Announcing for the Electronic Media

Chapter 1

Chapter Outline

What You Can Gain from This Book The Announcer for the Electronic Media Education and Training Coursework Considerations Within Your Major Beyond Your Major The Announcer’s Responsibility

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his book is about how to get from where you are to where you want to be. It’s a book for anyone who’s intrigued by the mystery and magic of the media that Tsend voices and pictures across tens of thousands of miles, connecting one in- dividual to millions. In short, it’s about a path you may follow and the dedication neces- sary to become a professional radio, television or online announcer. In broadcasting, no one gets a free ride. Those who rise to the top get there because they already possess or have developed three attributes: talent, perseverance, and preparation. Television and Radio Announcing helps you to become prepared. Talent is a gift that can’t be bought—although it can be cultivated—and perseverance comes from within. If you have two of these three, you can go as far as your dreams can take you. These attributes should be considered one at a time.

Talent. It refers to a natural or acquired ability. Some people (Mozart, for example) are born with incredible talent which blossoms shortly after infancy. Does this mean we’re born with announcing talent or the lack of it? Not entirely. Most of us have potential gifts that don’t become active until we identify and consciously cultivate them. Possessing a pleasant voice and an outgoing personality makes it easier to become an effective announcer, but success in the field requires more than that. Good voice quality and a compelling presence can be developed through hard and focused work, but many with excellent voices never make it as announcers, while others with lesser gifts who work to develop their means of expression and a compelling personality may be heard on the air daily. Innate talent alone doesn’t guarantee success as a communicator.

Perseverance. The best would-be announcers will never see their dreams come true if they don’t have a streak of stubbornness, which many call “drive” or “perseverance.” Continuing to believe in oneself despite early disappointments is required of most who attempt to launch their announcing careers right out of college. Even if you’re well prepared, you may struggle for years before you achieve success. You deserve to have faith in yourself if you truly believe you have something worthwhile to offer, if you’ve prepared yourself through sustained effort, and if you’ve taken ad- vantage of performance opportunities in classes, on on-campus radio and television stations, in video posts on YouTube, podcasts, and community-access cable productions. To succeed at the highest level, you also must have an urgent need to communicate worthwhile messages. You should realize that if you haven’t perfected your instruments of communication and acquired knowledge, a sense of humor, and the poise required for being an effective announcer, it’s unlikely that you’ll succeed. For example, too many hopefuls, having heard about the money that can be made in voice-overs, believe they can join the ranks of professionals by taking a weekend course in commercial performance and then showing up for auditions. It really isn’t that easy.

Preparation. The third attribute required for the success in broadcasting is preparation, which is the focus of this book. Within its chapters you’ll find many exercises for developing skills to help you be heard and appreciated by vast audiences.

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What You Can Gain from This Book The title Television and Radio Announcing describes this book’s focus, but what it offers does not benefit only those preparing for broadcasting careers. Instead, all who apply themselves to read this will improve their ability to (1) speak with an appealing voice, (2) clearly articulate words and sentences, (3) pronounce words according to accepted stan- dards, (4) select and use words, phrases, similes, and metaphors effectively, (5) express oneself confidently, (6) speak ad lib or impromptu, and (7) communicate ideas clearly, both orally and nonverbally. Aside from such specifics, your development as an effective communicator will enhance your rapport—your affinity—with others. Even if you don’t end up in a broadcasting career, the ability to effectively communicate will take you far in life in a broad range of careers including marketing, sales, and public relations.

The Announcer for the Electronic Media The term “announcer” refers to one who communicates over the public airwaves, as on radio or television broadcasts; through online video or audio streaming, over cable channels or by electronic amplification, as in an auditorium, stadium, arena, or theater. Think of the spectrum of newsworthy events that reach us daily through modern media. Radio, television, and the Internet reach vast audiences scattered over thousands of miles, and all possess instantaneousness. Radio made it possible for the first time in history to describe events to millions as they occurred. As far back as the 1920s, radio pre- sented “real time” communication and, because it was a “blind” medium, listeners could only receive news reports, interviews, and other communications from announcers. Television added pictures and experiences, bringing audiences into theaters, con- cert halls, SuperBowls and World Series, and jazz and rock concerts, taking them to faraway places, and giving them a visual sense that they are right there, participating in the televised program. The Internet gave everyone with a computer and broadband connection a way to broadcast and communicate, not just with one other person but a voice which,

Figure 1-1 DJ Sue Hall stands as she delivers intros to a music sweep. Sue says that standing increases energy, allows unre- stricted movement, and improves voice quality. Courtesy Sue Hall and KFRC-FM.

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through YouTube, Podcasts, and Internet radio, provided them with “stations” of their own. On electronic media, announcers are presenters, communicators, and interpreters, and because their responsibility is considerable, they must possess native talent, ac- quire a broad educational background, and undergo intensive training and consistent practice as they develop professional competencies. So what kinds of careers can professional announcers choose from? Announcing includes many areas of specialization:

Broadcast journalism: News anchors; field reporters; feature reporters; analysts; commentators; and weather, consumer affairs, the environment, science, business, technology, health, and traffic reporters. Sports announcers: Play-by-play announcers, play-and-game analysts, and sports news program hosts. Music: Announcers on radio music stations or websites (DJs, deejays, or jocks), music video jockeys, (VJs or veejays) and mobile DJs. Public affairs: Interviewers and panel moderators. Commercials: Voice-over announcers (radio, television, and online), demon- stration and commercial announcers (television), “infomercial” announcers (television)—who present lengthy commercials showing and demonstrating products, and salespersons on the Home Shopping Network or QVC. Narration: Documentaries, informational programs, educational programs, voice-over readings of scripts for industrial or corporate presentations, and readers of feature reports for both radio and television. Miscellaneous programs: Interview shows and topical political sessions with current newsmakers, interview and phone-in shows; comedy shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report; magazine shows such as Sixty Minutes, features on Animal Planet, and All Things Considered and Science Friday (NPR radio); food, gardening, home repair, and similar specialty shows; children’s programs; game shows; and introducers of feature films on television. Aside from broadcast stations, many announcers, both men and women, work in industrials, also called corporate media. Audio and video presentations are made for training employees, introducing new products, providing information to distant branches, and handling in-house communication. The term industrial media is a loose one because it applies to media used by hospitals, government agencies, schools, prisons, and the military, as well as businesses. Few such media departments can af- ford the services of a full-time announcer, so if this work appeals to you, you should prepare for media writing and producing as well as announcing.

Education and Training Informational media reach millions of people with messages of critical importance, and there’s little room for narrowly educated announcers. For one thing, the influence—for good or bad—of media performers is immense and must not be

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underestimated. Announcers who don’t grow with the times will be inadequate in this digital age. Television program hosts, DJs, interviewers, announcers covering sports and spe- cial events, and talk show personalities use written material only occasionally; most of the time they’re on their own. Radio and television field reporters covering breaking stories as they are unfolding never work from scripts; they ad-lib their reports from hastily scribbled notes limited to basic information. The opportunity to frame your per- sonal thoughts in your own words carries with it the responsibility to have much information at hand to share it effectively with your audience.

Coursework Considerations Within Your Major Controlroom operations should include practice with audio consoles and associated recording and playback devices. Operation of consoles is easily learned, and even though at larger stations, most radio announcers no longer actually operate them, it’s important to be prepared in as many areas as possible because it’s impossible to know in advance what turns your career may take. You could end up at a smaller station with limited support from an audio engineer or you could be announcing at your own Internet radio station, which will require knowledge of an audio console. You should also take courses in video production and editing because many television stations expect announcers to record and edit their material. Courses in media writing are tremendously helpful as well. Aspiring anchors and reporters must learn to write news copy. Many stations in medium to small markets expect announcers to write commercial copy and station promotional pieces as well.

Beyond your Major When studying to be an announcer, you obviously should pursue subjects that prepare you for your first announcing job, but you also should select courses that qualify you for one or more specializations beyond straight announcing. Plan your coursework to obtain a broad background in the liberal arts and sciences. Because announcers perform not only on broadcast stations and cable but also on the Internet, on recorded commercials, as narrators for documentaries, and as mobile DJs, they must be knowledgeable in a number of areas. Assuming that you’re majoring in “electronic communication” (or whatever term is used at your school), you should consider enrolling in one or more minor programs that focus on specific area(s) of announcing you intend to practice, such as history, political science, urban studies, literature, sociology, economics, acting, journalism, sports history, and meteorology. If you’re serious about an announcing career, your education must have breadth, so maintain a positive attitude about required general education courses—even if they seem unrelated to your career goals, they will add to a storehouse of knowledge that you’ll visit many times over the years. Expand your ability to pronounce names and words in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Whether you become a specialist in

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news, sports, voice-overs, or interviewing, your ability to pronounce names and words in languages other than English will be of great importance. The Spanish language is of increasing importance with the growing Latino population nationwide. The field of Spanish broadcasting continues to expand in many states, including Texas, Florida, California, New Mexico, and Arizona. Consider taking Spanish classes, because if you are bilingual, you can double your announcing opportunities. Many general education courses, including English composition, are required for a liberal arts degree. You may want to go beyond minimum English requirements by choosing from such offerings as creative writing and dramatic writing. But, as you work to improve your skills in writing traditional English, be aware that there’s another writing challenge that is unlikely to be met by English instructors: learning to write for the ear and the eye. While it may be obvious, it must be emphasized that, unlike stories written for news- papers and magazines, radio scripts are written to be heard, and television scripts to be seen and heard. It’s important to remember always that your scripts will never be seen or read by your audience. Scripts are blueprints to be turned into sights and sounds by interpreters. To write well for the electronic media, you need to cultivate the ability to conceive and then encode your visions into words and sentences. So a different kind of writing from that used for print is demanded. For television, you must use words that enhance and clarify what’s shown on the screen. For radio and Internet streaming, you should practice putting together words that create pictures in the minds of listeners. Clear writing for the electronic media is a necessity, not because your audience is simple-minded, but because sentences received by our ears are processed differently from those received by our eyes. Take ad- vantage of every opportunity to write scripts and then experience them when they’re turned into productions. Aside from attending scriptwriting classes, look for opportunities to write for production classes and community-access cable outlets. Computers are central to video-editing systems, character generators, word pro- cessors, graphics systems, scheduling and billing systems, and data-retrieval systems. Most DJs work with a console and a computer to record intros and back-announce- ments of music played. They work air shifts and from time to time go “live,” but much of their work is saved in a digital file and inserted into the running schedule of the station for play during holidays, weekends, or days off. For more information on this, see Chapter 11, “Music Announcing.” Newsroom software, such as AP ENPS, AVID iNews, or EZ-NEWS, is used to write and edit news copy. Familiarity with these systems is highly desirable, and the ability to type scripts quickly and accurately is essential. Evaluate these suggestions in light of your own aptitudes, interests, and career plans. College counselors can help you determine the appropriateness of the courses available to you. The important point is that only you can apply your growing knowledge to your announcing practice. Most community colleges require sixty semester hours for an associate in arts or science degree. Four-year colleges or universities require about one hundred and twenty credit hours for a bachelor’s degree. Whether you’re enrolled in a two- or four-year program, it’s unlikely you’ll have available more than six semester hours of performance courses.

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You should, therefore, look for performance opportunities wherever they present themselves—on a campus radio station, in television production classes, on public access cable stations, or even with your own equipment and a YouTube account. Remember, though, that you’ll spend most of your broadcasting class hours in nonperformance courses, all of which are important to your development as a well-rounded broadcaster.

Checklist Courses to Build Your Career Basic Preparation for Announcing

Take courses that focus on the following subjects: • Interpretation • Articulation • Phonation • Phonetic transcription • Theater acting • Voice skills • Costume and makeup • Microphone use • Camera presence • Ad-libbing • Script reading • Adapting one’s personality to the broadcast media • Foreign language pronunciation • Control room operations • Video production and editing • Writing for radio and television

Specialized Courses to Prepare You for Specific Duties • Broadcast journalism—courses in journalism, international relations, political science, economics, history, and geography • Broadcast sales and advertising—courses in business, marketing, accounting, sales techniques, sales promotion, and audience research • Sports, including play-by-play announcing—courses in the history of sports, kinesiology, and sport and social issues. • Weather reporting—courses in meteorology, weather analysis, weather forecasting, and geography

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Courses to Further Your General Education • Social, ethical, aesthetic, and historical perspectives on electronic communication • The arts—music, theater, literature, or painting and sculpture • Social and behavioral sciences—psychology, sociology, urban studies, and ethnic studies • Quantitative reasoning—essentially math and computation • Critical thinking—skills crucial to clear and constructive thought • Media law and regulation • Writing, writing, writing

Clearly, announcing encompasses a wide range of activities. Most modern liberal arts colleges and their broadcasting departments are well equipped to help you begin the process of becoming a competent and versatile communicator—which is what you must become if you’re to manage challenges such as these: • You’re a staff announcer and must read news headlines containing the place names Qatar, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Schleswig-Holstein, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Santa Rosa de Copán, São Paulo, and Leicester. • You’re a commercial announcer, and the copy for a pharmaceutical company de- mands that you correctly pronounce isoflavones, ipratropium bromide, gingivitis, fungicide, and ketoconazole. • You’re a play analyst on a sports broadcast, and you need to ad-lib knowledgeably about game strategies and give examples from the past of incidents relating to the game in progress. • You’re the play-by-play announcer for a semipro baseball team, and you must pronounce such “American” names as Buchignani, Gutierrez, Yturri, Sockolow, Watanabe, Engebrect, and MacLeod. • You’ve been assigned to interview a Nobel Prize winner in astrophysics, and you must obtain basic information about the field as well as biographical data on the winner—and do so under extreme time limitations. • You’re narrating a documentary and must analyze the intent and content of the program to determine the mood; rhythm; structure; and interrelationship of sound, picture, and script. • You’re a DJ, and you’re on duty when word is received of the unexpected death of a great American (a politician, an entertainer, or a scientist). Until the news depart- ment can take over, you must ad-lib the breaking news appropriately.

It’s obvious that no one type of course will completely educate you as an announcer. In addition to academic studies, and an internship at a television or radio station, you may benefit from becoming a member of one or more organizations open to

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students. Through such organizations, you may attend meetings and conventions and receive news and information over the Internet. You also may make connections that may some day pay off. Join broadcast-related organizations such as College Students in Broadcasting, National Association of Broadcasters, Alliance for Women in Media, Association for Women in Communications, International Radio and Television Society, Alpha Epsilon Rho, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, Society of Professional Journalists, and Society of Environmental Journalists. Students with a broadcast journalism emphasis may become members of the Radio-Television Journalism division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Membership in the student category of the Radio and Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) is also available to you. The Broadcast Education Association, which holds yearly conventions, is open to student participation.

The Announcer’s Responsibility Before committing yourself to a career as an announcer, you should recognize that, along with the undeniable privileges and rewards that come to people working in this field, there are several areas of responsibility as well. First is the obligation all performers owe their audiences: to be informative, objective, fair, accurate, and entertaining. Announcers who are sloppy, unprepared, or just plain boring usually get what they deserve—two weeks’ notice. There are, as you undoubtedly know, announcers who work hard and possess talent, but who at the same time pollute the public air, chiefly on radio and television talk and interview shows. A number of radio and television performers are willing to say al- most anything, however outrageous or hurtful to others, in order to attract and hold an audience. In our free society such announcers are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution; the only protection the audience has resides in the integrity of each announcer. Most departments of broadcasting offer courses in ethics and social responsibility. Grounding in this subject, together with serious consideration of the ef- fects of mass communication, should be understood as vitally important to your development as a public communicator. Social responsibility goes beyond the normal obligation of performer to audience. Nearly all announcers, whether they realize it or not, have influence because of their visibility and prestige. Years ago, Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton perceived and described what they called the status-conferral function of the mass media. In essence, they said the general public attaches prestige to people who appear in the mass media, and that the average person is more read- ily influenced by prestigious people than by equals. The public’s reasoning is cir- cular: “If you really matter, you will be at the focus of attention, and if you are at the focus of mass attention, then you must really matter.” A newscaster, then, is not simply an efficient conveyer of information; as a radio or television star, he or she is trusted and believed as a qualified authority. Even an entertainment show

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announcer or a DJ has automatic, though sometimes Sound Bytes unwarranted, authority. As an announcer for any of the Backgrounds of Successful electronic media, you should be aware of your status Announcers and measure up to it. Most radio and television stations have their own Announcers must demonstrate a sense of social com- websites, and many include brief biographies of on- mitment. Be aware of opportunities you may have to ei- air performers. Using these as your source, compile ther enlighten or confuse the public. As a nation we’ve information about several announcers whose work been slow to perceive and attack the serious problems you admire. You may want to look for these informa- of urban deterioration, increasing crime, environmental tion items: Where did they attend school? In what academic area did they major? Where did they begin their pollution, racial inequities, world hunger, poverty, home- announcing careers? lessness, AIDS, the rise of antidemocratic action groups, and increased drug use. If you’re committed to using the mass media to help build a better society, you’re already socially responsible and potentially important as the kind of communicator demanded by our times. Another area of responsibility for announcers is that of emergency notification. When floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other disasters occur, broadcast announcers are in a position to save lives through early warnings and postdisaster information. The U.S. government has established the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to replace the long-established Emergency Broadcast System (EBS). The alert system requires broadcast licensees to disseminate disaster information. Even though text messages to cell phones are often an efficient way to alert the public to an emergency, radio has a wider reach, particularly in rural areas and for drivers behind the wheel. It’s imperative that all broadcast announcers study the disaster manual (found at all stations) and be prepared to act swiftly and appropriately in emergencies.

PRACTICE ➤ Practicing with Equipment The regular use of audio and video recorders can be of immense help in your development as a broadcast performer. After hearing and seeing yourself perform over a period of several weeks, you should begin to note and correct annoying mannerisms, faulty speech habits, and voice deficiencies that displease you. Ask others to comment on your performances, because you may fail to detect some of your shortcomings. As you make adjustments and improve, you’ll gain confidence; this, in turn, should guarantee further improvement. You can also work on speech improvement without equipment of any kind. You speak with others for a considerable amount of time each day; without sounding af- fected you can practice speaking clearly in ordinary conversations. Many college students tend to slur words as they speak. Make note of the number of times each day someone asks you to repeat what you’ve just said, often by uttering a monosyllabic “Huh?” Frequent requests of this kind tell you that you’re not speaking clearly enough for broadcast work.

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For improvement of nonverbal communication skills, you can practice in front of a mirror. Note the degree—too pronounced, just right, or too weak—of your facial expres- sions and head movements. Watch for physical mannerisms that may be annoying or that interfere with clear communication. Through practice you can improve your performance abilities significantly, even without the use of recording equipment. Closely related to performance ability is ear training. It’s doubtful that anyone who doesn’t hear well can speak well. Develop a critical ear as you listen to television and radio performers. Listen for vowel deviations, mispronunciations, poor interpretation, and other qualities of spoken English that may interfere with good communication. Listen, as well, for those who articulate clearly, who have a pleasant voice quality, and who are effective in communicating thoughts and ideas. Decide who impresses you as an outstanding user of spoken language. Identify speakers who make you pay attention, as well as those who cause you to tune out. Try to determine the positive and negative characteristics and qualities of speakers, and apply what you learn to your own work. (Speech diagnosis, speech problems, and suggestions for improvement are covered in Chapter 3, “Voice Analysis and Improvement,” and Chapter 4, “Pronunciation and Articulation.”)

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