I’ve done live television before, being interviewed about higher profile cases I’ve handled. I found answering questions from the host easy but for some reason I wound up looking unanimated and strange on the screen. Part of that was that the TV technician counseled me to look at a spot that wasn’t the dead center of the camera lens and that played me false. But part of it is that the remote studio is not a relaxing environment and somehow not conducive to conveying my emotional state while talking about a subject.
So I was just a bit wary when a client approached me and offered to have me be the guest during his hour-long weekly talk radio show. The subject of the show was an aspect of my practice that I’m quite familiar with so again, the subject matter wasn’t the issue. I just didn’t want to fall flat.
I found, much to my pleasant surprise, that radio is a much more forgiving format than television. I didn’t have to worry about facial gestures, just about speaking into the microphone. The technology on the mics and sound engineering was such that a normal, conversational voice was all I needed and I use vocal intonations enough anyway that I felt able to convey animation and emotional impact easily. My client proved a genial and capable host, and since both he and I were conscious of the timing for commercial breaks and the need to avoid dead air, we made what was hopefully an interesting hour of radio for the literally tens of people who may have been listening.
Live talk radio is much easier than live TV. I’d do live talk radio again in a heartbeat.
