by Victoria Fenner

April 26, 2011

 

www.soundoutmedia.com

Before going to air:

Know WHY you’re doing the interview.

This is also known as focussing your interview.   What exactly do you need to know from the person you’re interviewing?   The clearer you are about why YOU think this is an important subject, the clearer it will be for your listeners.

LISTEN to your prospective interviewee carefully BEFORE making a commitment to have them on the show.  Talk to them on the phone first. Do they know their subject?  Are they a good talker?  Can they talk about their subject in a way that ordinary people can understand?  If yes, book them for an interview.  If not, thank them for the useful information and look for another guest.

PLAN your on air questions in advance.  Every good interview has a beginning, middle and end.  By planning your questions in advance, you won’t have to make it up on the spot.  If your interviewee is a good talker, you will need less questions.  Figure on six questions for a ten minute interview if your guest is reasonably verbose.

There are only six questions in every interview that really matter: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.

Write the intro you will use on air.   Do it before the show.

The most important function of the intro is to hook the listener.  Make it catchy and appealing.  Most important, tell your listener WHY they want to stay around to listen to your interview.

Don’t try to make up your intro on the spot.  You have a lot to think about ? making your guest feel comfortable, your upcoming questions, what the tech is doing in the studio.  By pre-scripting you won’t run the risk of forgetting the person’s name who you are interviewing.
On the air/recording:

Be organized and calm.  If you are flustered, your guest will be flustered too.  The best way to relax your guest is to be relaxed yourself.
Keep your questions short and tight.  The listeners want to hear your guest, not you.  Your function is to get your guest to talk about the issue/subject.  Don’t become part of the story by launching into editorializing, debates and commentaries ? that’s not your role.  (That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask critical questions.  Just don’t make the story your own personal issue.) Avoid long and rambling questions.  They are usually a sign that you don’t really know what your question is.  Especially if your guest has to ask excuse me, what was the question?.

Stick to the questions you’ve pre-scripted.  If something interesting comes up, and you have time, you may want to follow the tangent.  But always return to your questions and keep the interview on track.

Avoid jargon.  If your guest uses a term that your listeners won’t understand, ask what’s that?.  Your listeners are not experts.  Your role is to make the interview understandable.  Avoid acronyms and abbreviations – tell them what the abbreviations and acronyms stand for.  You can’t take it for granted that your listeners will know what a GIP, a SLIRP, an LPFM or an LMNOP is.  Same with technical terms (the ones that nobody knows unless they have a doctorate in the subject).

Watch the clock.  If your interview is scheduled to go ten minutes, don’t make it fifteen. Or five. (If you’re pretaping, you can give yourself some more time.  But remember that the longer your interview, the more editing you’re going to have to do.  So stay focussed!)
After the interview:

Listen back to your interview if you’ve taped it.  Figure out what you’d do differently next time.  Get used to hearing your own voice on tape.  EVERYBODY says I don’t sound like that.  Guess what  you really do.  So get used to it.

Listen to yourself as though you were a listener who doesn’t know you.  Did you follow all the steps above?  Use the experience to do an even BETTER interview next time.

Ask the other people working on your show for feedback.  Or the program director at the station where you are working.

And above all remember that interviewing is an art, not a science.  There is no RIGHT way to do an interview.  Develop your own style, and keep working on it.