Wednesday, June 17, 2009

My Radio Interview!

The week before last, I went down to through the city to the other side of town to have a radio interview on Life FM, Adelaide's Christian based radio station. It was a fantastic experience. My daughter came in with me and we were shown around the radio station after doing the interview. Here are some of the highlights.

1) We were there on a Thursday morning but the interview wasn't broadcasted until the following morning. I was part of the Friday line-up. Jayne, who interviewed me, showed us the schedule, and how songs, interviews and ads are all carefully time-slotted days in advance to give the impromptu impression listening to the radio usually gives.

2) The microphone was so large and I had to put my mouth right next to it. She said there's no way anybody could be too close.

3) This was most disconcerting; I had to put my notes away! Anybody who's seen the sort of public speaker I am would know that I'm usually bound to my notes. I never move away from the podium and I keep looking down to read bits out. I've always been convinced that if I don't do this, I'll miss things that I'm supposed to say. I thought it'd be easy to read off what I came prepared with but Jayne told me that it came across better when I was simply talking naturally, as we had been doing before we started. She said that if I'd written it all down, it was bound to be in my head anyway. I wasn't convinced by this. In my experience, things easily freeze out of my head when I'm on the spot or in a panic, but I was willing to give it a go. Speaking off the cuff without any notes at all is something I've never done before.

4) I didn't even know what questions she would ask me. Jayne Lochert turned out to be a very smooth-flowing, impromptu sort of person herself who told me at the outset that she often doesn't even know what she'll ask a person until they're there with her on the spot.

5) Emma liked the look of the room with all the stacks and stacks of music. I would've liked a look around myself, as I love the music they play.

6) We learned that they never put two Christian songs back to back. In each group of songs they aim for a Christian artist, a song from the nineties and a song from the eighties. Maybe that's why I enjoy listening to Life FM so much.

7) Finally, she offered to email the interview to me to put on our own website. I hadn't been expecting anything like that. We've tried different ways to get it on and finally succeeded. Logan put the two parts of the interview on You Tube and Andrew got in onto our website.

So here's an invitation to you. Would you like to hear it? Just get into my website (from my blog toolbar) click on "Interview with Paula" and at the very bottom of that page you'll find my interview with Jayne Lochert. I'd love to hear what you thought of it. Keep in mind, please be easy on me as I was way out of my comfort zone with no written notes in front of me.

5 comments:

  1. Wheee! I heard Paula's voice! You sound great! Yes, I could tell you were nervous at the beginning, but by the end you relaxed into it and you did fine. :o)

    I used to depend on my notes too, when I started running my different workshops. The reason why you try to move away from notes is because it places another barrier between you and your audience. Even in a radio interview, you can tell if someone is reading notes instead of talking directly to the interviewer.

    It's scary, but when you do enough of them, you get into a groove. You usually don't forget because you've done it so many times. The first time I did a workshop without notes I felt like I must sound like my lips were moving faster than the words coming out! LOL!

    Keep practicing! Hope to hear many more interviews!

    Peace and Laughter!
    Cristina

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  2. For being out of your comfort zone, you certainly did a terrific job!

    Today (Thursday), I had just come back from my mammogram (thanks for praying - it went fine) and I had a snack and helped the kids with school work. Todd was online and he asked if I had a minute. I came in and sat down, and then I saw what he was doing. He was loading your interview! I was so excited! When we first heard your voice, I got teary-eyed. How wonderful to hear you speak! I thought you did a great job. Your answers were interesting and clearly stated. You seemed a bit nervous at first but that quickly went away (totally normal for an interview, in my opinion.) What a great opportunity for you - I'm so glad you got to do this. I agreed with Jayne - when I read your book, I lived with the characters for several weeks. Hope this is just the first of more interviews in your future!

    Good on ya!
    Your friend, Kate

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  3. Too cool!! That's great that you were able to do the radio interview. And it was even greater to hear about your daughter's baptism. "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." - III John 1:4 :)

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  4. I had to read it because my computer is so bogged down lately. Arrrr! But I did enjoy reading it! What fun. You did a great job even without notes! :o)

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  5. It was very interesting for me to read the post. Thanks for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more soon.

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