How do you do an air check for a radio position?

Question

I'm not in the line of communications, but a local paper advertised for a news director position-no experience required. I am curious.

Answer 1

All that the management at the station are looking for on a tape is an example of your voice, and a little insite into your presentation style.

If you have no real radio experience, you can still make a demo tape.  What you will have to do is get some newspapers and pick out four or five good stories from that paper.  Then you should re-write the stories to make them sound more "conversational" than they are written fro the newspaper.  While you are writing the stories, keep in mind that when delevering the news, you have to sound as professional as possible.  The listner is looking to you to tell them whats going on in their own little corner of the world... They need to be able to trust what you are reporting.... So always get your facts right!

After you get the stories done, go ahead and read them into a tape recorder just as if you were delevering them on the air.  If you make a small mistake, don't get all flustered, just keep going as if nothing had happened.  Try to keep an even, steady flow to your reading.  Whatever you do, don't read too fast.  Make an effert to slow down your rate of speech, and Always use correct pronunciation!

Then go back and listen to the tape.  If you are happy with what you hear, send it into the station with a short cover-letter (no more that one page long) and a copy of your resume.

I hope I was able to help you out a little.  Good luck in your quest to become a NewsPerson!