Take A Deep Breath...

One of the hardest skills in broadcasting to me is pacing. After all of the research you have done on a topic, you just feel overwhelmed to tell the audience every small detail. This is a very difficult habit to break as the audience is listening to hear the important things and not the small details. To me radio is either too face-paced, or too slow. When I'm listening to radio the hosts have to talk at a perfect pace so people have time to take in what they are listening to, yet not lose track of what's going on in the conversation. It can be extremely hard to manage your pace on air if you are not in sync with everyone else who is talking. When I get nervous on-air, I tend to talk faster than normal which results in me slurring my words. This not only can cause problems for the listeners, but my co-hosts as well because they are trying to listen to what I have to say. The way I avoid this is practicing out loud before I go on-air, and to just take some small breaths during the live discussion. You must practice out loud. There are often times when you have everything planned out in your head and then when you actually hear the words it doesn't sound right or flow well with the conversation. I promise you that practicing out loud before can improve upon this immensly. It doesn't have to be the whole discussion out loud, but at least take about 10 mintues to plan out your thoughts more clearly that way.