Being a Breakfast Radio Host Part 3

As a host you can hang with people your mother would describe as “Creepy looking” (it’s ok though, they’re in a band)

The trickiest thing in radio, perhaps, is panelling. Pressing buttons, fading songs in and out, timing it all while back announcing, delivering a punch line and remembering to not mention triple j at all costs. I’m still getting better at it – it takes a bit of practice but is key for having a professional sounding show. One technique I’m still mastering is not turning the mikes off immediately, but allowing for a cross fade effect with the hosts still talking over the introduction of the song. Another thing we’ve all been working out it back announcing without using the over-used phrase, “that was —–“, which forces a bit of creativity to think of more original phrases.

We’ve had a fair few challenges to overcome in our show. Probably due to the fact that most people involved with SYN are volunteers, we’ve had multiple mornings where no news reader has turned up to give us the days headlines, or a person meant to be coming in for an interview hasn’t come in at all. There’s really nothing you can do except keep going on with the show and have extra topics prepared that you can talk about instead. A lot of live tv and radio reply on the people being involved keeping a cool head while under pressure, because chucking a tantrum isn’t going to help the situation at all, and naturally the best decisions are made when the people involved aren’t stressing out.

Don’t get me wrong, I may sound like I have this all down but don’t be fooled – I’ve had my share of blunders and bloopers on air. For instance, I asked a band how they translated their “energetic energy” into a live performance, to which the answer was, “well..I do like my energy energetic…” The worst blooper was when I committed most of the don’t of community radio all in the same sentence, “or you can download the music for free on the internet…(producer looks at me alarmed so I try to recover it) or you can download tracks from Triple J’s Unearthed (producer almost falls off his chair because we DO NOT MENTION TRIPLE J AT SYN)”

I’ve learnt so much – and am continuing to learn  – from my time as a host on Get Cereal. I’ve learnt that it’s something I love to do (despite the early hours) and some discovered some new favourite bands. It’s been good exposure in regards to my own band too – interviewing lots of bands I’m getting more a feel for the Australian music scene (as well as being able to do some cheeky plugs). I’d like to continue doing radio shows – maybe even creating my own for the next radio season (Around the World in 80 Songs).

KEY SKILLS

• Brainstorming interesting content
• Interviewing techniques
• Operating a panel desk
• Tactically dealing with unusual people
• Resolving arguments between hosts in a nice way on air
• Public speaking
• Communication skills
• Using the program ‘Flywire’
• Quick problem solving when technology fails and/or interviewees don’t turn up
• Editing with Adobe Audition