• Well prepared
  
• Usually involves & engages the listener on a 1 to 1 basis
  
• Is presented by skilled presenters
  
• Pitches at common social denominators
  
• Is thoughtful and considered (even if it is confronting or satirical)
  
• Is relevant
  
• Appeals to a wide audience even if it is specific
  
• Has an appropriate presentation style

• Spoken word (speech)
  
• Music
  
• Mixed platform (speech and music)

How often have you almost wanted to shout at your radio because what’s being put on air is deadly dull? A presenter who sounds like they’re on valium, an interviewee who is just a dud.I’m sure you’ve all heard that sort of radio because it’s available to you everyday. You don’t have to look very hard to hear boring radio you can get it everyday on public radio, commercial radio and in the community sector. When it comes to the creation of interesting content, one of the rules is NEVER BE BORING yet so often we do bore the listener. Creating interesting content is not something you can just do in isolation. It’s not something you can order your volunteers or staff to produce. Any focus on content has to include a focus on people. We work in a creative industry with creative people and harnessing this precious but delicate resource is one of your most pressing tasks.

When it comes to getting the best out of who you have on air, you have to know how best to coach them. Valerie Geller, a broadcast consultant from the United States, believes that on air talent usually falls into one of two categories, generators and reactors.

Geller says that generators come up with original ideas. They have a strong, independent imagination and are undaunted by the blank canvass.

Reactors tend to take existing ideas and come up with numerous ways to make them better or more workable. The reactor is terrified of the blank page but when teamed up with a generator they instantly and cleverly pick up on remarks, comments and nuances and can be very funny.

So what’s the relevance of this? Well, when putting together a radio program you could be in trouble if you expect a reactor to carry a program and come up with ideas. Forcing a generator to play second fiddle in an on air team is fraught, just as putting two generators together as co-hosts or as a team can sometimes be a disaster as they compete for attention and fail to listen to each other. Pairing two reactors together is not much better and is likely to lead to boring radio.

When looking at your on air volunteers, you need to assess whether they are reactors or generators. It’s not that hard to do. Generators are the people with lots of ideas and energy while reactors do just that. They could do brilliant interviews and come up with great anecdotes but they need to be given some kind of initial stimulus.

Most people are reactors. Generators are few in number and that’s probably why they stand out. It’s a safe bet to say that the Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones is a generator and he sure stands out! Whatever you might think of him and his radio program, he is literally a generator as he arrives at 2.30 in the morning and dictates editorials to a stenographer. He’s done 3 hours of generation before he goes on air at 5.30.

While different radio sectors have different agendas when it comes to content, there are some pretty obvious questions they all ask.

Will the listener care about this subject?

Will they be expecting your station to cover this?

When thinking about the answers to those questions keep in mind your listener looks at issues like interest rates, global warming, petrol prices and everything else through the prism of the question: What does all this mean to me?

As a broadcaster, you have to be ruthless if you have a boring guest or talkback caller on air. If they are boring, get rid of them immediately. If you’re bored listening to them, imagine how your listener is feeling. If you have to be a bit abrupt and rude to a guest because they turn out to be boring then do so rather than insult all your listeners by keeping a boring guest on air.

Boring talkback callers need to be dispensed with, too. When you hear a talkback caller say the same thing for the 2nd or 3rd time, then it’s time to get rid of them. Unless they are contributing a new idea and adding additional value to your exchange, then you need to cut them off.

If you are lucky enough to have someone else screening your calls then make sure the call screener alerts you if someone rings up and they’re spitting angry. If someone is furious, especially if you have a delay system, they should be next on because you’re likely to create radio that’s anything but boring. There’s no point having them sit on hold, letting them get cold because they weren’t cold when they rang.

In the community sector, access is important. We have to provide access to the airwaves but try not to fall into the trap of fast-tracking people with basic training and then expect them to sink or swim. We must resist the temptation to fill slots with inexperienced people simply to fulfil the mandate of providing access. Yes we need to give people a go but we have to put in place mechanisms to ensure they’re aware of their rights and responsibilities and are given every possible support to nurture and develop their talent.

General Ideas for Segments
pop culture

celebrity goss

song lyric deconstruction

fashion crimes

quote of the day/week

word of the day/week

person or event of the day/week

on this day

historical catastrophes

secret sounds & quizzes

satirical or comedic analysis of a current news items

vox pops on current and local issues

quirky stories (Darwin Awards, list of phobias, etc)

trivial dilemmas

conspiracy theories

More Specialised Ideas for Segments

More specialised content generally works better with 2 presenters – it’s more interesting when it is conversational.

• ethical dilemmas – ask listeners to nominate beforehand or make them up.
  
• what’s the real story (behind the news)?
  
• cultural aspects (from cooking to belief systems)
  
• cultural rituals and superstitions
  
• lifestyle

Highly specialised

• technology
  
• religious beliefs and multicultural aspects
  
• satirical & comedy
  
  Local content
  
  • current affairs
    
  • local news and issues

Please interview local people in the same format as regular interviews, but come at it from a personal perspective.

• Good skill base & knowledge
  
• Experience - and the opposite, a fresh perspective are both good, inexperienced broadcasters should be paired with experienced broadcasters. (Training new presenters), and tasking other presenters to new levels
  
• Ability to be consistent and commit – articulate a contract, and perhaps do more than one segment at a time.
  
• Somebody with contacts

• Opinions—this is especially important for news/talk announcers.
  
• Wide life experiences—they make people more interesting.
  
• Curiosity: an awareness of the world around them.
  
• A range of personality styles—from serious to light.
  
• Emotions—the best ones wear their hearts on their sleeves. This can
  make them difficult to live with at times, but they are worth it.
  
• A sense of humour—and a little mischievousness. Sometimes a bit of
  weirdness too, that helps them see things differently.
  
• Good listening skills.
  
• Good interpersonal skills.
  
• The ability to sell the music—to create a magical moment for the listener.
  
• The ability to make a connection with the music—in music stations the music and the 'jock' have to be tied together emotionally.
  
• A sense of excitement and fun

• Feedback and contribution
  
• Give away incentives
  
• Programme Promotion – cross promoting (PP carts)
  
• Take the listener on the journey (make it personal)
  
• Engage the listener and involve the listener in the show
  
• Create a weekly show blog: put comments online
  
• Create a show web site – a web site should be a tool for the presenters and the community, it’s the way things are developing
  
• Pod casts - creating significant pod cast categories to suit community needs (Warning: there are significant restrictions on pod cast content)
  
• Import music Log sheets into your show blog

• Phone in with comments:
  
• Web based feed-back chat applications
  
• Email
  
• Instant messaging service via the internet
  
• SMS services (Standard and Premium)
  
• Live Talk Back

Phone In

For successful listener involvement there will need to be at least 2 people involved, Presenter and Programme support. Listener calls with comments which are collected by programme support. The presenters will need to give out: phone details, and also engage the listener with topic that would induce feedback. Don’t ask people to call unless they have a good reason to.

Web Based Chat and Instant Message Services

There is potential for flaming (online abuse) and negative comments. It’s also very distracting and hard to relate to on air, if there are a lot of messages.

Email

This is a better format, although you will need to be able to précis the long ones quickly and get to the core message, this has some potential for negative feedback. (Be aware of privacy issues, don’t read out email address of respondents on air) Reading emails live to air is not as easy as one would think.

SMS Services

This is an excellent feedback medium and is very cost effective, the short nature of the SMS messages prevent long garrulous emails, so respondents will type multiple messages, this can be difficult to read on air, best practise is for programme support to copy and paste into a word document. Be wary SMS acronym speak. Privacy Issues also apply here. Occasionally there are log jams, no messages for up to half an hour and then 20-30 all come at once.


Talk Back on community radio

At present, community radio cannot emulate commercial and public talk back due to smaller audiences for community broadcasters. It will take time to generate; if you start doing it now, it’s not going to suddenly happen. If you have Defamation insurance it will significantly increase your premium. Don’t tell listeners (Or presenters) if you have defamation insurance it might encourage them to take risks or initiate defamation proceedings. Delay systems (eg 7 second delay) are not very effective, they only really stop profanity.

Create Content Carefully

Use the “what makes a great announcer” tips in presentation style

Try to make the listener:

• Feel a part of the show – involve them if possible
  
• Feel that you are broadcasting to them personally

As technology goes forward listener involvement will change on all sectors of radio – start thinking about including new media ideas into content creation.

Future

Likely developments will be:

• Listeners will use the internet to deliver their content digitally (spoken word)
  
• Radio will move to more internet based systems and digital formats
  
• The development of digital multi-casting will impact on listener involvement.
  
• Mobile Content & time shifted play back