The Announcers

Good evening once again and welcome to another small step along my path to media excellence here at the Max Rowley Media Academy. I’m Stefan Sojka and tonight’s show is my lesson number 40. They say life begins at 40, so here’s hoping that my program adds a little life to your evening.

Tonight’s show is entitled “The Announcers” and gives me a chance to showcase a selection of radio personalities - to do a kind of comparison test of their various styles, in the hope that I may learn what it is that got them the job in the first place and what keeps the station managers asking them back year after year.

From what I have gathered it is a delicate, almost intangible mix of technique, personality and content that somehow strikes a chord with their audiences. It can be a friendliness, an authoritative tone, a bloke-next-door attitude, even a confrontational “devils advocate” approach, but whatever they do, one thing I have learned from doing this show tonight is that behind every announcer, regardless of their individual personalities, lies a fair deal of vocal technique that can only be developed through plenty of practice.

Lucky for us here at 2MR, Max knows this all too well, and constantly stresses the importance of rehearsal, as it is only through rehearsal that we can ever hope to become professional announcers ourselves. I admit I’ve been the kind of student who has tended to kid myself that I can more or less “wing it” from week to week, but recently I have increased the amount of time I dedicate to rehearsal, and it is definitely making a difference. Have a listen to what I sounded like in my first lesson here at the academy…

PLAY TRACK 1 – STAN

As disgustingly abhorrent and completely unemployable as I sounded back then, Max talked me out of downing a fist full of tranquillizers, because he knew that with practice I could iron out my smug, philistine approach and cultivate a far more refined style. Anyway, enough about me, here is my first announcer… John Stanley on 2UE.

PLAY TRACK 2 – JOHN STANLEY

John Stanley’s got a kinda bloke next door approach that he cultivates by taking, pauses in funny places, as though he’s giving you a chance to jump in and say something, and making the occasional grunting sound like he’s trying to force out the fart from hell. But he’s a friendly kind of bloke, a little bit right wing in his attitudes, but that’s the kind of poofter bashing, ethnocentric, bigoted audience he’s playing to 13-13-32 is the number and he’s taking your calls now...

PLAY TRACK 3 – GRANT GOLDMAN

Yeah, and there’s only twelve people across the whole country listening to ya, Grant. Grant Goldman on 2SM sounds like the kind of guy who’d corner you at a party and bore you to death with stories about his grandmother’s gall bladder operation, the time him and Slim Dusty had a beer with Duncan at the Brewarrina Hotel, and the time he played rugby league for the dubbo under 12s in 1934. Grant was once invited to talk at a Japanese businessman’s luncheon, but after two and half hours of speaking, five of the guests had committed hari kiri with their butter knives. 131269 - Continuous talk. All day, every day, 24 hours a day, right a cross the country, we’ll just keep on talking – non stop, until, well, we’ll just keep on talking because there is so much to talk about, so much on the agenda today and every day 24 hours a day, plenty to talk about here today, so that’s what I’ll be doing…. Talking that is… talking a lot… about all the things there are to talk about. Give us a call, I’d love to have a talk.

TRACK 4 - GRAHAM RICHARDSON

Graham Richardson’s the kind of bloke you don’t want to argue with. You can’t argue with the man because he talks too fast. Look he’s a well read individual, he’s up on the latest trends, he’s got inside knowledge because the people that are in the know respect his intellect, and don’t mind chewing the fat the man. And he’s happy to tell you what he thinks and back it up with a few facts, unlike some of the other loud-mouthed hooligans that get around the airwaves, Graham Richardson has the credibility and the intelligence to create good talkback radio. He hasn’t got the best vocal technique in the business, but his general knowledge and understanding of the issues more than make up for it. Try arguing with this…

TRACK 5 NO NO ITS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

Switching to the ABC now, the absence of advertising as the prime motivation for existing seems to lessen the degree of desperation and urgency in the announcers’ voices. They seem far more laid back and friendly but they manage to retain their listenability. – have a listen to this afternoon announcer, whose name, unfortunately, I failed to take down.

TRACK 6 - ABC

As you can hear, his delivery is far more friendly and unhurried, allowing more time for any ideas that are presented to be digested by the listener. It also makes interviewees much more comfortable and usually results in richer and more interesting discussions. Commercial announcers tend to like to put interviewees on the spot and watch them squirm, which may be more entertaining, but the truth is often the first casualty of that kind of approach. I sometimes find that even if the subject matter on the ABC is of no interest to me, I can tune in for longer periods of time, simply because the voices are easier to listen to, and the subject will be explored in more depth than it would on a commercial station.

It’s time to travel outside Australia now. The world is definitely shrinking in these new millennium times and it is not unreasonable to think that we could get radio jobs anywhere in the world. I decided to find out a little more about how radio is done overseas.

Firstly from the Xing Jiang Province of China, population 17.2 million, and Shi Wanpeng rules the airwaves…

TRACK 7 – METALLICA

Metallica – rock and roll – don’t have a cow!! Ho ho ho…. YO DUDE…

MORE METALLICA

AT least Shi Wanpeng did rule the airwaves of the Xing Jiang province. Within hours of government officials in Bejing hearing tapes of his show he was dragged from the studio, stripped to his underpants, publicly flogged and beheaded.

Over to Africa Now, and Desmond Umbogo from Radio Rwanda delivers his programs with a relaxed an confident approach, that has earned him the enviable title of Usiki Sawa Sawa.

TRACK 8 – Kylie
Gari la moshi Mashua. Kylie Minogue. Kahawa Chai maziwa/sukari. Ita daktari Duka la dawa. Chakula Kopo Ng'ombei Mkate.

Mzuri Mbaya Upesi Pole pole Moto Kali. Baridi Kubwa Kidogo Fungua Funga Tupu Kujaa Sana Kabisa

Desmond Umbogo was king of the airwaves until late last year when a renegade militia group of anti-government terrorists took over the radio station prior to the January elections. He was allowed to continue broadcasting for a few days, until a back announcement he made for a Back Street Boys song
Went horribly wrong. See, The militia group came from a remote village and spoke a different Swahili dialect. When Desmond said – That was “Larger Than Life by the back street boys” The militia group heard, “go and insert a large living thing up your back passage, boys”

He was taken outside and hacked to pieces with machetes. Which reminds me, radio Rwanda is looking for a replacement. Send those audition tapes now!

Well that’s about it tonight for this show number 40 – The Announcers . I hope you have found it interesting and entertaining and maybe a little helpful in guiding your progress towards finding your own style, technique and personality as we all travel that path towards media excellence.

Next week , lesson 41, is THE GREENING OF AUSTRALIA. The ever present and controversial topic of Our Environment and how to manage it. See you then. I’m Stefan Sojka – Good Night!