Robin Banks Tip 1: Get to The Point

Hello, good evening, salutations etc etc etc… my name is Robin Banks and those super sexy people at Spacial asked me to do a little blog for you about presenting radio shows.

I’m a radio consultant and coach (yeah isn’t everyone these days!!). I’m a busy man and been involved in broadcasting for over 25 years and worked for the biggest and best. That I count myself very lucky for. All my details and what I’ve done are on my website which is listed below.

Get to The Point

Just think back to when a friend of yours sent you a link to a YouTube video. You click on the link and it takes you to YouTube… how long did you give that video before you turned it off? For the majority of people it is a few seconds. Right? Now that’s a friend of yours that sent you that link right? You know them. So when you’re on the radio broadcasting to people who actually don’t know you are you getting to the point quick enough?

So often radio people equate the length of time the microphone is on with the greatness of a speech break. WRONG. You don’t need to waffle… you don’t need to go around the houses… GET TO THE POINT!

Now here’s an exercise for you based on that point. I want you to go back over a previous show you have done. If you haven’t recorded any of your previous shows then start right now. In SAM Broadcaster you can record your shows by clicking Desktop B, double-click on your encoder, click Next, select the Archive tab, tick the Save stream to file option, set the file location if necessary and for this exercise, I recommend using the default option of New file for each session. Open it up in your preferred audio editing software and locate any link (the longer the better)… copy and paste the dry link only onto a separate file. Now comes the fun part… I want you to edit out all the stuff that you don’t need from that link (ok it’s probably going to sound a bit ‘choppy’ but you’ll get the picture). Listen to it again making sure that the link still has the same message that you’re trying to get across. Now paste the new link into the original space in your session, make the necessary tightening up with the elements on both sides (usually music)… now listen to it in context. Now can you hear the difference?

That’s it for my first blog here for Spacial. Why don’t you drop me an email with any questions that you want me to answer and I’ll answer one in my next Spacial blog.

Next time: Robin Banks Tip 2: It’s all about the “Impact!”

Click here to send your question to Robin and visit his website.

For more great tips, visit the Music Radio Creative YouTube Channel