What’s it like?

Radio is like a very good conversation. You get the pleasure of talking about your work and why it matters to someone who is really interested. So treat it like a conversation, not a meeting.

TV is more intense and you need to be more prepared because (a) you won’t be able to refer to notes and (b) your every facial expression will be magnified visually.

How to make it work for you

The interview will fly past, so get your key points in early, and talk short rather than long.

As with any conversation, what will bring it alive are stats and stories, so have these at your fingertips.

Remember that audiences and interviewers may know or care nothing about your topic. Part of your mission is to make it interesting for them. What does this mean for them? Why should they care?

What’s your SOCO?

All communications activities occur in order to deliver a particular message to a particular audience. This is your ‘SOCO’ – Single Overriding Communications Objective. It is conveyed through your ‘key message’. Achieving this objective is your measure of success. The interview will be largely pointless if you do not deliver your key message. All other messages fade before the key one, whatever it is. So:

• Identify your SOCO: who are the audience for this interview and therefore what is your key message for them? How will you make them interested in this? (This will vary, depending on the audience..
• Think of one or two soundbites that capture your key message. These are short phrases that are memorable and catchy, ideally three words. Use these soundbites in your interview.
• Think of one or two anecdotes that illustrate your key message – typically stories about people affected by the issue and how they benefitted from your activities. If you haven’t got the stories, ask colleagues or beneficiaries: dig around for them.
• Ditto some ‘killer stats’ that summarise the problem or the solution.
• Your SOCO should ideally include a call to action: what you want the audience to do after hearing your interview. Sign up to something? Go to a website? Apply? Donate?
• Your SOCO should always include a mention of the name of your organisation or project.
• During the interview, be sure to mention your SOCO as soon as possible, before other topics intrude.

In advance

What you need to know

• The exact time the interview will start and finish.
• Whether it is it live or pre-recorded. The former means that whatever you say will go out – so no fluffing your lines and redoing it. On the other hand, it means they can’t edit what you say. With a pre-recorded interview, you may be able to negotiate what time you do the interview, and you could ask for a retake if you fluff (however, they are not guaranteed to delete your error).
• Where the interview will take place – this would usually be in their studio, but if this an inconvenient location, you could always ask whether they could do the interview “down the line” (via phone, zoom or in a location with an ISDN line) from somewhere closer to you.
• What topics they want to cover, and why – is there a news peg or topical issue? If so, it would be worth having a chat with the researcher in advance, so they can brief you and so you get a sense of the angle. Be aware that during the interview they may move to other topics or depart from the agreed questions. If you think they might ask about something controversial, try to find this out in advance so you can be prepared, or alternatively turn the interview down if you’d rather not comment publicly. It is perfectly acceptable to turn down an interview.
• Who the audience are (local/national, special interest/general, demographic, how much will they know about your subject).
• What is the format (question and answer, a talk by you, phone in from listeners etc).

What you need to do

• Identify your SOCO as above and research everything to do with it.
• Anticipate any questions that might be asked and work out your answers. These might be about your SOCO, your activities in general, why you got interested in this topic, what you hope to learn, and topical issues it relates to.
• Also run through any problem questions and prepare your defences: accusations or controversies that might be raised, and what your answer would be.
• Prepare those stats and stories – about your SOCO, about your activities and organisation, about the wider issues involved.
• Consider what they might ask about your own life story – how you got into this, what motivated you to take it up, your hopes (and fears) about it.
• Plan how you will get to the studio without stress.
• If it’s at your office, book a quiet room and put a ‘Recording: do not open’ sign on the door. If this is a radio interview, ensure you have a broadcast-quality phone line (ISDN): a mobile phone will probably not suffice. Warn colleagues to keep out, and have someone guard the door against interruptions.

What you could ask them

• Always ask what the angle of the interview will be and if they can give you some examples of the types of questions they will ask you. They may not always be hugely forthcoming about this so it’s worth preparing the key things you would want to say.
• Find out who will be interviewing you and have a listen to some of their past interviews in advance to get a sense of their style.
• Check if anyone else will be interviewed alongside you and who they are.
• Ask how long the interview will be.

On the day

Just before the interview

• For TV, avoid wearing clothes that are too vivid (bright, checked, spotted) or jewellery that will make a noise (clattery necklaces or earrings).
• Relax yourself by taking five minutes out. Don’t rush from a work task to an interview without changing your own mood. Relax your mood by getting to the interview desk early.
• Relax your voice by drinking some water and talking to someone. Wear comfortable clothes with an open neck, so that your body and throat are not physically tense. If you’re likely to be nervous or cough, suck a throat pastille beforehand.
• Just before the interview starts, ask the presenter what their first question will be so that you can have a few minutes to prepare that and ease you into the interview.

During the interview

• Try to talk in a relaxed, friendly fashion, as though the interviewer were a friend in a cafe. Allow your tone to be lively and warm. Try to communicate energy and enthusiasm. Smile.
• Don’t use jargon. The listeners are laymen. Tell it like you would to a friend.
• Look the interviewer in the eye, it helps you to be real. If there is no interviewer in the room, visualise a single real person you are talking to. Smile at them, to set your mood.
• Sit still and don’t rustle papers – the mikes are very sensitive to noise.
• Mention your SOCO at once. The interview will very quickly develop its own directions and topics, and your chance to do a SOCO will vanish. Also, you will be astonished how quickly the interview flies past, and you don’t want to get to the end before your SOCO.
• Try to mention your SOCO again at the end.
• If they don’t ask the question you’re waiting for, segue your key message into your answer. For example, you could say: “Well that’s a really interesting question but actually what is more interesting is XXXX,” and then get your point in.
• Imagine you’re pitching answers at a 12 year old so that they’re clear and easy to understand. Don’t use complicated jargon unless it’s for a sector audience who will understand.
• Keep your cool. Negative emotions are magnified by the microphone, and will undermine your case. Always stay polite. Never show annoyance.
• Be prepared to take on board comments: “That’s a good suggestion, we’ll look into it.” “I think that might be a new area for us to look into.”
• If you disagree with the presenter, or are being pressed, stay polite and stand your ground. Useful phrases: “I don’t see it quite that way”, “Looking from another perspective”, “We have found it’s not quite like that” etc. Repeat what you’ve said, even in the same form – “Well, as I say,…”, “I think the answer is as I’ve said, which is…”.
• If you can’t think of an answer, be honest, don’t shoot a line they can catch you on. Useful phrases: “That’s outside of my area”, I’m not sure about that,” “I’d have to look into that”.
• Never try to bamboozle them, they will catch you out. Be as honest and open as you can.

Useful phrases

If you’re being interviewed as a Churchill Fellow, they may well ask you, ‘What is a Churchill Fellowship?’ Here’s how we describe it:

• A Churchill Fellowship is an opportunity to discover new ideas and approaches from around the world, on any practical topic you care about, in order to make change happen in your community or profession in the UK.
• Fellows are funded to spend up to two months exploring new solutions with the world’s leading professionals, and this can be done by travelling there or online from the UK.
• Fellowships are open to all UK adult citizens, regardless of their age, qualifications or background. Applications can be made via the Fellowship website at www.churchillfellowship.org.”

Similarly, they will ask you what your project is, so write a very brief description and memorise it.