Becoming a Radio Announcer

This writing is going to deliver on how to be a radio announcer, most specifically in a public broadcasting service. All that is written here is based on my knowledge and experience during my internship in Radio Suara Sidoarjo. 

Me becoming an announcer during internship in Radio Suara Sidoarjo

Brief explanation of Radio Suara Sidoarjo

Radio Suara Sidoarjo is a public broadcasting service which focusing on broadcasting the situation, news, and governmental activity in Sidoarjo. Everything that happen in Sidoarjo, news, and traffic information are delivered through 100.9 FM Radio or stream online on Suara Sidoarjo live on YouTube.

Brief background of choosing Radio Suara Sidoarjo for internship

My decision of choosing Radio Suara Sidoarjo as the company for me to do my internship is because I really wanted to develop my public speaking skill in radio industry. From what I have experienced, being in radio industry is quite challenging. Because not only we are asked to be excellent on delivering the news to the listeners or the audience but we also have to be able to engage with the audiences as if the audiences are right in front of us. Being a radio announcer is also quite different compared to any other public speaking related works. Based on my experience, announcers are required to be versatile on how they use their voice on the different segments in the radio. The kind of segments that are aired in the radio are: Talk show, Flash news, Advertisement, Traffic Update, and many more.

Here are some things that radio announcers do and master (main focus is public broadcasting service radio based on what I did as a part of broadcasting division in Suara Sidoarjo Radio):

1.     1. Search and prepare for the current issue.

In Radio Suara Sidoarjo, the company focuses on the current issue dealing with what has been happening in the country or internationally. But for the most of all, it focuses on the local area Sidoarjo, as the home base of Radio Suara Sidoarjo. For this matter, an announcer has to be prepared with the current issues and stay updated with what should be conveyed in the radio. Announcer has to be ready on delivering the news every day for the audience considering that public broadcasting service is all about delivering information for the people. 

2.      2. Announce the issue truthfully

Following the first point, announcer has to stay truthful. Meaning that announcer has to convey the current issue without adding unnecessary personal opinion because the main focus is delivering the issue as it is. Always be careful on choosing the news to be delivered. Check and recheck the news whether the news is true or not. 

3.      3. Record an off-air news and advertisement

Not only becoming the announcer for on-air segments, the announcer has to also record their voice, or usually this activity is called as taping, for off-air and advertisement purposes. Not forgetting to mention, the tone for the voice has to be adjusted for each different purposes. For instance, when announcer has to be the voice actor behind the advertisement, announcer has to use an inviting and persuading voice so that the audiences are interested to buy the product. On the other hand, for off-air news purposes, the announcer has to use the serious tone which usually used for delivering formal news. The following recordings of mine during my internship in Radio Suara Sidoarjo as the announcer are the example of the tone of the voice in each purpose, advertisement and news purposes. 

Here are the links for the example on how to announce off-air/on air news and advertisement:

News Voice Over: (Click here) 

Advertisement Voice Over: (Click here)

4.      4. Select what content should be added on the list                                                                     Announcer has to be prepared for the list to be delivered on the radio. Usually, the list consists of the news, the advertisements that have been recorded before they are aired, songs, and talk show.

Those are the things that I have learned during becoming an announcer in Suara Sidoarjo Radio for my internship purposes. Hopefully, it will be useful for those who also want to experience becoming an announcer in the radio.