By Abdulwarees Solanke
Deputy Director/HOD, Strategic Planning & Corporate Development DEPT, Voice of Nigeris, Abuja, Nigeria.
korewarith@yahoo.com
+2348090585723
*Photo: Solanke*
Of all forms of communication, the spoken word has an unusual power that is both constructive and destructive.
It is the most pervading method of communication, which other forms only complement. With the spoken word, you can easily gauge mood, strength and character.
The advent of radio has taken the power of the spoken word to an amazingly unique level, giving it the ability to convey the same thing at the same time to large and diverse audience spread over different climes and territories.
Here lies the challenge, in radio, you don’t have to see the people you’re talking to, you don’t need to have met them personally or one-on-one. Yet you must relate with them on air as if you’re part of them. Indeed, you should be part of them, because you’ve got to understand them intimately: their yearning, their strengths, their weaknesses, their potentials.
Radio, like other media of mass communication has as its function, information, education, entertainment, cultural transmission.
A radio man, whether he is working in public or private media system cannot successfully undertake these functions without understanding the values of his audience, even if his purpose is to correct or change those values.
There is no doubt that there’s a lot of glamour and fun behind the microphone, at least to the listener who gets hooked to what he listens to on his favourite Radio.
The man or the station that he gets hooked to therefore becomes his idol who he loves to see, meet and relate with at the slightest opportunity.
There’s tendency to think that the radio talent is a natural thing, with effortleness of the idol. So, those who admire the man or women behind the mic want to be like him.
There are quite a lot of young people who are only thrilled by radio, but lack the training and discipline of the profession. They soon end up making a mess of not only themselves but the station.
So, how are you honing your skills? How are you developing your capacity? How are you training yourself to be the best voice? What are you doing to reach the next level as a radio man?
There’s no alternative to research. No alternative to continuous learning. You must have diverse interest to engage all segments of the audience. You must be at home with fact and figures. You must be at home with idioms and proverbs. You must be a good student of history. You must be politically conscious. You must learn to be weird sometimes. You must learn to be unconventional and funny. You must almost know how to be serious.
You must be skilful at trivialising depressing circumstance for your audience to see the light from dark tunnel. You must be adept at giving hope. You must be good at painting with words the beauty of the world around. You must be a peacemaker on air.
As a Radioman, you speak the minds of millions, making meaning from the madness of the moments for them.
