| President’s
Corner
 The
other day I was tagging a carted promo for “Fresh Air.” Terry Gross finished
saying her piece, that funky “Fresh Air” music was playing, and I opened
the mic and said, “Tonight from 7 to 8 here on Maine Public Radio.” As
I said it I realized that I was presenting this simple information using
exactly the same phrase, spoken in exactly the same way, as I had for as
long I could remember. My regular listeners could easily have been saying
it along with me. When that happens, something that sounds like boredom
is showing on the air.
I’m not trying to say that
we need to come up with a new and different way to tag promos every single
time we do it. There is more than one natural-sounding way to say “tonight
at 7,” but not an infinite number.
Also, there can be merit in a catchphrase or two. For example, Maine Public
Radio’s “Morning Edition” weather guy ends his forecast every day by saying,
“. . .and at this hour, that’s the way it looks from here,” as the music
comes up underneath him, and this is somehow comforting and engaging. Garrison
Keillor’s unvarying open and close to his monologues work the same way:
listen to how enthusiastically the audience responds when he says, “It
has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon….” Maybe it is hellos and good-byes
that lend themselves most to this kind of positive repetition.
In general, though, saying anything the same way every time makes a poor
impression on the air. It’s a rut. There are lots of kinds of ruts—thoughtless
catchphrases, unconscious vocal habits, unvarying break structures, and
in general an overall lazy sameness of presentation—and they all send the
same message to listeners: “I’m not really paying attention to what I’m
saying, and I don’t care if you know it.”
The simplest antidote for ruts is aircheck-ing. If you come out of every
piece of music saying, “That was music by ________,” you will be sure to
notice it when you listen to fifteen breaks one right after another on
a telescoped tape. But another special treat, if you ever have the chance,
is to take your tape outside of your station and get it critiqued by someone
who has never heard your work before. It won’t necessarily be a comfortable
exercise, but there’s nothing like a totally fresh pair of knowledgeable
ears to catch even the most subtle of bad announcer habits.
It is for this reason that I am excited to be participating in the first
AMPPR announcer workshops, happening in Boston shortly after the publication
of this newsletter, with the highly regarded, energetic, and opinionated
voice coach, Marilyn Pittman. I’m excited for myself, because I’m overdue
for a good shakeup, but I’m also excited because I think we, AMPPR, have
hit on a winning idea here—making that precious opportunity available to
announcers who have never had it before.
Our long-range plan is to keep the workshops inexpensive and put them on
all over the country, so that sooner or later a workshop you can afford
will show up within driving distance of where you are. When it does, I
hope you’ll come for a good, rattling look down at the ruts in your own
particular radio road.
Dave Bunker
President |
