Since folks ask: How do you talk on the radio

Tom Temin Commentary

Since folks ask: How do you talk on the radio

As the old saying goes, if you talk about what you've earned the right to talk about, you'll do just fine. Even the most experienced talkers get the jitters.

Tom Temin@tteminWFED

September 5, 2024 5:10 pm

3 min read

One requisite for talking on the radio or anywhere in public: Do you know what you’re talking about?

Sounds like a loaded question. It’s not. If you’re a program manager talking about your new initiative, an auditor recounting a report or a policy analyst describing a new rule, of course you know what you’re talking about. This week people return to routines of the approaching autumn and I start my 17th season of hosting The Federal Drive. It feels like a good time to talk about my radio/online/podcast guests, the people interactions with whom have kept me going these many years.

I mean that literally. You wouldn’t believe how much administrative and technical effort goes into producing a show five days a week. I enjoy these tasks. But it’s the magic of interacting with people proud of and passionate about the work they do — that’s the point of it all.

Hence the question, do you know what you’re talking about. For several of my Federal Drive interviews over the past couple of week, I spoke with people who had never done a professional broadcast interview. I sometimes forget that something routine to me after 9,000 interviews can be a source of considerable anxiety for the guest.

Yet guests, at least my show guests, always do well. Why? Simple: They’re talking about themselves — their work, their activities, their professions. People don’t need media coaching or voice training to talk about what they know innately. I tell them, perhaps dating myself, “Pretend you’ve stopped on the way home from work at the local watering hole to meet a friend. The friend asks you a question about your work. You don’t need notes. I’m the guy on the adjacent bar stool.”

Once an inspector general, who’d been a 25-year prosecutor, sat in my studio and spread out what looked like a ream of notes. After two minutes of his stumbling and hesitation, I swept the papers away and said: “You know what you’re talking about! You don’t need all your answers written out!” It was a calculated gamble. He proceeded to give an excellent interview and has been back several times.

My producers and I joke, when people ask for questions in advance, we’ll start with, “What’s your opinion on whether Mussolini should have invaded Ethiopa?” That’s borrowed from instructional materials from the Dale Carnegie Course I instructed many years ago. Another concept I learned then: People are great when they talk about what they’ve earned the right to talk about. Namely, their own lives and experiences. But few can talk effectively about something arcane they have no interest in (although one guest did actually give me a short dissertation on Africa in World War II).

The National Security Agency recently posted these videos of the legendary Navy admiral Grace Hopper. Reorded more than 40 years ago, you can see Hopper as a feisty 74-year-old. She’s talking about her life in the Navy and in the burgeoning field of information technology, so she’s both confident and funny.

Do you think Grace Hopper needed public affairs to write out her comments for her? Well neither do you.

Since guests often ask, we sometimes send questions in advance. Here’s a secret: Once a guest has warmed up for a minute or two, I lead them far off “script” with what I feel the audience will really want to know. In 90% of the cases, they ride right alongside. Why do I do this? Because I’m more confident than they are about how much they know.

For sure, the microphone can be inhibiting. Perhaps more intimidating: We live in an age of incessant talk. Worse, everybody seems like an expert. The regular opinionators on cable news. The rehearsed seers of Ted Talks. The retouched influencers on social media.

On my show, though, we don’t expect people with broadcast polish or stentorian delivery. We just want you to be yourself. Another secret known to the thousands of Federal Drive guests. If you cough, stumble over words and start over, or the dog barks while your talking, we can and do edit out the glitches.