ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the skills needed for reporters, newsreaders and studio presenters on radio and TV, and covers both studio and location, live and pre-record techniques. Much of a presenter's confidence comes from experience. The best presenters develop the art of talking to time, condensing what has to be said or filling to meet the time available. The most important tool of any presenter – and the only tool in radio – is the voice. One of the greatest sins of radio presentation is to emphasise the wrong words. Local radio stations usually have several presenters with strong local accents, although the use of dialect would still be frowned on in a news bulletin. The producer can talk directly into a presenter's headphones or cans. Almost every radio presenter prefers to think they are talking to one person rather than the actual audience, who are probably too numerous to visualise.
