Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend some time at the RTNDA Professional Development weekend up in Saskatoon. It's always a great chance to chat with people who are real pros in the news game and to come away with good ideas.
Richard Brown was one of the featured presenters. Richard has worked in some of the largest broadcast newsrooms in North America, and has anchored major market television newscasts in New York, Toronto, San Fransisco and several other metros. He was also an overseas correspondent for a time, and among his away winning stories was coverage of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that saw some 800,000 killed.
Richards career has come full circle. He's back in radio in his home province of Saskatchewan and enjoying every minute of it. He shared some wonderful reminders of what makes news work on the radio, online, and in the lives of our listeners and viewers.
Some of them, in no particular order....
- Respect yourself. Dress well, take care of your health, educate yourself constantly and be a professional 24/7.
- Practice. Delivering news online and the on air is a craft. Strive to be a better writer and presenter every day.
- Tell stories, don't read them.
- The best stories connect to people on an emotional level. A flood is not just about rising water levels and road closures. . It's about people fighting back against the water....it's about the spirit of volunteerism...it's about the expectant mother who takes a 45 minutes detour to get to the hospital to deliver her baby....you get the idea.
- Raw sound is powerful in radio news. Rushing water, planes roaring overhead or the laughter of children all add to their particular stories.
- It's about the audience.
- Click here for an inside look at a reporter who works hard at the craft of telling stories.
