Broadcast Media
Broadcasting is a highly specialised area, and few people are really comfortable with a tough radio or television interview, no matter how senior and how skilled they are in their specialist fields. That isn’t surprising: exposure to the sharp end of the media is usually infrequent and the studio environment can seem strange and intimidating.
Any interviewee, however experienced, is dealing with a professional interviewer who is operating very much on his or her home ground. They are masters of all the techniques needed to coerce their guest into giving them a good story. And as we all know, a ‘good’ story in their terms can mean a disastrous one from the interviewee’s point of view.
Just cast your mind back to a couple of classics: British Rail wasn’t a complete laughing stock until a spokesman came out with that immortal line, “It was the wrong sort of snow”; and Ratners the jewellers didn’t have to change their name until Gerald Ratner described his own products in less than glowing terms!
So training can be a distinct advantage. Recently, one client approached us a few days before the CEO was to appear as a guest on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Unreliable Evidence’ programme, presented by that notoriously sharp inquisitor Clive Anderson. After the programme, the client’s communications manager emailed to say:
“Just wanted to let you know the Clive Anderson piece went well and we used many of your tips and felt they really helped.”
Another client in a similar situation wrote to us after a course:
“Recently, we searched for a good media trainer/coach to use for a specific project which we had a selection of trainers to choose from. From beginning to end, Allan has been a pleasure to work with. His training was first rate and of an impeccable standard. He is an expert in his field and knows how to put clients at ease and give them confidence in what he is teaching them to do. He tailored the course to our needs and really got to grips with our subject matter via his own research, making the course highly relevant and practical. It was also really enjoyable. I highly recommend others to consider Allan for any media training work they need. Professional, comprehensive, enjoyable and helpful.”
Brief biographies of our trainers appear on our Trainers page.
The purpose of our courses is to enable key personnel to give effective and professional performances in media interviews. What they say is vital. Of equal importance is how they say it. And that applies to handling social media as well, where your every post or Tweet will be jumped on by potentially millions of people. You don’t want a slip of the tongue, or an ill-judged social media comment, to go viral.
The best way of ensuring that a drama doesn’t turn into a crisis is to learn and master those techniques.
With the proliferation of television news channels worldwide, in addition to the many radio stations, the media is hungry for articulate guests.
Our broadcast course puts the delegates in a radio and television studio so they can discover some of the tricks of the trade. The aim is to help them take and retain control, and ensure that the viewers and listeners get the precise messages they want to put over – rather than what the interviewer manipulates them into saying.
As the demands of the media intensify, so do the chances of being asked to act as a spokesperson – but this can work both ways. On the one hand, a high-profile interview is an opportunity to score a coup, but on the other you run the risk of creating a fiasco that damages the reputation of your organisation or your company’s bottom line. Just ask Gerald Ratner.