ABSTRACT
The 'golden voice' is no longer the only passport into radio, nor is just skilled panel operating. Successful radio announcers do have certain voice and speech characteristics. These can be learnt. To communicate effectively on radio, an announcer must deliver the message so that listeners hear it, value it enough to pay attention, understand it and then retain it. The words one says and how one says them convey meaning and emotion to listeners. This is the art of good radio announcing. Announcers have to make 30 per cent of communication work even harder than it usually does to convey the same kind of messages as announcers on a visual medium. Announcers work on different delivery techniques so that the words and the delivery work together to enhance the message rather than weaken it. Announcers who punch out emphasis on the wrong syllable do not give listeners the chance to catch the whole word and therefore the meaning is weakened.
