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WHY BRIEF IS BEST

It’s often been said that it’s better to be brief than boring. That holds true for a lot of things: jokes, lectures, movies, books and, yes, broadcasting.

Good broadcasting, like good writing, uses the fewest words necessary to clearly communicate concepts. You can do that by adhering to a few simple guidelines: Plan what you intend to say; say it once
clearly and concisely; and, unlike shampooing, do not repeat. Most importantly, eliminate excess verbiage.

A lot of on-air verbosity is due to lack of planning. The microphone switch gets popped, the mouth is engaged, a bunch of jibber-jabber follows. At the very least a good broadcaster needs to know how an
on-air bit will begin and how it’s going to end. Knowing the way ‘out’ ahead of time gives you a target to aim for and helps you build momentum toward it.

Many broadcasters like to work with a point-form outline for each bit. The notes serve to give your material structure; but using point-form forces you to ad lib, making your comments sound off-the-cuff and natural. If you subscribe to a show prep service, the last thing you want to do is read it word-for-word from the source. You need to cut and paste the material that best fits the tone of your show. You need to massage it so it fits your style, and then run it through the filter of your personality so that it sounds like your own. Show prep is not meant for ‘rip-and-read’, it’s meant to serve as a primer to get ideas flowing.

A focus group was once asked what they least liked about listening to radio. One 30-something woman piped up to complain, “I hate it when they talk.” Asked to explain what she meant, she said that whenever anyone talked on the radio it angered her. Further interrogation discovered this wasn’t the whole truth. What it was that really irked her turned out to be mindless chatter with seemingly no direction and no point. Brief talk bits that were well executed didn’t faze her.

So be assured, yackiness can be a tune-out. There’s a simple rule of thumb for brevity on radio: have something to say; say it; then shut up.

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