May 7th is a special date, known in the world’s history of science and engineering as radio’s birth day. On this day in 1895, at the meeting of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented and demonstrated the world’s first radio-receiving set created by him, by holding the first radio communication session. Today this date is celebrated by all communications workers.
In South Ural State University SUSU Radio has been working for many years now. The university students participate in its broadcasting organization. The Head of the SUSU Radio training laboratory Yulia Ionova shares what qualities one must have to work in radio broadcasting, and why today radio is more popular than 10 years ago.
– What are your duties at the SUSU Radio?
— I’m helping students learn the basics of radio journalism. Together we form the broadcasting program, learn how to properly edit radio stories, take commentaries, and work with equipment and apparatus. In general what is interesting about working in radio broadcasting is that you form the mood of your audience: the way you mix up your broadcast will influence what portion of energy boost you will pass on to your audience.
– What qualities one must have to work in radio broadcasting?
— If we’re talking about working as a radio DJ, or a radio host, you must be a very cheerful person. The audience must love everything about you: your way of presenting information, your voice, your jokes and your mood. If we’re talking about working as an editor, you must be your own power generator: you will have to need energy to do a million different things simultaneously. Like when you need to write a lead-in for a broadcast, hold negotiations about prizes for an evening show with the company’s partners, and write a weather forecast, etc.
If we’re talking about working as a radio journalist, you must be supersonic. You will have to be in three different places at the same time, know how to work a live broadcast and be a good speaker. And also any radio journalist must have a sense of time. If you don’t fit in a 30 second’s window, the broadcast will continue, but you’ll leave your audience without important information.
– What stations do you listen to?
— I like music radio stations. I think their broadcasting schedule is perfect: they’re entertaining, provide news reports, and you can sing along to your favourite top-chart tracks. I have a sound system at home, and every morning I switch on Nashe Radio station and get ready for work listening to it. I also listen to the same station in my car. If I could create my own radio station, it would have been intended for students. Like our SUSU Radio, only in FM frequency. And I’d like it to feature entertainment, educational content, and contemporary music, of course.
– Why is radio more popular today than 10 years ago?
— I believe that radio is still popular thanks to its incredible capability to quickly adapt to modern demands of the audience. Today everyone uses social networks, so radio stations were fast to engage these channels in communicating with their audience. You don’t have to send expensive messages to a station’s number anymore: all you need is leave your comments under any post on any of its social network’s pages. Radio also quickly adapted to visual form. A video radio format emerged. By the way, it’s really fascinating to watch videos of live radio broadcasts. Try it!