Lecture 5: Can You Hear Me?

While I was excited to get to go home an hour early on Monday, I have to admit I was not looking forward to this lecture. I am the person who always has my head phones in my ears, I love music but having to listen to people talking, I was not very excited.

Although after listening to it I was intrigued. I had never really thought about that there was a big difference between radio and TV. I had never really thought about radio as an option for my possible journalism career, mainly because I hate the sound of my voice recorded.

The lecture was centred on an interview with Richard Fidler from ABC Local Radio. If on the off chance I am listening to the radio I am normally flicking between FM stations, however the name rang a bell from sitting in car when dad was listening to the radio (He is an ABC and 4KQ kind of man).

As previously said the main interest that stuck with me was how different radio and television can be. When you watch TV, you are primarily watching TV, but radio is a more personal form of media. It allows you to listen while multitasking; it might be playing in the background as you are washing the dishes or driving to work. It allows you to feel included, as if radio is part of your everyday activity and perhaps the voices are just coming out of you head.

Like all other forms of media there are a few key factors that make a good radio show. Firstly, just like every other media form, pre-production and research is vital. Secondly, you are speaking to an audience so it is important that your pace of speech is an appropriate speed. You don’t want to be talking so fast that no one understands what you are saying. And finally, you need to insure that you are including the listened, keep them interested and actually listening.

The big question for radio is where does it go next? While digital radio has been introduced, it hasn’t really taken off at the same level as digital TV. The are many challenges that continues to face radio. As technology grows and people would rather listen to their iPods to avoid the ads on the radio, it is important that radio keeps up. The question is; how?

While it was nice to have a something a little different I am glad that we are going back to normal lectures next week.

Till Next Time…