3s A Crowd

Ultimately #radio is the relationship between broadcaster (singular) and listener (singular) and adding a third person or more should be done with caution.  OK I am talking about radio shows that are interactive phone, text, social media.

When a guest is introduced they become a third person in the conversation.  It's rather like being at a party chatting away to your friend when another person bounds up and your friend suddenly ignores you and just talks to this new third person.  How very rude! But that scenario happens time and again on radio shows, when the listener is completely ignored as the host indulges the guest.

If the show does not have interactivity there is already an expectation from the listener that although they will not be included in the conversation the host will make sure to ask questions that still keeps the listener onboard and on the same journey.  Again there are hosts who might know their guest personally and start talking about irrelevant personal experiences, which again alienate the listener.

FREE Radio Imaging

There's loads of #free #radioimaging stuff out there.  Companies hungry for your business will tempt you with all sorts of downloadable goodies.  Here are just three offering production beds, SFX elements and more.
Air Media
A small company in Halifax (UK) that offers production music, news beds, travel and SFX elements. They currently allow you to download their SFX elements for FREE.  You can buy their whole library in January for just £85.00  If you ignore the rather irritating sales voice across the demos, the actual musical compositions are pretty good.  Find out more click here  
Radio Jingles VIP
No contact info base for this company, but again they offer some useful free elements, some quite bad celeb drops where the station endorsed by the star is, er chopped off. They also quite like the word awesome. Find out more click here
Music Radio Creative
A company run by Mike Russell - you can't get to hear what you are going to get without liking MRC on Facebook or Google+ or subscribe to Mike's Newsletter - that's good marketing, and again MRC offers a number of 'jingles' rather than production elements, so if you are still after the singing jingle, Mike would be your first port of call. (He also does some nifty Audition Training on You Tube, see my Blog Page for more) Find out more about Music Radio Creative click here

Strip Tease

Naked Radio? Well that's been done before and only really works if there is a webcam in the studio. No the strip I am talking about is the practice of stripping programmes at the same time.  In radio this happens as a matter of necessity with the exception of well-resourced stations like Radio 4 who have a loyal audience who are attracted to the stations somewhat eclectic scheduling.

In Talk Format it is essential that shows are broadcast at the same time everyday and the weekend should also mirror this, albeit with a bit of tinkering at breakfast and in the evening to reflect listeners weekend lifestyle.

After the strip, the tease is probably the most important structure in radio.  Telling your audience what you are about to do and when you are going to do it is paramount.  Radio audiences do not like surprises they like the furniture to be in the same place, they like the regular features to be just that and they really hate it when a Presenter  (host) dares to take a holiday (vacation)

In my next blog I will write about the secret of amassing untold wealth.  Well that's a lie but it's a very good tease.    

Mneomic Plague

A whole bunch of little acronym's to make great radio.

The first is NIT - nit is all about news BUT it can be applied to everything you do on the radio, whether you are a host, DJ or Journalist.  When you decide whether to put a story in your bulletin or run a studio line in your show try Nit which stands for:

New - is this something that has just happened? Is this new information?

Interesting this is the tough bit of nit, is a story interesting to your listeners, does it apply to their geographical location? Does it appeal to their demographic?  Is it interesting to them?

Finally and importantly is it True?  And can you talk about it? That the story is not an active court case or might defame someone.

The second is Tell Em.  Radio is the blind intimate medium you have to help your listener, guide them through a story or a promo.  Tell you are going to tell em' - warn your listener that they are about to hear something of interest.  Tell them - tell the story and finally Tell em again - recap on the story.

Kiss is whatever you do on radio Keep It Simple Stupid.  Complex stuff, promos or lots of numbers or rules just fall flat on their arse (ass) so keep the ideas simple, one at a time and clear and easy but compelling.

Aida is a way of writing promos and to some extent bully pieces.  Aida stands for  A - attention = "win a holiday"  I - Interest = "In the Caribbean."  D - Desire = "The golden sand, azure blue sky." A - action = "Call us now on 12345."  You can use this structure to fashion promos, trails and bulletins.

In The Mood

Music is the key to a great talk show.  Well what a bizarre thing to say? Here is an answer for you. When I worked with Sandi Toksvig we would often play the odd tune, maybe enjoy a slice of cake and a jolly good cup of tea during the daily programme meeting.  It set the tone and helped the direction of the show.

I am working with a talk show host this week who does much the same thing, right now he's listening to Dinah Washington and that was followed by a bit of Buddy Holly, obviously not the bit they found to identify him after that terrible plane crash.

My Host says it sets the mood and tone for him and gets him in the zone.  This is the second blog I have written in the last couple of days about show prep, but it is such an important thing and a badly prepared programme can rail-road a whole show.

A change for the better

Change can be good, a change of diet, a change of scenery the list goes on and it should include accepting change in the work that you do.  Linda Gage my much missed Journalism Tutor used to say if you can't stand to be subbed, don't become a journalist.  I have worked with people who have become so precious about their work that they shut themselves off to constructive improvement and change.

It has been my experience that when you are close to a project you sometimes, as the saying goes, 'can't see the trees for the wood.' It really helps to have a second pair of ears or eyes on any project your working on.  I have just completed an HD wedding video, having sent a copy of to the bride she has asked for about three changes and now when I look at the changed video she is absolutely right, what she has suggested has improved the video.

So as a Radio Producer, when someone comes up to you with some of their own ideas on your project, don't get defensive, take on board what they have to say, try out their ideas.

For the journey

Your life is your story and everybody loves a good story.  OK so we don't all have roller-coaster exciting lives but you will be surprised how a conversation with your daughter or a chat with a friend can be used as material. Here are a few points to ponder by the way you can take this structure to create phone-in topics, documentary's and programme pieces:




Draw your listener in with a well crafted headline.
This is the focus of your chosen subject and it always contains a relevant question to ask the listener.  It will set the tone of the topic and the way you want a listener to react to it.

Get to the point
Once you've hit the ground running get to the point quickly and then fill in the details. See yourself as a hunter; hunting for an audience. You can put the trap out but if you don't set the bait you're not going to get your catch.

Empathy
My favourite word and remember it is a two-way street.  Create empathy for the subject by using personal experience, create empathy for your listener by saying to yourself ..what do they want to hear?

Make em' laugh
As they once said in Hollywood.  Even a serious topic can have light and shade even if the humour is irony.

And that's the way it is.
Give your audience closure.  Sum up at the end of a topic, say what you think and give your listener something to go away and think about.

So finally take each of these points and use them to structure your next topic and enjoy your story telling.

Bob Monkhouse

Bob Monkhouse the first celeb I ever booked.  It was only a phone interview and I was just a kid working in local radio so it was very exciting to speak to his agent to set the interview up.  He gave me Bob's private home number (this was before mobiles) and I duly rang the number at the appointed time and was kinda surprised that Bob actually answered himself.  I was also surprised that he knew who I was, who was presenting the show and what we were talking about.

Years later when I was producing The Pete Murray Show, Bob was a live guest, again he turned up knew who everybody was and had a whole ton of notes with him. I remember asking if he needed to take the notes into the studio? I got a 'I most certainly do.' back from him.

Bob was clearly a man that learned everything by rote and it's a very useful skill to have if you are a radio or TV Producer, because you will be asked to do things that you might not have any personal interest in but you still need to know and understand the topic.  Research is always king and will allow you to fashion an interview with relevant questions and information rather than a string of bland rubbish - and we have all seen or heard shows where that has been the case.

Bob Monkhouse is no longer with us, in fact I worked with his wife Jackie in 2007  on a campaign for prostate cancer (which killed Bob) she was a delightful woman who told me that Bob kept everything all his notes, copies of his TV and radio performances and much more.  And another Jacqui, Jacqui Wilson my old LBC boss was his Producer on the BBC game show 'Wipeout.' So I feel an odd professional affinity with the man and his very precise and detailed way of working.  Something we could all learn from.

Pole Position

Interesting interviews, my top tips: Braved a chilly London Monday to interview a guy who was involved with Kid Jensen Racing.  Now I have personally never followed motor racing but as a journalist you should be interested in everything and if you scratch the surface of any subject you always find interesting stories. 

Motor racing is a high octane high flier sport for people with deep pockets and I have to admire Vincent Franceschini from Pole Ltd who set up Kid Jensen Racing in the late 1990s with his own money.  There's something of the Richard Branson about Vincent except he's French and  hasn't got a beard.

The purpose of this blog is remind any Producer, Journalist or Reporter that good interesting stories don't always come out on the balcony and shout themselves at you.  You often have to go looking in the shrubbery and unearth them yourself.

Freebies

A free holiday to Mexico and a ladder.  Sadly it was the ladder we got free.  The wonderful world of freebies, where various companies and PR groups send you things.  The holiday was procured by a Producer I overheard making a phone call to a travel company and asking if there were any 'facility' trips to Mexico as he worked on a travel show (lie)  judging from the phone call they appeared perfectly happy to let him have a free holiday.

The free ladder was featured on a DIY show I Produced and somehow we managed to get it back to Essex in the company car.  I remember I had to sit in the back seat as the thing filled the whole car up and made gear changing almost impossible - buy hey it was a freebie.

Journalists still get sent freebies and it can be very easy for some to be persuaded to give over airtime for a free hamburger or hamper of Christmas goodies - good journalists should never do this.  The guy that got his free Mexican holiday, a few months later produced a very misguided show  called 'Sex with Your Pets' it made the Sunday papers and got its own paragraph in the broadcasting code on bestiality and he of course lost his job straight away.

Leave It Out

It's all in the edit, great radio can be more about what you leave out than what you put in.  If you are charged with editing an interview show you will often find that you just have too much material to fit the timing of the programme.

So what criteria do you use to make those edits? Ask yourself a question - what is the interview about and what do I want from it? Write the answer down on a piece of paper to remind yourself.  For example I was chatting to my good colleague Matt who has edited a Nick Ferrari interview with Sir Michael Caine for Classic FM.  The purpose of the interview was to find out about Michael Caine the person. One of the anecdotes involved Michael talking about his interest in unusual facts, which was kept in the interview. Caine then went on to give an example of a fact.  Matt, rightly edited that bit out. Why?  It didn't tell us anything about Michael it was just a story about how the word caddy go to be used in golf.

Michael also talked about the death of his father.  Again Matt felt uncomfortable about what Caine had said, but he realised that this was a unique and emotional insight from the 'real' Michael Caine and he left the piece in, again a good call as todays (Saturday 9th October) newspapers are covering the story click here for more.

So in summary it's what you leave out as much as you put in.  Always have a focus and always have a beginning a middle and an end and try and achieve light and shade; and above all listen to what the interviewer and interviewee are saying.

Content is King

Any old crap will do; there was a time when the poor old British public had just three TV channels, four national radio stations and if you were lucky or unlucky a BBC local radio station, then along came a handful of commercial radio stations.  But let's face it if you didn't like what was on those handful of TV and radio stations the only alternative was to go down the pub or read a book.

The programme makers of that time knew that fact, I think it made them a bit lazy, sure there were some great shows but there was also a lot of dross - it didn't matter though because the audience figures were never that bad, because there wasn't any choice.

Now all that has changed and content is king, there are now 100s of TV and radio channels all competing with each other to get your attention.  It's the same if you are presenting a radio show.  Life used to be easy - grab a few records,  the what's on file and shove together some half arsed competition like 'Beat the bleedin intro' and the hoards were listening avidly.  Truth was they had no choice and put up with your crummy competition with a book token as a prize.

So what to do? How do you make your show shine? How do you make it different?  The key is engaging and thoughtful and compelling content.  You need to put effort in, do the research, do some decent pre-production, because slowly, slowly your audience is leaving you. 

The old ones who can't work a computer are dying, the young ones are off with their iPods and the ones in between have started downloading audio books to play in their car, now they've realised what that plug thing is by the cigarette lighter socket does.

So think a little more about what you do and what you say.  Put a bit of added value into your show and it will pay off in the long run.  

As heard on radio

Victoria Wood, gifted, talented and the couple of times she has been in doing interviews - shaky and shy.  Comedians are a pretty miserable lot.  I can remember I once tried to make small talk with Ernie Wise and got mortgage advice back.  Wood is one of the 'worry too much' comedians but as a radio producer or presenter you could learn a lot from the way she operates.

Her love of language, her attention to detail. and if something doesn't work she changes it. She is a driven woman and focused on what she wants to do. I found this out from a recent biog on her life that I caught on iPlayer.

She also has an ego, essential if you are going to perform, but she tempers that with her insecurity.  It's never a bad thing to ask yourself - Am I doing the right thing? Is this actually working on my show? Could I do better? Should I come at this from a different angle.  It's easy to get lazy and comfortable - just listen to a lot of BBC local radio to hear that going on.

So take a leaf out of Victoria Wood's book and take a good hard look at your professional self.

What is it Barbara dear?

Bye, bye Babs. So Eastenders said farewell to Peggy Mitchell and Barbara Windsor gave the acting performance of her career.  And how clever of the writers to entwine some of Windsor's real life into her farewell speech about life with her mum.  I know this because when her biog first came out I had her in as a guest, at that time I was Producing the Pete Murray Show and was doing maybe two to three book guests every week.  A tough call on a radio Producer with no researcher.  It meant I had to read or at least sight read each book to create background and questions. 

But it's really worth doing this, you hear so many interviews where the Presenter has just been given the list of questions supplied by the PR or publisher.  I remember finding a short passage in her book about Barbara's relationship with her mother and put that as a last question for Pete.  Bless Babs it reduced her to tears when she remembered her mum, much like the scene last night. So good research always pays off, even if means you trawling through books for that perfect question.

Emotional Links

Make em laugh make em cry: Human interest is a hard thing to define, what interests one person may bore another.  So you need a bit of emotional glue to keep your listener's interest.  Here is a practical example.  Think of something that you have no interest in and try and give it a personal link. 

Example: I hate most country and western music, but my step father loves it, he used to dress up as a cowboy and go off to dances with my mother, he even totted a pretend gun.  So what makes grown men be so passionate about country music?  Is it a generation thing - something your dad liked or are there country music artists for a younger generation? Does country music deserve the negative press it gets in the UK and why is it so popular do you think in the States?

So I created an emotional and personal link by bringing my parents into the topic.  See if you can do the same? Remember to keep the questions concrete and engage with you listeners to create interest and empathy even if they aren't that interested in the subject.

Powerful Radio

I worship Valerie Geller she is a radio great and talks a lot of sense about radio, here are her 'Principles of 
Creating Powerful Radio:
 1.  Speak visually, in terms your listener can "picture." 

2.  Start with, your best material. 

3.  Tell the truth. 

4.  Never be boring. 

5.  Listen to your station. 

6.  Make it matter. 

7.  Address an individual, use "You,"
       - talk to ONE listener at a time!  

8.  Do engaging transitions & handoffs.

9.  Promote, brag about your stuff.

10. Brag about other people's stuff

11. Be who you are on the radio.

12. Take risks. Dare to be great.

You can buy her book Creating Powerful Radio through Amazon.

Back to basics

Young and talented - don't you just hate them?  I got to meet some radio students recently and was most impressed by the quality of the content they were producing and the way they worked as a team.  I do hope they all get the careers they deserve in the industry.

They did make a few tiny mistakes in their presentation and content, As a veteran Radio producer I thought I would compile a basic list of stuff that makes good radio.

1. Confidence and enjoyment - it's an entertainment medium (even when you are presenting news shows) so remember to enjoy what you are doing and have confidence.

2. Structure and time - structure is everything and timing of items should be carefully worked out in advance - there is nothing worse than discovering you have a 4 min gap with nothing to fill.  My old mentor Linda Gage (Pic above) used to say 'Always have a plan B.'

3. Cadence and tone - Look out for gear changes particularly if you are going from a light to a serious story or vice versa.  Nothing worse than a hearty laugh over a story and straight into another about death and destruction.

4 Scripts - a good thing but they can sound too scripty.  Light material like showbiz needs a light touch script, made more conversational almost to the point of the odd ab lib.

5 Mistakes - I have made a few, too many to mention, and I still keep making them, I am only human, but if you make a mistake just recover and carry on and always, always own up if you caused the cock-up.

6 Tell em  - Tell em you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them you told them.  The mantra of the blind medium that is radio.  Guide your listener with your cue and always back announce material and tell them where you are off to next.

7 Teasing - a bit like Tell em - teasing is a vital part of keeping your audience on side.  Grow expectation and desire by honest but interesting teasing of subjects to come.

8 Communication - I hate wearing headphones, particularly in a control room with others around - you need to communicate quickly and efficiently - everybody needs to know what they are supposed to be doing before they start to do it.

9 Attribution - Who said that? Where are they from? And the order of attribution, which should always be - what they do/are followed by who they actually are.  (Their name)

10. Linda Gage - Who taught me - good radio programmes have beginnings, middles and ends, they also have light and shade.  Stick with that mantra and you will not go too far wrong.

About Linda Gage 1947-1995 (Source www.lindagage.co.uk)

Linda Gage was widely known among broadcasters for her work as a radio producer at LBC and as a trainer.

Linda's career in broadcasting started in 1966. She first broadcast in Denver, her home town, before moving to Los Angeles. During the 1960's she became involved with the civil rights movement before moving to London in 1970. It was through her involvement in civil rights that she met her husband, Larry Grant, then legal officer of the National Council for Civil Rights in 1972. As a leading member of Agit Prop, Linda needed help in drafting a pamphlet on rights concerning arrest, search and seizure. Sparks flew between the two at their first meeting but out of the heat emerged a strong and lasting relationship based on shared values and principles.

Linda joined the NCCL as a press officer before moving to LBC for its launch in 1973. Her American training in both radio engineering and production was invaluable to this new commercial radio station, the first in Britain. She was a meticulous radio producer, always conscious of the importance of the use of sound and able to make even a dull news story sound interesting. She was quick to put the nervous at ease and always able to handle even the most difficult radio 'personalities' through a warm sense of humour and her own outgoing personality. In the late 1980's she took on the role of Head of Training at LBC and in 1989 wrote  A Guide To Independent Radio Journalism which is widely used as a textbook for media courses.

She left LBC in 1991 to train a new generation of broadcast journalists. She helped create one of the best equipped student radio studios in the country at Vauxhall College (now Lambeth College).

Linda Gage died unexpectedly from lobar pneumonia on February 8, 1995 aged 47.

Brian Hayes wrote at the time of her death; 

When I was at LBC, I was lucky enough to have Linda Gage as one of my producers. Linda was happiest when she and Larry were at their Kent cottage in Ickham. This was their time for recharging batteries for the next week of demanding work in London. She loved village life and the people of the village were her friends. Her hospitality was unlimited; guests were treated more like temporary members of the family and found it easy to behave that way. She is missed at the local pub.

Linda Gage, radio producer, civil rights worker, born July 21 1947; died February 8, 1995.

My name is Michael Caine

How do you create a great contacts list? How many bragging journalists have you heard say "Yeah I got his number."? First of all before we go any further having "his" number means nothing.  I remember many years ago I wanted to invite Michael Caine on a show I was the Producer.  This was before mobile phones but I had his home telephone number.  I picked my time with care, it was early evening and the phone rang and the unmistakable voice of Michael Caine answered it.  "Ello" to which I said who I was and what I wanted.  His reply was "Well Michael Caine aint here so f*ck off." Then he slammed the phone down. So you can have all the numbers you want unless they are a proper contact you might as well carry around a copy of the phone book.

Repetition and familiarity will help you with the Press Officers of this world, they are there principally to guard the interest of the company, group or politician they represent.  But once they get to know you and think they can trust you, the pathway to getting the guest you want becomes a little more easier.

The other thing to bear in mind is the way PR and PO's hop around jobs, I know the credit crunch has slowed this down, but there was a time when I would blithely call a PRs mobile and get half way through a guest bid before they told me they no longer work for XYZ instead they're with  ABC and would try and foister their rotten old guest on you.

So cherish your true contacts, network with them, give them a reason to call you.  There's nothing better than a publisher calling with just the right guest because they know from talking to you in the past what your show is looking for.

And if all else fails steal the whole contacts diary from your newsroom.  I know somebody who did this and still has a very good job working on BBC TV!

Mine's a pint!

A pint of warm p*ss and not the Notting Hill Carnival.  Today when OB's go bad.

OB number one.  The Ideal Home Exhibition Earls Court.  Presented in the safe hands of Pete Murray who had been doing the event for years for the BBC.  Trouble is the LBC stand was miles and miles away from the loo, so there came a point when poor old Pete couldn't hold it any longer.  Luckily for Mr Murray the Producer - Steve Dodd had just finished a pint of beer and Pete took every advantage during a commercial break, nipping behind the stand to fill her up.  He proudly presented the warm foaming liquid to Mr Dodd to dispose of.  The lesson learnt - make sure there are comfort facilities at every OB you do and that they are accessible.

OB number two.  Therese Birch sent in the OB truck to cover the Notting Hill Carnival - trouble is she was sent to the very end of the procession so no floats to commentate on at least not until the dying minutes of the end of the show when the procession finally arrived.  The lesson learnt - do the research look at the maps make sure you are in the right place.

Next time how to organise the perfect OB.

3 degrees under

When guests go bad, today The Three Degrees.  But which three degrees and what happens when your research goes out of the window?

In the early 1990s I had the 'Three Degrees' as guests but what  my Programme Assistant who set the girls up, didn't know there had been a line-up change and we got three completely different 'degrees' who first of all we didn't know their names and secondly they made for a very brief interview as they hadn't done anything.

Mistakes happen and the most positive thing about that interview was that the Programme Assistant immediately owned up it was her fault and her call.  I think it was Lyndon B Johnson the American President who had a sign on his desk which said 'the buck stops here'  So when you make a mistake own up and people will think the better of you. I am afraid it doesn't happen a lot in the media.  I am also pleased to say that my Programme Assistant went on to be a very fine Producer and now has a senior role at GMTV.

So in summary.  Cock-up? Own-up!

(Pic above the Three Degrees we thought we were getting)