WORKING WITH LOCAL RADIO

Why use radio?

First of all, because it's there. As well as the national radio stations 1 - 5, the BBC operates over 40 local stations. The 1990 Broadcasting Act has resulted in an explosion of independent local radio stations and the number is growing fast.

- The impact of radio is much more personal and immediate that the print media, and you can leave a sharp and lasting impression. In print, your message is carried only by words on paper - and perhaps a photo. Radio listeners also hear your voice, so you have an added opportunity to make your message vivid and memorable.

- It can be relatively easy to get coverage. Radio news reporters are always on the lookout for local people talking about local news stories; radio news is more flexible and accessible than TV since interviews can be conducted over the phone or in the studio, and outside broadcasts are easy and cheap to arrange with just one person and a tape-recorder rather than a whole crew and their lighting and recording gear.

- Local radio reaches a large and diverse audience (greater than TV during the day) and can be useful a medium for reaching beyond the 'Guardian-reading classes'.

Yet, despite all this, radio is often under-used by media contacts and local groups - either because of nervousness, uncertainty about what's involved, or just because it's not an opportunity that people automatically think of.

This paper aims at demystifying radio interviews and outlines the main things you need to do to make the most of the opportunities that radio provides, including:

Opportunities for getting on air

Preparation

The interview:
just beforehand;
dos and don'ts;
what to do if things go wrong.

After the interview

1) Opportunities for getting on air

As with any media work, there are two kinds of opportunities: proactive and reactive.

Proactive

Whenever you write a press release, send it to your local radio station(s) as well as to newspapers, and follow it up with a phone call. There is further guidance in our paper on Media Work, along with broad guidelines for dealing with the media. Almost all of this is relevant to broadcast as well as printed media.

Deadlines: news moves faster on local radio than it does in the papers. This means that radio reporters are even less likely to be interested in stories that are a day or two old. If you are setting an embargo remember to choose 0100 hrs rather than midnight or it may go out on the midnight news bulletin the day before.

Visuals: Don't be apprehensive about contacting your local radio station with a story that has a strong visual angle such as a display or cookery demonstration; radio reporters are trained to 'paint pictures with words'.

Reactive

A radio reporter may phone you and ask you for your response to a news story - e.g. a new meat fast-food chain opening in a city that already has many of these. The more you or your group are in the news locally, the more this is likely to happen.

First of all, find out the basics: What specifically are you being asked to comment on? They almost certainly will be specific, but make sure. When you prepare for an interview, it's much more use to know what you're being asked to comment on - e.g. an outbreak of food poisoning in your area.

What time would they like to do the interview?

Who, if any, are the other interviewees?

Then, before you comment and/or agree to an interview, take a deep breath and swiftly run through the following questions in your head:

- Is it a Vegan Society issue?

- Have they got the right person? Are you the best person to do the interview, or should you pass it on to the someone else in your group or area, or even in another affiliated group, to a member of the Society's staff or Council or to another organization? If you're asked about a subject that you don't know much about, or that your group is not working on, always pass it on to someone who does know: you're not letting the side down if you do this.

- If it's a Vegan Society issue, and you're the person to do it, have you got the right information? Do you know what the 'line' is?

If you're not sure about any of the above, and you need more time to think about it - which is quite likely - ask if you can call them back in 10 minutes. This is perfectly acceptable, and they won't think that you're rude or odd. But bear in mind the comments above about radio news moving swiftly, and get back to them as soon as you possibly can, otherwise you may lose your chance.

If you are at all uncertain about any of the above questions, please call a Vegan Society representative. Outside office hours there will always be someone available on the out-of-office numbers.

If it's a Vegan Society issue, the relevant staff or Council member can either brief you, pass it on to the nearest relevant person in your area or talk to the reporter themselves. If it's not a Vegan Society issue, they'll know which organization you can refer it to.

For both proactive and reactive interviews you'll need to find out:

- whether they would like to do the interview over the phone, in the studio or as an outside broadcast;

- whether it's live or pre-recorded;

- who, if any, the other interviewees are;

- what sort of questions they're likely to ask;

- the likely length of the piece.

They won't mind you asking any of the above questions - the better prepared you are, the easier it is for them to deliver good-quality radio programmes.

You may have to be quite flexible about interview times and fit into their fast-moving schedule. If they want you at 10.30am then 2.30pm may well be too late. If you have trouble getting to the studio, e.g. if they want to interview you at 7.00am and there isn't a bus, explain the situation and ask if they can send a car for you. Similarly some stations have parking space that they can reserve for you - do check if this would help you.

Always be friendly and helpful. Ninety-nine out of a hundred reporters are completely uninterested in doing you down or giving you a rough ride: they just want a good story. Even if the story isn't something that your group can deal with, the fact that you've been courteous enough to find someone else will make them more likely to come back to you in the future.

2) Preparation

Time spent preparing is well worth it. The more interviews you do, the easier they get, and eventually you may find that you can cope with almost no preparation time at all. But the first few times you may wish to set aside as much as an hour or two to:

- plan what you need to say;

- think about how you're going to say it;

- go through your notes and make sure you've got any further factual information you need in your head;

- do a dummy run.

What to say

If you've been asked to give an interview as a result of sending out a press release, then you'll already have a clear idea of what you need to get across.
Otherwise think through the following questions:

What is the main purpose of this interview?

What do you want people to do as the result of hearing you? Spell out the action that's needed and who by.

Most interviews are short, three minutes at the most, and a pre-recorded interview may be edited down to just a few sentences. You'll be able to get across the maximum of three main points, so make sure that you are very clear about what these are and that they all help your main purpose.

If you have sub-points to get across as well, ensure that you have a clear mental outline of where these fit in with your three main points.

Be brief: an average speed in normal conversation is 125 words per minute, so a three-minute interview would give you under 400 words, so choose them carefully.

If your interviewer has already given you some idea of their likely line of questioning, sort out how you're going to fit your key points into this.

How to say it

Radio is fleeting and ephemeral. Although it can have a more vivid and immediate impact than print, it's vital to grab and maintain the listener's attention all the way through: if their attention wanders they can't go back and reread it. And, because it leaves strong and lasting impressions, how you say it is as important as what you say.

Think about:

- How are you going to make your story memorable? What can you do to make it relevant to your audience's experience and interests? How are you going to make sure that your message is absorbed instantly?

Things that you can do to help make your message memorable and easily absorbed:

- use anecdotes (short ones!);
- use examples;
- refer to real people and places;
- use words to paint a picture - people have nothing to look at, so you have to supply it for them;
- use strongly-visual language and imagery.

Facts and information

Memorize any key facts and figures you need to support your points. Be fastidious about this: accuracy is crucial. Be sure about the sources of your facts and figures. You may be asked, and 'I read it somewhere' is not very convincing.

Because interviews are so short, the amount of hard information you'll be able to convey will in practice be very limited. And however helpful the reporter is, you cannot ever be absolutely certain of what you'll be asked until it actually happens. So it's vital that you know your subject in sufficient detail to sound authoritative, no matter what they ask you. This should also help you to feel more confident all the way through the interview, which will come across in your voice and delivery.

Once you've got an idea of the potential line of questioning, think of the potential deviations or surprises, and your responses. What's the worst thing they could ask you, and what would you say? How could you turn it to your advantage? If you're not sure of some of your information how are you going to find out?

If in doubt, phone the Vegan Society.

But do be realistic about this, and don't go overboard. You probably know more about veganism than the average interviewer and most of your audience. Trying to catch people out on obscure factual details does not make good local radio and the interviewer is extremely unlikely to do this.

If by this stage you've started to feel quite nervous, don't panic. This is normal!

Dummy run

Something that many people find useful is a dummy run. Find one of your friends, colleagues or family who doesn't know much about the Vegan Society. Tell them what you think the main questions will be and get them to pretend to interview you - ether face-to-face or over the phone. This should help to improve your confidence, and if there is anything you're unsure about this is a good way to find out so you can rectify it before you get there.

Different types of radio interview

Face-to-face

Between you and the interviewer in the studio.

Panel discussion

A group of experts or people who disagree with one another. This can make good lively radio. The disadvantages are:

- it's harder to get attention, so you have to speak out at the right moment;

- you may well be on a panel with someone who opposes the Vegan Society's point of view, who is experienced in giving media interviews and who will try to ensure that you come out of it badly, e.g. a spokesperson for the Meat and Livestock Commission or the National Farmers' Union. Risk tackling this only if you are very confident and experienced!

Down the line

Through a studio link you can go into your local radio station for a 'down-the-line' interview with someone in a different part of the country, and to the listener it will sound as if you're both in the same room. This isn't a very likely situation if you're supplying local comment on a local issue, unless of course you get national coverage.

Telephone

The phone gives radio producers an easy means of interviewing all sorts of people at short notice. Being interviewed over the phone in your own home or office can be a lot less nerve-racking than going into a studio, and you can get comfortable. But make sure that you cannot be interrupted and that you're nowhere near a source of loud noise such as a main road or even a school playground. Switch off any background music and particularly the radio since this will distort the quality of the broadcast. The disadvantage is that you lose voice quality and you'll sound rather tinny, so clear speech and variety of pitch and pace are more important than ever.

Outside interviews
can make better radio than studio interviews since they're more vivid and immediate. However outside broadcasts are almost always pre-recorded - see below.

Live or pre-recorded: swings and roundabouts
The obvious big advantage of a pre-recorded interview is that you can do a number of takes to get the best result. It will usually be edited in the interests of a lively broadcast. Although this rarely presents major problems, you run the risk of some of your key points being missed out altogether, or edited to give an accidentally misleading impression. So if you're talking about a very sensitive or complex local issue it can be advisable to ask for a live studio interview instead.

3) The interview

Before you start:

Sound check

Your interviewer or a technician will do a sound test, to get your voice at the right level, and, if it's an outside interview, to check background noise and acoustics. Be sure to speak the way you intend to in the interview.

Warm up

Your interviewer will probably chat to you informally to warm you up and to discuss the scope of the interview. This is a good opportunity to check roughly what line of questioning they are likely to take and how long you've got. If you have your own ideas about what areas should be covered in the interview, don't be afraid to suggest them.

Be friendly, joke and chat about your subject and your views, but be careful about talking off the record. Don't say anything that you wouldn't say on air, such as "I'm not going to say this in the studio but …". Always assume that there's no such thing as 'off the record'.

Nerves
If you're getting physical symptoms of nervousness, don't try to ignore or fight them. Deal with them:

- Take slow, deep breaths to slow your breathing down and calm the butterflies in your stomach.
- Wipe the sweat off your brow and the palms of your hands.
- If your mouth feels like a desert, ask for a glass of water.
- If you want the loo, ask. Radio presenters are used to dealing with nervous interviewees.

Acknowledge your nervousness to yourself, but don't see it as a disadvantage or a problem. Try to imagine all the butterflies in your stomach flying in the same direction; remember that adrenalin can make you sound (and feel) livelier and more alert and perform better.

During the interview: Do and Don'ts

Do

- Get your main points across clearly, succinctly, and as soon as possible.

- Use a chatty, conversational tone.

- Use everyday language, and avoid long words wherever possible. It's the public you are really talking to, not the interviewer.

- Use brief anecdotes and real -life examples.

- Use visual images.

- Use shocking facts and figures where these are directly relevant, but be careful not to overload your audience with information.

- Keep your answers reasonably brief. This gives you time for more questions and you can cover more ground. Questions and answers make much better radio than a monologue, so you may find that if you speak for longer than 20 seconds the interviewer will move to the next question.

- Speak clearly and vary the pitch, speed and tone of your voice. The audience can't see your facial expressions, so you have to put them into your voice.

- Speak into the microphone - if you turn away it will make the volume uneven.

- Say "the Vegan Society" rather than just "the Society", and say it frequently to reinforce it in people's minds.

Don't

- Don't take anything for granted: unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise, assume that your interviewer or the audience knows nothing about the issue, and take that as your starting point.

- Don't get side-tracked - say what you want to say, not what they want you to say.

- Don't gabble or waffle. If you're nervous you'll probably be speaking faster than usual, so make a conscious effort to slow down. And don't rabbit on and on until you run out of things to say; you won't be very interesting and the interviewer will interrupt you [see above]. Don't waffle, or pad it out by saying more than you need to; this distracts attention from the main messages, and in a pre-recorded interview it increases the risk of something more important being edited out.

- Don't use jargon. If you use initials or abbreviations, remember to explain them at least when you first use them. Explain any technical terms.

- Don't start every sentence with "Well …" - you lose impact and sound unsure of your facts.

- Don't read straight from notes - it is obvious to listeners and sounds very stilted and wooden.

A final practicality:

- Don't move around: keep as still as you can. Don't let your knees knock the table, don't fiddle with your pen, suck or crunch mints, blow your nose, drum your fingers on the table, crack the joints in your fingers or rustle papers. We're used to ignoring these in everyday conversation, but on air they can make your interview sound like an open day at the special-effects department. Rustling paper, especially, sounds like gunfire! If you need notes for reference, write the key facts down on a couple of postcards or a sheet of paper and leave them flat on the desk.

Phone-ins

The techniques for these are a little different from interviews. If you're invited on to a phone-in as a guest:

- Don't be surprised when they give you a set of headphones. You need to wear them in order to hear the questions.

- Take a pen and paper with you to take brief notes when the listener is speaking (again, don't rustle the paper - leave the pad flat on the desk); they may well make several different points to which you would like to respond. Try to make a note of each caller's name and reply to them personally e.g. "Ann might/Ann, you might (if she is still on the line) like to contact the Vegan Society and ask for a copy of the calcium factsheet …". This also allows you to refer back to a caller later in the programme e.g. "As Fred said earlier in the programme, this is increasingly common …"

- Remember that the people phoning up and asking questions are likely to be inexperienced and may be even more nervous than you are. Be nice to them.

- Treat the business as a gentle conversation: the dynamics of a phone-in are quite different from an interview or panel discussion, and the kind of short snappy answers and soundbites that you would expect to provide in an interview will sound at best out of place, at worst rude or domineering.

- Even if someone asks what seems to you to be a really stupid, irrelevant or aggressive question, be polite. Say "That's an interesting point…" Then go on to provide a gentle rebuttal of any hostile arguments or inaccuracies and to make your own points.

Sticky moments: what to do when it looks as if things might not be going your way

Hostility

'Interview' is not necessarily a helpful word, since it conjures up images of job interviews or politicians being taken apart on Newsnight. In most local radio interviews the interviewer asks for information and expects you to explain and justify your opinions or actions. It's a conversation with a purpose, and the questions are opportunities to get your message across.

The confrontation interview is more myth than fact; it doesn't generally make good radio (except in a panel discussion). If the reporter seems to be playing devil's advocate this doesn't mean they're unsympathetic to the cause - it's to make better radio.

For example "Why do you think veganism is good for you?" is rather bland. "What do you say to critics who claim that vegans are all unhealthy?" is more likely to hold the audience's attention. Be bold, not defensive.

However just occasionally you may be on the receiving end of hostile or aggressive interviewing. If so, don't rise to it. The most important thing to do is to keep your cool. Getting angry with the presenter or being rude will come across very badly, and you'll lose the support of the audience.

- If you're making an important point and the interviewer butts in with a hostile question, then raise your voice - slightly but firmly - and finish what you were saying. The interviewer will have to shut up or ruin the interview.

- Try to turn hostility to your advantage. For example, if you are asked "Aren't vegans being a bit extreme about this?" don't repeat the question and say "We're not being extreme" - it sounds defensive; instead use it as a launch pad and say "No, this is a serious issue that needs to be discussed …"

- If the interviewer makes a derogatory statement followed by a different question you can always deal with it by saying "If I may just respond to your first point …", and then go on to answer the question.

Deviation

If the interview is drifting rapidly away from the issues you hoped to raise, try to salvage it by talking yourself into the next key point. Take a quick pause for breath and "While we're on the subject, I do think we need to consider the many health benefits of a vegan diet .."

Messing it up

Getting your words in a tangle: in recorded interviews, you accidentally say "Meat is good for you". Stop. Say to the interviewer "I'm sorry, I've got that wrong" and start the sentence again from the beginning. They'll cut out your fluff and apology before they put it on the air.

Drying up

This is everyone's worst nightmare, though it practically never happens, but if your mind just goes completely blank in a recorded interview let the tape run on while you wait to get going again. If you want to stop altogether, then say so. If you dry in a live interview, the presenter will just move swiftly to the next question.

Inaccuracy

Occasionally your message may be paraphrased with good intentions but hopeless inaccuracy. If something like this happens, make light of it; correct it if you can find a way of doing so politely and simply; if you can't, just leave it, and make your points so clearly that any confusion in the minds of the audience will have evaporated by the end of the interview.

4) After the interview

Listen to yourself. For a live interview, ask someone to record it for you so you can listen afterwards. A few people are naturals on the radio, but everyone improves with practice, and most people sound better on the radio than they are prepared to admit to themselves. Think about what you did really well, what you might do differently if you could do it again, and how you can improve next time.

Whenever you listen to the radio, listen with a critical ear. When people are interviewed, think about: Who sounds interesting? What do they do that keeps your attention? Why do some people just make you want to switch off? Who are the people whose interviews you still remember at the end of the week? Why?

Practise with a tape recorder. Find other people in the same boat and give each other interview practice, with honest and constructive feedback.

Remember that news reporters need you as much as you need them. If you're friendly and cooperative, and you interview well, they'll keep coming back for more.

And finally …

Enjoy it. Media-relations work can be very rewarding because you can see the results of your hard work. The more you do the easier and more proficient you become and the sooner you'll look forward to your regular chat with a presenter on local radio rather than dreading it.

Acknowledgement: The majority of this material was first published in Friends of the Earth's Local Action Briefing no 12. The Vegan Society wishes to thank Friends of the Earth for permission to reproduce this material.