How to Present for Tv, Radio & Business 2010
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How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk 1 How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk 2 How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk INDEX 4 Introduction – why be a professional presenter? 9 Multi-skilled & bi-media broadcasters 11 The qualities needed to be good TV & radio presenter 17 Enhancing your voice – the essential exercises 24 Voiceover work & the special skills required 27 How to get voiceover work 31 Presenter skills in business 35 What to do when you’re interviewed 38 Communicating simply 41 Preparing to be interviewed 44 Your image – how do others see you? 47 Media training courses – what goes on? 50 The checklist of questions to ask media reporters 51 How to interview people 59 The TV Presenter – overview of skills and types of jobs 62 The essential assets needed for a TV presenter 64 Teleprompting devices and “in-ear” devices 67 How to hone your TV presenting skills 71 Presenters’ dress sense and image 74 The three “C’s” of the good TV presenter 75 The TV Production Gallery 79 How to get your break into broadcasting 84 15 top tips for your CV or resume 87 The follow-up and getting through 91 Essential Job interview techniques 92 Your website, e-mails, stationary and photos 94 Planning for the long-term future 96 The basic 7 rules to follow to get your break 100 Your first presentation work on television 103 Alternative jobs in TV to get an “in” 110 Compiling your video show reel 116 Summary of what to do to get an “in” 119 How to “cold call” to make your impression 123 The break into news reading and reporting 127 Other options for journalists 129 A day in the life of a regional TV reporter 133 News reading skills 143 The freelance presenter 149 Radio presentation – overview of skills and types of jobs 155 Examples of radio links 168 That essential first radio break 178 Other radio station jobs to get an “in” 182 Radio commercial production overview 190 The personal appearance or “gig” 193 The A to Z of broadcasting jargon and acronyms 3 How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk INTRODUCTION – WHY BE A PRESENTER? So who am I, and why should I know about presenting skills? Well, I’ve spent all my life communicating; maybe it’s because I’m a Gemini; don’t laugh, my trade magazine in the UK called Broadcast conducted a scientific survey over about 2,000 readers and found a huge hump in the graph over the so-called “air” signs, famed for their ability to communicate - so there could be something in astrology! Ever since my parents took me to the BBC TV centre to be in the audience of a comedy sit-com at a young age, I knew I wanted to get into the business. I wasn’t actually interested in seeing the show, I was watching the floor manager, the camera operators, the sound boom swingers, the lighting guys – it was amazingly exciting. As a kid I was brought up on listening to the pirate radio ships and I made my own transmitters (with valves!) in my bedroom and had my own radio station for my town every Sunday when the Post Office people had a day off and couldn’t catch you! I was amazingly lucky and got sponsored through university by the BBC engineering department, something they don’t do anymore. At Bath University, I was a presenter on the campus radio station, University Radio Bath, and loved the job so much I made a showreel and sent it off to the new independent stations around the UK. Almost immediately I had a job offer from Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, a place I had never even visited! Piccadilly was an astonishing successful new radio station and I was gob smacked to be selected. I abandoned my university course and got on air at Piccadilly, starting on the 11pm to 6am “Nightbeat” programme. Yes, 7 long, long hours on air, and you didn’t have any “needletime”; in other words you couldn’t play any copyright chart records at all! I could play copyright-free “mood” music if I really wanted to, but the show ended up mostly phone-ins, my rants and raves, live musicians and visitors to the studio who’d just come from seeing live shows. 4 How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk It really was a baptism of fire; I learnt so much on that shift before getting the rock show gig, where I was interviewing famous music stars and playing my favourite music, and then I was asked to host the Piccadilly Radio breakfast show for 5 years. If you want to know more about the flavour of the Piccadilly Radio years, check out Chris Evans’ book “It’s Not What You Think”. I worked with BBC Radio 2’s breakfast host Chris when he was at Piccadilly, and he kindly has put me in his chart of “The Best DJ’s I have Ever Heard”! After about 9 years in total at Piccadilly, I then got all sensible and got a job at the BBC in Bristol doing TV. I started off as a regional bulletin newsreader for the West region, “opting out” from the London feed for the breakfast, lunchtime and late news bulletins. It was like being a DJ in that I had to operate my own gear! Nobody was in the gallery; I switched my own lights on, adjusted my own “studio”, fixed my microphone and pressed the sequence of buttons to get me onto BBC-1! Such power! After doing this for a while, I was also invited to be the presenter of features and short reports for “Points West”, the BBC regional show and this gave me invaluable directing experience as well as presenting. I was also allowed to do some corporate presenting work, hosting training videos for nuclear power stations in the area; and also had two weekly radio shows on BBC Radio Bristol. While there, I worked with Chris Morris who got himself famously fired for broadcasting the Queen’s Christmas Speech, all cut up to be “amusing”. The BBC was not amused but the laugh was on them as Chris went on to “Brass Eye” fame and so on! Returning to Manchester in the late 1980’s, I was offered the breakfast show on the newly formed KEY 103 radio station and also to set up a division making radio & TV commercials. 5 How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk I was also presenting a TV show each evening on Granada TV called Granada Action, a ten minute “know your rights” kind of show. It was very low budget, which helped me become more multiskilled than ever; we all had to do bits of everything, write scripts, operate cameras, plus help to edit. Eventually I joined Granada as a staff person, directing and producing all kinds of material and putting my voice on as much as I could; if you ever watched the motoring shows on the UK’s Men & Motors channel in the 90’s my name was at the end of every one of those shows! In that era, we also discovered Richard Hammond, a superb presenter who was working at Renault when I first met him when I was filming at the Geneva motor show. I knew it was only a matter of time before he would be a star and the BBC’s Top Gear would be his perfect (excuse the pun) vehicle! In the 90’s I started doing what is known as “Media Training” for companies like ICI, McDonald’s and Avecia. I’d train classrooms of executives in communication skills - how to talk to the press, radio and TV. There’s a section in this book about that if it’s useful for you. I was also in charge of training up the new reporters at Granada. These days, I am the Creative Director of a media production company in Manchester, England where we make the UK version of the Canadian TV format Prank Patrol for the BBC, as well as produce countless training and corporate videos for a long list of organisations. I still do the media and communications training and it’s all very busy and great fun. The business has changed a lot in the time I’ve been in it, but there are still enormous opportunities for talented people. I really hope you can enhance your natural abilities with the tips I’ve woven through this book and good luck for finding success. Peter Baker June 2010 6 How to present for TV, radio and business © 2010 Peter Baker www.presenterskills.co.uk QUESTION: WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO BECOME PROFESSIONAL PRESENTERS? ANSWER: For fame? For the money? As an outlet for natural exhibitionism? …or simply because they want to be loved? (by the way that’s me above broadcasting from a shop window for Piccadilly Radio in the early 80’s!) Many talented people don't bother to try to get into broadcasting as they feel it's a 'closed shop'. What is sadder is that some people try, but go about it in the wrong way. I'd like to explain the workings of the broadcasting world, and explain the skills that are needed, the same in fact as required for good communication skills in business and life in general.