It is rare that a talk show host is involved in interviewing people in a hostage situation but it could happen.  My advice to you is to try to avoid it at all costs,  because little good ever comes out of it.  However sometimes station management will ask you to do interviews around a hostage situation and you should know a few ground rules.  Here are six things to keep in mind if you are involved in interviewing during a hostage situation:

Here is a quick review of  some do’s and don’ts when doing interviews during hostage taking situations:

.Frist, assuming you have access to the hostage-taker, never, never interview them and post the interview, while the hostage situation is still underway.  Boy will you mess up the operation for all concerned, just never do this.

Secondly, never speculate on what is going on around the interview, stick to the facts.  You can force different outcomes by doing this and it may not be something you want on your conscience.

Third.,  never try to interview members of the police or others emergency workers involved in the situation.  They are very, very busy and you can hurt their efforts.

Fourth, unless you know for sure, never tell the audience what the state of mind is of the hostage taker.  Once again you can force conclusions that could be very bad for all concerned.

Fifth, even though it may make for good theater, stay away from interviewing victims or family members as this could agitate the hostage taker. Remember victims that have been interviewed are the number one source of lawsuits against broadcasters.

Sixth, even if you know the game plan of the police, never reveal it until the operation is over.  The hostage taker may pick up the information with bad results for all. 

Believe me as a leading talk show host coach I have seen all of these things go wrong and you don’t want any part of it, your career can go South fast.  If you are interested in getting more information on any aspect of talk show hosting, why not book a FREE phone session with me.  I can probably help you no matter what it is.  Email me at email@conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com.

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In this economy staying even on salaries is good news.  In this article from http://radioink.com/ we learn that salaries for people working in radio have stayed even.  That is good news for all of us.  Here is the article:

RTDNA: Radio Journalism Salaries Hold Steady

August 26, 2010: The latest Radio Television Digital News Association/Hofstra University survey of radio and TV newsroom salaries finds that radio news salaries in 2009 were flat with the previous year. In the 2008 survey, salaries were down 1.8 percent.

“With negative inflation in 2009, even flat salaries mean no loss in buying power,” said Hofstra University journalism professor Bob Papper, who directs the annual survey.

Radio news directors, reporters, producers, and sports reporters saw their pay rise slightly last year, offset by slight declines for news and sports anchors.

In TV, salaries overall rose by 2.5 percent in 2009, compared to a 4.4 percent drop a year before.

The survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of last year among all 1,770 operating non-satellite TV stations and a random sample of 4,000 radio stations. Valid responses came in from 1,355 TV stations and 203 news directors and GMs representing 301 radio stations.

Well if you are looking to get ahead, the best chance you have is to improve your skills.  I suggest you go to:http://conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/ and sign up for:

FREE TO TALK SHOW HOSTS

Special Report: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Your Audience Size In 30 Days … At Zero Cost!

And receive periodic “Insider Tips For Talk Show Hosts” … loaded with techniques you can use to improve your show and make more money. 

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Many of my talk show host coaching  clients are interested in expanding their audience size, but they have limited budgets for promoting their shows.  Enter social media.  Social media is free and it can be incredibly effective.  Here is an article from http://abraham.ilikehandbag.com that covers how to collect information using social media.  These methods can be very useful to you if used properly.  If you use them to gain better insights into what you audience wants you can move your show ahead.  This same media can be used to get information out on upcoming shows, etc.  Read this article and consider all the ways you can use these sources to your advantage:

Collecting Valuable Information using Social Media

Filed Under: Uncategorized by abraham

Certainly everybody understands that social media has become a very important public relations and advertising tool. In fact, one of the most powerful advantages of using social media is the ability it provides with regards to monitoring your brand. You can use search engines in Twitter or Facebook to find how many times your company has been mentioned. There have even been applications developed that will deliver this information in real-time to your desktop. However, this kind of information really only tells you about the visibility or reach of your brand without telling you anything about how people perceive your brand, use your brand, or feel about your brand. If you want more specific feedback, you have to get more proactive. Social media can be used to gather specific information from clients or potential clients about your business, new products and services, the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and other issues. The following are a few ways that you can harness the power of social media to gather detailed information about your company.

Use your Website or Blog to Post a Survey
Surveys have become commonplace on many websites. If you visit a news site you might see a survey about your favourite sports team or movie and in fact you can get quite a lot LV handbags of information about site visitors with a survey. Indeed, feedback forms have evolved from the cards you get in restaurants, for example, to short surveys on websites and they can be easily adapted for use without any programming knowledge. One service that allows you to create any kind of form, including open-ended questions, multiple choice questions, louis vuitton bags online or polls with radio buttons, is WuFoo. Once you create your survey it is easily embedded on your website or blog with a simple cut and paste function. Moreover, you can log into LV handbags your LV handbags WuFoo account where you get immediate reports on the outcomes of your questionnaire or survey and you can even update your polls as you go.

Create a Facebook Poll
Many businesses nowadays are aware of the impact of a Facebook page. With millions of users around the world, Facebook represents one of the easiest ways to reach a wide audience quickly. If your company or brand uses a Facebook page, you can add applications to keep your “friends” engaged and interested in your brand. By adding applications like polls to your Facebook page, your friends are not only giving you some information but they are also communicating their interest in your brand to other friends. This means, you not only have an excellent opportunity to gather information but you can increase your audience as well.

Twitter Polls
Using Twitter allows you to share links to your webpage or blog and likewise to any polls you may have posted. Once you have used a service like WuFoo you probably want to attract louis vuitton bags online as many people to the poll as possible. Sending out a link to your poll on Twitter allows you to bring your Twitter audience to your web page and subsequently gather information from them. In addition, there are even feedback applications that have been designed specifically for Twitter. This gives you immediate information. All you need to do is set up your account with a company like PollDaddy, create your question or pole, and then questions are automatically tweeted to your followers. Likewise, TwtPoll, is another Twitter polling service that has a built-in feature that allows respondents of your poll to further tweet the poll question to their followers. This vastly expands the size of your audience and gives you more realistic information about the perception of your brand (really, if you always ask your followers what they think, you might not get the most honest feedback…imagine what would have happened with Vista if Microsoft only polled people who love Vista).

Don’t Forget YouTube
Posting a YouTube video comes with two major advantages. First, you can reach a wide audience with whom you can share your company and brand information. YouTube is becoming more and more popular and because it’s free it can be a great place to expand your brand’s reach. In addition, YouTube allows for more detailed responses to your brand. YouTube users can watch your video and share detailed comments about what they think and feel about it. Also, you can cross-link between your video and your webpage or blog thereby increasing traffic to your website and to your video so you gather more information from more users.

Be Responsible
Social media provides businesses with low-cost and efficient solutions for gathering information from customers. You can easily post information about upcoming products or services and you can inform a large audience about your brand. Conducting market research has never been easier but there are some drawbacks that come from using social media to conduct market research. Namely, using social media means you are putting information out on an open platform that almost anybody can access. For example, imagine your company has been working for years on a revolutionary new product and you want to ask your customers what they think. Posting a poll on Facebook means that everybody can access information about this new product and you are essentially broadcasting sensitive information to your competitors. As such, social media market research should be designed carefully as to help you gather the information you need without unveiling the details of your market strategy.

If you would like to sample my talk show host coaching and get some real help moving your show ahead right now for FREE, just email me at email@conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com.  It is the real thing and there is no obligation.  Set it up and you will see why I am the leading talk show host coach.

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Many of my talk show host clients use Skype, but I worry about its overuse.  It just doesn’t give you the quality and audiences will be turned off if your production values drop on a regular basis.  Skype is perfect for deadline situations but the downside is a degradation in video and sound quality.

Here is an article from http://www.huffingtonpost.com that discusses Skype use at large TV stations.  I think you will find it interesting:

TV News, Talk Shows Using Skype

DAVID BAUDER | 09/ 2/10 10:21 AM |

NEW YORK — When he wanted to interview a source in Connecticut for a recent “World News” story on technology, ABC reporter Pierre Thomas didn’t even leave the office. ABC’s cameras showed him sitting in front of a computer screen, talking to Michael Coppolla through Skype.The video phone service has become an important tool for television news organizations over the past several months. Producers say it enables them to reach many more people for interviews. It also saves money, although its current users insist Skype won’t become a crutch.

Skype encourages news organizations to use the service, doesn’t charge for it and offers detailed advice on how to best take advantage of the technology. The company asks networks to display its logo or verbally identify Skype.

“It really has changed the way we do business,” said Tom Costello, a Washington-based NBC News reporter.

While reporting on a bad egg outbreak a week ago, Costello found an elderly woman in a remote section of Pennsylvania who has lingering stomach problems from a salmonella poisoning five years ago. There was no way to reach her in time with a camera crew for “Nightly News,” but Costello was surprised to find she regularly used Skype, and that’s how they did the interview.

One of Washington’s paralyzing snowstorms last winter left Costello without power and stranded at home, but his wife held up a laptop to take a picture of him thigh-deep in snow in their front yard so Costello could do a live report.

All three broadcast network newscasts use Skype to a certain extent. Fox News Channel interviews people under the banner “Skype gripe.” Barbara Walters talked about her heart surgery on “The View” by way of Skype. The “Today” show keeps connected with viewers through Skype.

“This opens the entire country up for us to get to instantaneously,” said Jon Banner, “World News” executive producer. “It is a terrific advance and we would be foolish not to take advantage of any technical advance that’s out there.”

Skype is perfect for deadline situations – such as the late-day interview ABC’s Thomas conducted, Banner said. It also gives ABC access to a wider selection of experts for stories, he said.

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A downside is a degradation in video quality. The Skype picture for Thomas’ interview was fuzzy, and it sometimes seemed interview subject Coppolla’s voice wasn’t in sync with his moving mouth. It wasn’t the high-definition video to which viewers are accustomed.

That’s why Skype, while a great tool, is best used in an emergency, said Rick Kaplan, executive producer of the “CBS Evening News.” The picture is less of a concern to NBC’s “Nightly News,” which recently shot anchor Brian Williams Skype-ing with a girl he met in an Afghanistan orphanage who is in Los Angeles for a visit.

“The audience has accepted that what you’re going to see is a wide range of video quality in a broadcast,” said Bob Epstein, executive producer of NBC’s “Nightly News.”

That’s one of the reasons Skype has a website devoted to giving television executives advice on equipment needed for the best picture, said Michele Don Durbin, the company’s U.S. marketing director. “Oprah,” for example, has a dedicated high-speed line that it uses just for Skype, she said. It doesn’t serve Skype’s interests if a TV network shows a poor picture with the company’s logo.

The company doesn’t seek exclusivity agreements with networks or charge for on-air use because each instance solidifies its reputation among consumers, she said.

Not everyone believes Skype’s spread is the best idea for news organizations. Steven Rosenbaum, a former TV producer who developed “MTV Unfiltered” and now runs a video sharing website, questioned whether Skype is just a way to cut corners.

At “MTV Unfiltered,” his staff would send out cameras to people with stories to tell, asking them to film themselves and their world. It wasn’t innovation. “We were just cheap,” he said.

There’s no substitute for reporters going out on location for stories, he said. Meeting people face-to-face invariably produces richer stories.

“This hastens the demise of the journalism part of TV journalism,” Rosenbaum said. “You’re making the reporting part of the journalism perfunctory.”

Producers note that print journalists make frequent use of telephone interviews and don’t always show up at the doorstep of story subjects. The difference, though, is that television is a visual medium and needs pictures.

Deborah Potter, executive director of the TV news think tank Newslab, said that networks can’t always get to areas for certain stories, such as earthquakes and other disasters. Local stations use Skype to talk to people from their communities who might be visiting those areas, which allows networks to “broaden their scope and add context to stories,” she said.

Skype’s improving quality means that the days of expensive trucks being sent on the road for live pictures may be numbered, Potter said.

“No matter what story we’re doing, if we have the option to get there and be there in person, that’s our responsibility and that’s what we do,” ABC’s Banner said. “There are times when we don’t have that luxury.”

___

NBC is owned by General Electric Co.; ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.; CBS is a division of CBS Corp.

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As a talk show host coach, you know I am always on ways to monitor how you and/or your competition is doing or to gain market intelligence.  I just found a new tool from youtube that will allow you to find out who is watching certain videos and learn a lot about them.  This can be very useful if you or your competitors are posting on youtube, or if you are interested in who is into a certain subject.  Here is the info from youtube:
YouTube today announced updates to the statistics it offers on the videos
you publish at the site, giving you the option to make your statistics
public:

Uploaders can find even more information about their videos via our free
analytics tool, YouTube Insight, including stats about their popularity,
geographic audience, and viewer demographics. But most of this information
is hidden from the view of the millions and millions of people who’ve never
posted a video to the site, and who therefore don’t have access to much of
the data we make available to uploaders.

That’s why today we’re giving you the ability to make some information
collected in Insight available publicly to anyone watching your videos on
YouTube. Now when you watch a video, you can learn even more about it and
its audience: on the watch page, under the “Statistics & Data” section, you
will be able to see metrics about a video’s views over time, its popularity
in different parts of the world, the top drivers of traffic, and the video’s
top three audience demographics.

If you’ve uploaded a video, you will be able to choose whether or not you
want to make this information public. (You can turn this feature on or off
for any or all of the videos you upload, by adjusting the privacy settings
for your videos under “My Account.”) But we think that providing your
audience with more information about what they’re watching can help you
drive views and sustain a more engaged audience. And of course, for those of
you who are partners, allowing statistics to be displayed with your videos
is actually a great way to attract advertisers.

We hope this feature, like others we’ve launched this year, will help us
further open up analytics on the site, making it easy for users to play with
YouTube information across different platforms.

Isn’t that cool information.  Look you know when it comes to talk show host coaching, I can’t be beat.  You can’t beat my price either.  You can have a FREE 45 minute phone coaching session with me, with not obligation or come on.  Just email me at email@conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com.

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As a talk show host coach I stay abreast of what is going on in all phases of programing and I have found a new phenomena.

TV stations all over the US have just discovered a undeserved time slot and are rushing to take advantage of it.  The media rating agencies have revealed that the 4 AM to 5 AM, yes 4 AM to 5 AM time slot is gaining viewers.  News stations are now putting “early morning” shows on starting at4 AM. 4:30 AM,  or 5 AM to serve this time slot.  It is not clear what is driving the growth in viewing at this time but it appears Americans are up earlier than they used to be.  So you as a talk show host may want to consider how you can move into this time slot, as you will have less completion for now and can establish a base there.  If you have flexibility in the time your show runs, you ought to look into tailoring content to viewers in the early morning hours.  They are probably commuters so you will need short segments they can watch “on the fly”.  Really, you could get in on the ground floor here.

Here is another way to move your talk show host career ahead.  Go to http://conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/ and sign up for

FREE TO TALK SHOW HOSTS

Special Report: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Your Audience Size In 30 Days … At Zero Cost!

And receive periodic “Insider Tips For Talk Show Hosts” … loaded with techniques you can use to improve your show and make more money. 

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Consider this.  When you buy a new device such as an Ipad,  some people are going to be hired and some people are going to be fired.  Apple will be hiring, and the device you replace will be firing.  Why is this?  Well the Ipad people are more up to date and the others are not.  If you are  not up to date, you will be fired.  You need to look at what the people getting hired have that the people being fired did not and gain these skills.  This applies to talk show hosts as well.  If you are not up to date on technology, current events, media and so on, you are putting yourself on the “fire” list.

So if you want to stay up to date go to: http://conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/ and sign up for:

FREE TO TALK SHOW HOSTS

Special Report: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Your Audience Size In 30 Days … At Zero Cost!

And receive periodic “Insider Tips For Talk Show Hosts” … loaded with techniques you can use to improve your show and make more money. 

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If you can interview, you can create information products with the same techniques.  And make some nice money in the process.

My friend Fred Gleeck, wrote this  at http://www.fredgleeck.com/blog/ about how to do it:

Information Marketing Audio Interview Products

There are a LOT of people selling information products who produce audio interviews and sell them. LOTS of them. Even those that come from some of the bigger names in the field are often less than high quality.

Why?

Quite simply because creating GOOD audio products isn’t easy to do. Here are some things I suggest you make sure and have in place to produce TOP NOTCH audio interview products.

1. Make sure that you have a GREAT interviewer. Unless the HOST of your audio program is good, you won’t be able to pull it off. Can anyone LEARN to do this? Yes, but some better than others. Take a look at my program ExpertInterviewer.com to get an idea about how to perfect your skills as an interviewer.

2. Makes sure that you have a GREAT guest. This may sound fairly obvious, BUT, just because you’re interviewing someone who is an expert in their field, they may not be a very good guest. Spend some time talking with people on the phone before you invite them to be a guest and create an audio product.

3. Your guest must truly know their content. A lot of people you’ll find that you want to interview may have DONE something well, but they don’t know HOW or WHY the succeeded. This will be NO help to people listening if all they hear about is how much money your subject has made, but he or she provides no real content about the process.

4. Your guest must know how to teach. There are people who know their content and then lack the skills to be able to show others how to implement what they have done. I’d also exclude these folks from your audio interview list.

5. As the interviewer, YOU must construct, with your guest’s help, a great outline. Without a great outline BEFORE the interview, your chances for creating a great audio program as an information marketer are virtually nil.

6. As part of your outline you need to create a COMPLETE blueprint of the process you’re describing. So many of the audio programs I review leave things out. The net result is frustration for the listener. They’ve in fact been given ALMOST all of the pieces of the “story” but not quite. Often this is done to try and coerce them into buying the NEXT audio product you sell. BAD IDEA.

7. Additional resources should be provided for further study. When someone is done listening to YOUR audio program, they should know who to go for next. Someone who has an interest in your topic, probably won’t ONLY use YOU as their resource. They will look for other “experts” in the field. Why not introduce them to those folks who you believe are the RIGHT people?

8. Content trumps production quality. Every time! I am amused by how some people, particularly speakers, spend a great deal of time worrying about the editing of an audio program. My line at every seminar or speech I give is always: “people will ALWAYS forgive poor production quality, they will NEVER forgive poor content.” This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about production quality, but don’t obsess about it!

9. Audio interviews should be as long as they need to be. No longer, no shorter. I’ve had people ask me how long an audio interview should be. The answer is IT DEPENDS! It depends on how long it takes you to fully cover the subject matter so that your listener will know exactly what to do next. You’re done when you’ve completed that task. However long it takes.

10. Don’t leave out the basics. Don’t feel that you’re insulting people to start at the very beginning of any topic. Those who already know the elementary parts will listen and pat themselves on the back while they glide through those parts. Make your audio program something that ANYONE can learn from.

If you want to really master your interview technique go to http://conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/ it is just what you are looking for.

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So Dr. Laura used the “N” word on air, it went out without being deleted and now we have her ending her career because of it.  Of course the “N” word is wrong, but the lesson for us as talk show hosts is that we need someone watching over us when we are on air.  Do you have someone watching the delay button?  Well even if you don’t have a staff to watch you on air, you must have a way to pull content before it goes out.  Do not ever record live without this.  Make copies of your shows and edit them before they go live.  Dr. Laura is not the first person to have this happen to and she won’t be the last, but let’s not have that person be you.  Find a way to monitor your shows before they go out.  Your career depends on it.

While we are thinking of your talk show host career, why don’t you go to http://conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/ and sign up for

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Special Report: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Your Audience Size In 30 Days … At Zero Cost!

And receive periodic “Insider Tips For Talk Show Hosts” … loaded with techniques you can use to improve your show and make more money. 

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As a talk show host coach here is something I can’t stress enough. After you have booked your upcoming guest for your talk show, there are a few basics you should cover with the guest.

.Make sure the guest knows where the interview will be, the date and time, and also how long the interview will be.

.Make sure the guest knows the name of the show, your name, the type of show it is, the topic being covered and what you are looking for from the guest.

.Instill in the guest the need to be on time and prepared for the interview.  Make sure they know what material they have to bring, etc.

.Make sure the guest knows the audience and is able to “talk the language of the audience”.

.Make sure you both have complete contact information and have back up contacts for both you and the guest.

.Remind the guest of any dos and don’t s  regarding their performance on the show, such as excessive plugs, etc.

If you enjoyed these tips, you are serious about your talk show career, so go to http://conductknockoutbroadcastinterviews.com/ and sign up for

FREE TO TALK SHOW HOSTS

Special Report: 10 Proven Ways To Increase Your Audience Size In 30 Days … At Zero Cost!

And receive periodic “Insider Tips For Talk Show Hosts” … loaded with techniques you can use to improve your show and make more money. 

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