Morning Shows How do I become a damn good radio host?
Who Is Chatting?
Susanne Papawassiliu is a broadcast journalist who works in television and radio, mostly for the German networks RBB and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. She lives in Berlin. Esther Ciammachilli lives in Washington D.C. and is the local host of Morning Edition on WAMU 88.5. She presents local news updates from the WAMU and DCist news teams.-
Hi, my name is Susanne Papawassiliu and I’ve been doing radio since 2005. I started with my own little jazz music show called “The Voice”, in honour of Frank Sinatra, at our regional public broadcaster, rbb (Radio Berlin Brandenburg). It is still running today. At the moment, I host the morning shows as well as our afternoon shows. Those are the two most relevant times for information during the day: 6 to 10 am and 4 to 8 pm. During the other hours the programme is mostly music related.
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“The Voice” is a good name for a show about Sinatra.
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“The Voice” is such a great little gem. It used to be a daily show of only half hour. Now it runs once a week for an hour. I love it because I learn so much about all this great music out there. How about you?
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My name is Esther Ciammachilli (pronounced CHAH-mah-KEE-LEE) and I’ve been in public radio for ten years. I started in radio when I went back to college. I was in my 30s and had just come from a decade-long career singing and acting in Las Vegas. Note to kids: Radio is a good job for any singers/actors looking to make a mid-life career change.
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You can sing, that’s amazing!! So funny, I wanted to do just about anything with radio, because during my 1,5 year internship people told me that I had a good voice. And it is true, I have a good radio voice, but I absolutely cannot sing. Or I can, but it doesn’t sound good :)
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I got a paid internship at Reno Public Radio, the station was on my college campus. From there I got a full-time job as the local afternoon host. The rest is history. I’ve been a host ever since. I’ve also done a lot of reporting.
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That’s a big difference here, at least at public radio stations. I’d say we are all freelancers. Which is great but also … not so great. Especially once people get older. But so far I’ve managed ok and am so happy to be doing what I’m doing.
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Yeah, freelance work isn’t the best. Very unpredictable, unstable. But the media landscape in the U.S. is under a lot of stress at the moment. Several agencies are having to make cuts to staff and rely more on freelance workers.
As a host, what do you do, do you interview people? Take phone calls? Read the news?
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I love to have live guests in the studio. But we also do a lot of phone interviews, especially in the morning, because not many people are up to be present in the studio around 7 or 8 am. :) I have another job where I read the news on air at a different station and I also work as a tv producer or reporter sometimes.
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Do you still get to listen to and play music on the radio?
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We have loads of music during our show. Mostly classical, but there’s been more and more exceptions. Singer songwriter and some jazz are now being played during the day, also because a lot of classical musicians are venturing out more, which is really cool. The whole approach to classical music has changed tremendously over the last years. Which is also why I feel a lot more comfortable with it now, compared to when I started. I can totally see myself at the beginning and how intimidated I was by the music I knew nothing of. At some point I started to relax and just be myself. I think this is the only way to survive as a radio host anyway.
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Classical music is very intimidating to me. There’s so many artists and so much music out there. It’s one of those genres that some people get very passionate about and if you make a mistake and mislabel a piece of music someone will tell you – and sometimes not in a nice way.
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Absolutely. Now, if I make a “mistake”, I don’t mind that much anymore.
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I wish I could play music on the radio. It was a short-lived dream of mine as a child to be a radio DJ. I wanted to work at an 80s alternative station and play music like Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths, Nena (99 Luftballons)!
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As a child I listened to radio almost 24/7. It was my dream to do that early on. But for a long time never thought I could. I started pretty late with my internship. I was already over 30.
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I’m glad your dream came true! And I was also in my 30s when I started a radio internship. We have a lot in common.
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Can you still see the beginner Esther and the radio personality that you are now?
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I definitely can. I have always been a little performer and a drama queen. That will never go away. I’ve found a way to make my now life path as a radio host my “stage.”
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Tell me more about your radio work, do you interview a lot of people and what are the topics?
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My job is all news, all the time! I do quite a lot of interviews with people from all walks of life: authors, ministers, politicians, other journalists. And we mostly talk about current events. Occasionally I will get to do a feature story.
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He he, cool! I sometimes manage to sneak a joke into the programme. It is normally so very serious. But I like to find humour in most things. Of course, only in small doses.
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I tell lots of jokes! But I am very strategic about a funny comment on the air. As you know, the news isn’t always funny. But when there are opportunities to be funny, I seize the day. And our listeners really respond well to it. They send me thoughtful emails and they donate lots of money because of my jokes.
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That’s awesome!! You are a star! You know, not long ago in Germany pop music and classical music was divided in “U-Musik” as for Unterhaltung (Entertainment) and “E-Musik”, Ernste Musik (as for serious music, no nonsense!!). I think this resulted in classical music stations sounding very very earnest and important. Luckily this has changed.
What do you find most challenging when on air?
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The most challenging thing for me is keeping it together when the news is absolutely tragic. Sadly, in the U.S. there are often tragic stories about things like mass shootings. The Uvalde, Texas, elementary school story was very difficult for me. I got choked up a few times on the air. Once I cried openly. I still feel weird about dropping my supposed journalistic stoicism and being vulnerable on the air, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone else. Many listeners sent me messages and said they were crying with me. It was really comforting to hear.
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I bet that that’s difficult. But it’s great that you take the liberty to be yourself and show your emotions. There’s always this fine balance, right? The journalistic stoicism and the person that is affected by the news as well. I remember the day when I was on air and the night before Russia started the war against Ukraine. I didn’t really know how to be. I was in shock, scared and at the same time in an auto-pilot moment. But then I found my way and we had lots of interviews that morning.
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How would the German audience react if you were to break down and cry or just get emotional on the air?
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I don’t know. I think it would be too intimate for most listeners. I think it also depends if something affects you in your personal life or if you’re shaken by a public tragedy/disaster. If I wouldn’t really break down, but maybe just had some tears and difficulties swallowing, it would be ok. On the other hand, these unforeseeable things also make the job so exciting. Not to say that I love disaster.
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I understand what you mean. The unexpected is part of what makes our jobs interesting.
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What do you think, what makes a host/presenter great, or the difference between good and outstanding? I’m not sure what it is, but I think it might be the mixture of authenticity and some sort of knowledgeability (is that a word?) that feels original and not just learned for the moment. Also, the ability to be honest if someone on air isn’t an expert and asks the same questions that I as a listener would like to be answered. On top of that maybe if you’re spontaneous and don’t sound like you’re reading a script.
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This makes perfect sense. I agree that authenticity is a definite must have in a good radio host. I think listeners can spot someone who is not being genuine. They can also tell when a host doesn’t understand the topic they’re discussing with a guest. In a “highly educated” area like Washington D.C. being informed on the topic is very important. There are so many people in high profile jobs here who will jump at the chance to correct a host when they hear a mistake. But I think the number one thing that makes a good radio host is the ability to actively listen. You have to really pay attention to everything that a guest is saying and respond to it.
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Exactly, the listening thing! When I do radio live interviews usually someone “prepares” me for it and provides me with possible questions. I think it’s good to have some sort of direction where you’re going, but if you just stick to the script it won’t be a good interview. Do you have to prepare everything yourself?
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Yes! We also have producers/editors who prepare scripts and give them to the hosts before we record. I always read through those scripts first to make sure the introduction is in my “voice” and it makes sense for what the conversation is about. When I prepare my own interviews, I always pass that copy to the assigned producer/editor so that they can check me. I think another good aspect of a host is setting aside any ego you may have about your writing, questions, suggested topic of conversation and listening to what the editor has to say. Just because we are hosts doesn’t mean we are perfect. Far from it. I speak from experience. There have been times in the past where I’ve felt very precious about the words I’ve written and an editor has disagreed. Sometimes they’re right. It can be a tough pill to swallow, but it builds humility. This also answers the “what’s a big no-no for a moderator” question too. Don’t be an egomaniac!
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Oh yeah, I agree. Do you have an embarrassing moment you would share? :)
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I get embarrassed when I mispronounce a name that most people are familiar with but I’m not. I’ve mispronounced names and words several times. I think public radio listeners expect every host to be a genius who speaks multiple languages. Yeah, that’s not me. I’ve also pushed the wrong button a time or two and had recorded elements play out of turn.
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I also have little things, like stating the wrong time, always a risk with me. For example: It’s 4.20, 20 minutes to 4 :-D
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Yes! That clock is not always your friend! I think people give us an early birds pass on that.
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For foreign names we have a pronunciation database that grows constantly. But sometimes, even if I check the name five times, it comes out wrong.
There was a listener once, many years ago that complained that I would mispronounce my name …
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Mispronounce your own name?!
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Yup. Papawassiliu. In Greek you would pronounce it, well, more at the end. He was right, but since I grew up with a certain German pronunciation and we don’t live in Greece, I stick to my somewhat germanised version.
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My father was born and raised in the U.S., and I didn’t realize that we had been pronouncing *my* last name wrong most of my life. The correct Italian pronunciation is CHAH-mah-KEE-LEE. My father says SEE-ama-CHILLI. We can’t help where and how we were raised. But I’ve been using the Italian pronunciation for more than 20 years.
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What do you love about our job?
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What I love most is the connections I get to make with people. I’ve always been very outgoing and friendly, so having a job where I talk to people all the time is perfect for me. And I like the team I work with. In the morning I work with a producer and an engineer, and we are like a little crew, we take care of each other.
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Ok, what I love about my job: I get to work in a team and every day there’s something new to talk about. I get to speak to so many interesting people, that satisfies my natural curiosity. There’s so many subjects that we cover and I’m good at getting curious about so many things. Actually you need to, like get excited or very interested yourself in the subjects you talk about. Also, I can bring my personality into so many things. I am more a spontaneous person and therefore being on air is perfect, because you also have to be spontaneous. Also, it pays well :)
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I was the only person in my college journalism program that didn’t want to be on TV. I wanted to do radio and nothing else.
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I used to do a lot of TV, still do sometimes. But radio is my first and biggest love. On the other hand, being on air also puts you on the spot a lot. If I make mistakes or people are unhappy with my presentation there’s always this thing of being judged. And since I work as a freelancer there’s always the question: how long can I keep doing this?
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I enjoy the live aspect of radio hosting. There’s something exhilarating about it. As an actor, I equate it to being in a play. When you are acting on stage, you get one chance to get it right, the pressure becomes like a drug.
And I also really enjoy the opportunities radio provides to use language to describe a place, an action, a scene. With TV there’s no need to use our imaginations. But with radio, as Norman Corwin, a writer for CBS TV/Radio back in the day said, “the pictures are better.”
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And I also really enjoy the opportunities radio provides to use language to describe a place, an action, a scene. With TV there’s no need to use our imaginations. But with radio, as Norman Corwin, a writer for CBS TV/Radio back in the day said, “the pictures are better.”
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We call it “Kino im Kopf”, like you create film in people’s heads.
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YES! That’s what WE do. You and I! We are the creators of “Kino im Kopf.”
