Valerie in Vegas: How pictures are transforming radio

Some 80,000 delegates attended this year’s NAB in Las Vegas where the focus was on the digital world. Among them was radioinfo contributor, Valerie Geller.

The digital world is a combination of all media. The visual has always been radio’s “weakest” spot. The big argument has been “we’re in radio – our job is theater of the mind.” While this is true, it’s no longer enough. With the Internet we now have the ultimate canvas for multi-media presentation to work with.  Online audiences want and expect a multi-sensory, visual component to taking in their information and entertainment.  

Use It!  Learn How

Just pointing a camera at a badly lit host in studio and streaming raw video of the broadcast is boring, unless you like watching hosts who look like they woke up under a bridge after a bad night. And slapping up a few photos that are not integrated into a story is also bad communication and poor use of the medium. Learning to use the graphics and visual components inherently tied into telling your radio story enhances your listeners’ experience and helps you to engage and grow your audience.

Have An Eye As Well As An Ear

When the corporate memo comes down to a PD: “Have your talent blog and use video,”  that can be done in many ways. Proactive individuals, talent who make the decision to creatively enhance their presentation and product by mastering the new media, are the future of the business and can become shining stars.

Everyone’s Busy But…

Your online content represents you and your show as much as what goes over-the-air. While many stations have a webmaster in charge, he or she may not be able to present or structure your content effectively on the site. Only you can do that.

If you’ve got a camera or capability to shoot and upload video from your mobile device, or can grab video from other sites (and make sure it’s legal to do so), you’ve got the tools. Fans and visitors appreciate and expect video. Tying graphics and visual components into telling your radio story enhances your listeners’ experience.

Making the Case for Video

If you’re targeting younger audiences, the latest Arbitron/Edison Media Infinite Dial study found that older people watch more TV, while younger listeners get their “TV” online. Younger viewers and listeners are engaged in digital media and they expect video, graphic and visually appealing components to all information and entertainment they take in.

There’s a side benefit to working with video. Many journalists trained in print and radio already know that their skills are transferable to TV and documentary film making. This is your job security. Learning these additional skills can ensure your future, offering you options in a volatile creative field.

Aircheck Your Video

If you’re working with video, maintaining professionalism is important and that means controlling your visual presentation. For example, if your first foray with online video is doing a Skype interview – make sure it looks and sounds good. As painful as it may be, aircheck this as you would a regular radio show. Carefully critique yourself by asking: Am I happy with how this looks? Did you get across what you meant to get across? How is the lighting? How is the audio? How is your eye contact? How is your posture? If you were wearing white, did you fade into the wall? The first couple of times might be shaky, but once you get the hang of it, working with video can be creative and a lot of fun.

Creativity is Transferable

Your skills as a communicator translate to video, and you can use those skills to capture or create video that adds to your show. If developing an online audience is a priority, having an active website with entertaining and relevant content – including video – can attract them.

As a broadcaster, you’ve got a leg up from everyone else out there with a camera. Your broadcasting skills translate. As a consultant, I’ve worked on several documentary film and video projects. The same basic storytelling and audience engagement techniques apply. Many broadcasters and journalists, trained in print and radio, have successfully gravitated to TV and film making.

Which leads to: If you’re planning to attend next week’s NAB, pay close attention to what’s new in the world of video. And if you’re there in Las Vegas, and interested in video,  join us on Wednesday for the video panel, “Using Media to Save the World – The Water Pressures Project.”  Or stop by the NAB bookstore at 4:00 PM on April 17.  If you’d like more reasons to attend the NAB – (on video of course) take a look at this YouTube presentation. I hope to see you there.

Resources

If you’re interested in learning more about producing video for your site, there’s help available, both online and from old fashioned books. One of the best for learning the basics is Roger Sherman’s “Ready, Steady, Shoot,”  teaching his technique, the “10 Shot Video” system.  

And Sherman knows what he’s talking about. The founder of Florentine Films with Ken Burns, he’s won an Emmy, a Peabody and two Academy Award nominations.

If you have a copy of “Beyond Powerful Radio – A Communicator’s Guide to the Internet Age,” you’ll find a chapter called: “Radio to TV” featuring tips to create powerful videos.

Another book offering storytelling skills for TV that translate to creating online video is “The Poynter Institute’s Al Tompkins’  “Aim for the Heart: Write, Shoot, Report and Produce for TV and Multimedia.”

This book is a standard teaching tool for journalists to learn powerful video storytelling techniques. Tompkins is also a contributor to  “Beyond Powerful Radio – A Communicator’s Guide to the Internet Age.”

And “It Takes More Than Good Looks To Succeed At Television News Reporting” by Wayne Freedman is another good one.

Beyond Powerful Radio’s publisher, Focal Press, also offers several books on introductory video production including, “The Shut up and Shoot Freelance Video Guide.

And finally, there’s  “the Videomaker Guide to Video Production.”  

Valerie Geller, president of Geller Media International Broadcast Consultants, works to help communicators become more powerful in 30 countries, including Australia, for news, talk, information and personality. Through consulting and individual coaching for news and talk talent, Geller finds and develops personalities, leads “Creating Powerful Radio” and “Communicate Powerfully” workshops and seminars for radio and TV broadcasters, internet radio and podcasters. Geller is the recipient of the Conclave’s 2010 Rockwell Lifetime Achievement Award and is the author of four books about radio including her latest from Elsevier’s Focal Press Beyond Powerful Radio – A Communicator’s Guide to the Internet Age. To contact Valerie Geller for a one-on-one coaching or consulting, appointment, or for information on the “Powerful Radio” seminars and workshops, call +1 212 580-3385

Note: This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on radio-info.com and has been republished with permission.