4 Ideas To Improve Your Radio Show (Part 1)

In this two-part series you can be inspired to approach your on-air shift differently and even consider some blind spots that you may be unaware of.

PART 1: VOICE ACTING & PREPARATION

Just like when an actor memorizes lines for a movie, you must know your lines well enough to share with the listener…share being the keyword. Reading from liner/promo scripts is a form of voice acting, and it shouldn’t sound like you’re reading.

VOICE ACTING

It was my senior year of high school. My inner circle of friends was tight and we decided to try out for the Spring school play to end our high school years together. That winter, knowing that Spring was going to be super busy with the school play, baseball season, and senior trip, we took the easy way out for our final Speech Meet competition…or so we thought.

Three friends convinced me to do Reader’s Theater for the Speech Meet competition. There was no real memorization of lines since we literally read the script and acted out our character’s parts. Going into it I was overconfident. It turned out to be much harder than I thought, and definitely was a learned skill.

Every day in radio you’re pretty much doing a form of Reader’s Theater. You should really know the topic well on a liner card, promo script, or even your show prep. Listeners can tell when you’re reading (and not sharing), sense if you’re not confident, and intuitively know when you sound unprepared. That’s where preparation comes in.

PREPARATION

Every sports team methodically prepares for their next game. What you see on TV is the culmination of practice and preparation. It should be the same for you and your show too.

You sound unsure when you really don’t know the topic or the script. On the other hand, you’ll exude confidence when you’re fully prepared. That’s the difference between sharing and reading, and that’s a factor in whether a relationship with the listener stays platonic or goes deeper.

HERE’S THE TAKEAWAY

Voice acting and preparation take practice and time to turn into good habits. You’ll struggle at first if they’re new muscles in your routine. But, resist the temptation to give up or to fall back into easier patterns or bad habits. Not only do you owe your career this kind of attention, your radio station and the listeners it serves deserve your very best as well.

P.S. at the Speech Meet, I lost my place in the script and made up lines on the fly. Unfortunately, that made my three friends laugh through their next lines. We barely recovered for a third place finish.

After spending 25+ years in radio, Todd launched a coaching and consulting business, Beyond615.com, on March 15, 2021. There he strives to help others build confidence so that they can connect on a deeper level. He also serves as the Contemporary Christian Format Editor at AllAccess.com. He and his family live in the (615) area code, aka the heart of the CCM industry