It’s nice to see HawaiiUP up (haha!) and running again, especially after having been overshadowed by the phenomenally successful Lost podcast, The Transmission. Even Dreama has jumped on the podcasting bandwagon.
I toyed with podcasting back in March, but I never launched it. I was still unfamiliar with my microphone, and the shows I did produce sounded wildly inconsistent. It also sucks living next to loud trashy neighbors and a bus route.
I’ve since had more practice with my microphone — and just as importantly, setting up my "sound booth" — and I’m thinking about revisiting the podcast. Out of curiosity, I thumbed through some books about podcasting at the bookstore and tried to find how much space the authors dedicate to practical speaking tips. The results were just as bemusing as when I first explored the topic back in March.
Podcasting, of course, is quite a big deal because the technological barrier to creating a radio broadcast is getting breached. Podcasting can be done on the cheap.
So most of the tutorials and guides out there deal a whole lot with the technology. And while podcasting is within the reach of the "non-professional", it’s not exactly as easy as pushing a button. I understand, then, the emphasis on explaining the technology.
But far, far more should be put into these guides about cultivating the actual speaking voice.
The technology may be whiz-bang impressive, but in the end, the podcast is about the voice coming out the speakers. Not addressing even rudimentary guidelines on how to speak will make all that whiz-bang technology useless at the hands of people who can’t talk.
So I did a bit of web searching and dug up a few sites dealing with broadcast speaking.
Not directly related to podcasting, dispatch40 at the University of Texas has some tips for students about doing a radio broadcast. The radio announcement tips are good, but if your podcast follows a more NPR-style format (and mine was), the script editing tips are also important. I was trained in print journalism, and writing in broadcast style is quite different.
JProf offers similar tips about broadcast writing style. Even if your podcast isn’t scripted, it’s good to keep some of the word usage tips in mind. NewsLab offers some tips to improve vocal delivery.
Something else I learned while recording vocals for Eponymous 4 — have a bottle of water on hand. A sip of water does wonders for a mouth worn out by talking into a mic, but just remember the effects of burping when breathing.
When all else fails, you could always take the suggestions of Strong Bad.