JOURNO-LIST– Good Radio Speech

1. Warm and friendly but not smarmy or cosy

2. Clear but not over-elocuted or clipped

3. Authoritative but not aggressive

4. Fluent but not unbelievable

5. Natural – but not undisciplined.

Voice
 A phrase that is added to many advertisements as a requirement for jobs in radio news is ‘. . . and a
good microphone voice.’ But what is a ‘good microphone voice’?

 A lot of it is down to interpretation, but it is certainly one which has clarity and credibility and is free
from verbal ‘ticks’. Those with weak r’s or lisps are still uncommon on radio.

 Those who read the news must possess other qualities. An ability to convey the information
accurately and with the correct tone, emphasis and speed is obviously important. Sight-reading is an
advantage too. Although most scripts should be read well in advance of going to air, breaking news
stories require presenters to read straight from a script (which could just be as brief as a few words,
usually not even written as a sentence) and make sense of it to the listener.

 In such circumstances one must remain unruffled and in control: the term ‘news anchor’ is a well-
deserved one in such a situation.

Sitting and breathing

 Get to the studio in good time (never run to a news bulletin), and once there, sit and breathe properly.

 Changing how you sit will affect your breathing capacity of your lungs, therefore your flow of breath,
therefore the resonance of your voice, therefore your confidence, and therefore your voice.

 Feet should be resting firmly on the floor, or on a footrest. Do not cross your legs or heels either in
front or tucked under the chair. Make sure your back, both lower and upper, is well supported

 Take a couple of deep breaths before you start reading: If you try to speak on almost empty lungs,
your voice will sound thin and strained.

 Relax. Scrunch your shoulders, stretch and yawn. The latter warms up the throat, particularly
important for breakfast newsreaders whose first words uttered that day may be on air! Do not let that
be the case with you – sing in the car on the way in to work. Give your larynx a workout: see how high
and low you can go and try some tongue twisters.

 In the studio, sips of water taken during audio can help relax a novice reader, as it lubricates your
mouth and throat. Avoid drinks made with milk as they can ‘clog up’ your mouth instead. Also avoid
eating just before going to air: you may have bits stuck in your teeth which feel odd, and you will
probably be salivating more than usual, and it is difficult to speak and swallow at the same time.

 Breathing properly will give you a deeper, fuller sound and increase the resonance, which will relax
you and make you perform better, give you more confidence and cure stumbling.
 Aim to take three different kinds of breaths as you read. Mini ones at commas, medium sized ones at
full stops,
and standard sized ones between stories, preferably just before the previous audio ends.

 Breathing through the mouth is faster than through the nose, but be careful not to snatch a breath, as
it will sound as though you are gasping.

JOURNO-LIST –Voice Care

1. Cut back on the four C’s – cigarettes, coffee, coughing and chocolate

2. Sip room temperature water – not ice cold from a water cooler

3. Warm up with voice exercises before starting work

4. Avoid eating just before going on air

5. Sit up and breathe properly

Microphone and headphones

 The microphone is a sensitive piece of equipment which will amplify everything it can. That means
your voice, your breathing, the squeak of a chair, the rustle of clothing or scripts. So when a
microphone is open, move and act with care. This includes not clicking your pen or tapping your feet.

 Distance from the microphone is important. If you are too close, the smack of lips and pop of
consonants (‘plosives’ sounds such as p and b sounds which cause a rush of air over the microphone
head), will make the bulletin unpleasant to hear. Too far away and you will be curiously distant, with
extra reverberation making listening difficult. Also if you are too far away the microphone level will
have to be turned up to compensate, and that will make it even more sensitive to unwanted noise.

 Headphone volume is usually limited to stop damage to your ears and so noise does not leak or
‘bleed’ from them, causing feedback (a high-pitched squeak) when that same sound is then picked up
by the microphone. Headphones are necessary for a number of reasons: o So the reader can hear
themselves as the listener does. o Because when the microphone is opened the studio loudspeakers
are cut off to stop feedback, and the presenter has to be able to hear what is being broadcast. o So
directions or information can be communicated to the presenter (via a ‘talk back’ or intercom system –
see below), without being heard on air.

 Some presenters wear headphones so that one ear is covered and the other is not, as it helps them
hear a ‘natural self’ in the studio as well as what they sound like on air.

Talkback
 Talkback is the internal intercom system between studios and offices at a radio station. It allows a
news editor to tell a newsreader, for example, that there is an update to a story that is just about to be
read, or that the weather presenter will not be in the studio on time.

 Having to process that information at the same time as sounding coherent and fluent on air is tricky,
and there have been times when readers have repeated on air what they are being told in their
headphones, because they have been so confused! So, if you need to talk to a newsreader, wait until
they are playing some audio. If you know there is not going to be another clip and the message is
urgent, talk briefly, slowly and in a moderate tone, so they do not lose their concentration on the
broadcast.

Check and rehearse

 Unless there is no alternative, avoid reading copy on the air unseen. It is too easy to
misread something and realise only as the words are leaving your mouth that you have
placed completely the wrong emphasis on the story. Read all your copy out loud in
advance if you can. A few minutes spent on rehearsal is never wasted.

 By reading through beforehand, you can spot unfamiliar words, foreign place names,
tongue-twisters, awkward rhymes or alliteration, super-long sentences, a typographical
error or words with which you personally have trouble.

 It is that you have got to be interested in the material, and understand why others might be
too. Ask yourself: why are we running this item? What is the significance of it? Those
answers will help shape how you tell that story to the listeners.

 If you do not care or do not understand – and let it show – the listener is very likely not to
bother either.

 If you sound as though you are reading a script, you are doing it wrong. If you sound like
you are talking to someone about something interesting, and ‘telling them the story’, you
are doing it correctly.

 You must always remember you are bringing to life the words printed on a piece of paper.
You must understand everything you read.

 If the newsreader understands the story, they can give it the correct tone and emphasis
which helps the listener understand it and so the reader becomes a credible source of
information.

Pronunciation
 One area in which your credibility can be undermined is pronunciation, or more specifically mis-
pronunciation. Local place names on local radio stations must be said correctly. Getting the
name of a place wrong, especially one in your own area, insults your listeners as well as
damaging the station’s credibility and your own.

 Do not guess, get it right! Unless you are totally sure, ask other people in the newsroom about
unusual words that appear in your scripts – another good reason for checking them before
you go to the studio.