interviewees and questions the real highlight. It has made me really look forward to my future and were I to accidentally stumble my way into radio, well I can’t say I’d be unhappy.
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