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It's all in the voice
Some simple advice about improving your on air sound.
Let's turn away from the complexities of putting a show together for a moment, and concentrate on the most important aspect of a radio show - the presenter. In particular the voice. Your voice can and will change, and nine times out of ten needs too. Very few people are born with radio-friendly voices; and there is nothing wrong with working on your voice to improve it's on-air sound. There is a industry in voice-training, and if you are looking at broadcasting as a career then I would recommend you consider professional voice-training. So what should the perfect radio voice sound like? The three qualities I suggest are:
- clear. There is nothing worse than a difficult to understand presenter to make someone switch off. Clarity of what is being said is more than vital for a good presenter.
- natural sounding. The age of "smashie and nicey deejays" is thankfully lost in the mists of times, but not according to quite a few people when they first start presenting.
- excited. Or at least mildly amused. The last thing you want to turn on to is someone sounded depressed or just plain dull. Enjoy the experience of presenting.
The voice will improve with time, experience and age - particularly if you work on it. The more confident you get at presenting, the more relaxed you'll become, the more natural and enjoying the experience you'll sound.
So how do you improve your voice? Well, you must make a recording of your shows. Whenever I get asked how should someone improve their on-air sound I always say "record yourself, and then critically listen back to see how it sounds". And it annoys me that budding presenters often don't bother.
The main reason is that you are your worst critic. Your parents will probably be far too pleased to give any criticism, your friends will probably take the rip and the people you are working at the stations probably will say nice things to keep you motivated. But you are the one who knows that you can do better, so it's you who have got to correct your mistakes.
Most importantly, sort your breathing out. You've got enough to think about without having to worry about breathing whilst you are speaking. So always take a few really deep breaths before you go on air. Many a news-reader and presenter can be found lying on the floor before they go on air getting as much air into their lungs as possible. The rationale behind this is that the more air passing through your mouth, the more complete your voice will sound. Its also true that if you can breath slower, you don't have to take as many breaths, which bettters your on-air sound. And it's amazing what a few breathing exercises can do to improve your voice.
Secondly, sort your mouth out. Chew some gum, or at least simulate chewing gum so that your warm-up and stretch your jaw muscles for fifteen minutes before you start broadcasting. Another tip, make sure you don't have smelly breath (for example, if you've just been eating garlic or drinking coffee etc) because your brain naturally tries to limit you opening your mouth, which worsens your on-air sound. My tip from my breakfast jock days was to have some cherry-tomatoes in the fridge as they are perfect for getting rid of stale morning breath.
If you don't already, try doing one of your shows stood up and see if you can spot the difference. You have much better breathing control when you are stood up; sitting down crushes your lungs and reduces their capacity. Why else do you naturally stand up to give a speech?
Another tip that I've heard about - although not yet tried - is to take your shoes off whilst presenting. Your body naturally feels a lot more relaxed when it doesn't shoes on, and that can come across on air. Obviously make sure you've got a decent pair of socks and you haven't just run all the way to the studio!
One mistake of many first-time presenters is that they attempt to talk too fast. Some professional presenters will talk extremely quickly, but this is something they've worked on, and is probably a style of the station. It's not a necessity, and to use an old adage, why run before you can walk?
Speaking too fast means that your words all mix into each other and it becomes very unclear. Slowing down your speech can do a lot to improve the clarity of your voice and it will certainly make you feel more confident. It also means that your brain doesn't have to think as quickly so you become more relaxed, which again improves your voice.
There is no substitute to learning how to slow your voice down other than practising with a script of about 120 words and make it last a minute. Once you get that pace you need to conciously keep talking at that speed on the radio. Listen to stations like Radio 4 and BBC local radio and hear how slow their presenters talk (at the World Service they operate on 100-80 words a minute which is seriously slow).
Your actual on-air speech should be about 150 words a minute, but it's better to attempt to speak slower than that until you are relaxed and confident enough to go at that speech.
Mentally think about talking when you are doing it. Consciously thinking about talking, fully opening your mouth, getting each word out is a vital skill for radio. Think about each word being an individual element, rather than merely part of a sentence. Yes, it might sound strange at first, but once you get used to talking you'll start sounding more natural and clearer at the same time.
When people go into talking auto-pilot, they lessen the use of their mouth and start to mumble, and this is doesn't work on radio because your listeners can not lip-read or see your body expressions.
You cannot use gesticulations on the radio, and although it's good to be animated when behind the mic, you have to demonstrate this to the listener by using your voice. This means exaggerating your expressions, inflexions and the like. If you're excited, be excited; if you're angry, shout and be angry. Ensure that your voice is interesting to listen to by varying the pitch and volume of it. The last thing people want to listen to is a monotone sounding voice.
Try to make sure you're not tired when you present, but equally you are relaxed. If you're doing an evening show after work or college, then give yourself a long enough break to change gear. If possible, walk or cycle to the studios, it is a lot less stressful than driving or getting stuck on public transport. If you do have to drive or take the bus, try and get to the studio with plenty of time, and find time to just "chill". There is nothing worse than presenting a show when you're stressed or bothered about something - all these things affect your voice and therefore your performance.