Lecture Five: Sound Lecture

Radio is biographical in a sense, and ideological in another – radio programs tell stories of human experience, and stories of ideas.  

                                                                                    - Richard Fidler

Radio is a powerful form of journalism that has been around for a long time. Many of history's pivotal moments have been shared with everyone throughout the world via the medium of radio. The power of radio should never be underestimated; it is still thriving and evolving despite the masses of competition in it's field. 

Lecture 5 of JOUR1111 was a little different from our others; it was podcast/radio style, with no images or text at all. It consisted of interviews with ABC's Richard Fidler - host of 'Conversations' - a radio show which entails personal accounts of some of the incredible experiences of everyday people, and also with ABC's Steve Austin, a Brisbane based journalist who for the last three years has hosted a radio program at 7pm weeknights, but this year has returned to morning broadcasting. Both of these established journos discussed how they got into the industry as well as their experiences, and gave their wisest advice in this podcast lecture.

Above: Richard Fidler

Above: Steve Austin

I found the most relevant and useful of all things discussed by both Richard and Steve, were their tips and tricks for conducting interviews, and their advice for budding journalists. Below is some key points I picked up from each of the interviewees..

Richard Fidler - 

• Keep general radio interviews no longer than 7 mins – or you will bore the listener.
• Be genuinely interested in what you're talking about.
• Make your subject comfortable when conducting an interview in order to help them feel save to reveal things about themselves – try not to take on a 'prosecutional' style. Try to make them laugh and feel like a normal human being.
• Don’t be afraid of silence in an interview - if your guest needs to take time to recollect themselves/their thoughts, let them – silence is powerful.
•  Budding journalists - Read the paper, keep asking questions, be open minded, expose yourself to everything (including people who's thoughts and ideas you don’t agree with), and do everything to expand your world view as much as possible.

Steve Austin - 

•       Annunciation matters, as well as pace and delivery – don’t be fake, because audiences will instantly pick up on that.
•         Be yourself, but still be aware you are trying to communicate and bring down barriers of distance between you and your audience.
•       Always think about what the audience wants, not just what you want – don’t bring personal bias into your work; don't be narrow minded.
•       Don’t do anything on radio that you wouldn’t do in real life.
•         Budding journalists - If you feel inadequate and that its all too much, you would be right. But don’t give up. It doesn’t matter – you may actually become a more interesting person after a few setbacks. Even if you're not naturally talented at this stuff, if you really want it, go after it, because you can do it.

Richard Fidler's 'Conversations' broadcasts live on ABC radio at 11am weekdays, and tune into ABC radio 612 to catch Steve Austin's morning broadcasts.