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When my friend Peter invited a friend and I to be co-hosts on his weekly retro music show featured on a local community radio station, we just couldn’t say ‘no’.I’ve always had an interest in all things related to dramatic arts, however I was terrible at remembering lines. Improvisation therefore seemed to be the best way to release that creative energy and there’s no better place for improvisation than on the radio. |
As you can imagine, it was a little unnerving at first. The “On Air” green light glowing daringly in my face, the silent audience and the tiny moment of hesitation before you say that first word. I imagined it to be the same moment of hesitation before jumping out of a plane for skydiving.
At first, we were a little shy and forced, but after playing a few great tunes, we were well on our way to chatting up the mike.
The good news about community radio stations is that not many people were actually listening, apart from a handful of the +50 crowd and some dedicated groupies (family and friends)… so you can get away with messing up here and then. Nevertheless, Peter runs his show like a captain who runs a tight ship. With years of community radio experience behind him, Peter easily engaged us in dialogue and helped us come out of our shells.
The night wasn’t without its surprises and challenges though.
Over the one and a half hour show, we had to read ads for the local community about church bake sales and fairs. However, one of the ads I received was for raising awareness for preventing abuse and I just couldn’t read it on my first day. I was in a nervous laughing mood and I didn’t want to treat a serious subject like abuse poorly. So, I had to pass that one on to the other co-host Jenny, who was in the same mood and just had to pass it to Peter.
We also learnt that we had to constantly plug the radio station name so that listeners knew and remembered which station they were listening to. “You always hear the best retro tunes of the 70s and 80s on 90.1 NBC FM”
We played the songs in sets of three. So before the set started, one of us introduced the three songs, then played the first and second songs, then play an automatic radio station plug, and finally played the third song. After the three songs were finished, we went in with “You just heard…” and listed the songs backwards from the last one that the listeners heard. It was very organized. Of course, we still have the flexibility to talk about the songs and how we related to them or what we knew about the songs or the artists.
I even made a dedication to my boyfriend — the modern day answer to a serenade.
The one big anxiety I had that night is the fear that I would be suddenly attacked by a cough or a sneeze while I was talking… luckily that never came to happen. Imagine if all your listeners called in to say “Bless you” or “Gesundheit” !
All in all, the live radio experience was fantastic and I found it really challenges your creative and improv skills.
So, go on, let your inner radio personality out and have a blast on air. You’ll soon see that this is way better than karaoke any day !
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