….thoughts on “The Telephone Interview” - Advice from Prescription Bluegrass

(A guide for recording artists who do radio interviews. . .)

Most of us using the phone today can still remember the cord attached to the wall and in some cases, the phone itself was permanently mounted to the wall. And for those who don't remember it personally, the television images of Andy calling Sara at the phone company to “ring Aunt Bea” are probably enough to know that communication wasn't always this easy.

“Easy,” however doesn't necessarily mean quality or dependability when it comes to a bluegrass artist doing a phone interview with a radio station disc jockey.

Portable cell phones have certainly made a lot of things in life more convenient but the love/hate relationship that has plagued the industry since the beginning is no different or better today than it was then.

Dropped calls, out of range, out of minutes, discounted calling hours and extremely high phone bills due each month are all part of the convenience of having and using a cell phone.

Today's digital technology in the cell phone industry is claimed to be far superior to the old analog, hard-wired phone.  Herein lies the problem.

What they mean by “superior” is not always for the consumer. Today's phones are not truly “Phones” the way we remember or the way Andy used the phone from the sheriff's office in Mayberry.  Those phones were connected with a wire that actually went both ways - like a two way highway for the voice.

Today's cell phones are really classed-up, super-charged, walkie-talkie, two-way radios.  You know all those derrick-like things sprouting up around the landscape as Cell Towers. In the radio industry, we call them “Repeaters” - more proof that the newest “camera” in your pocket that also calls home (or anywhere in the world) is a “radio”. Radio, by it's nature is a One-Way Highway.  The broadcast goes out over the air and you listen but cannot talk back. 

Then we got a little more ingenious and figured out a way for a quasi-Two-Way radio set up to work.  But it required an entirely different protocol - the one where "Roger", "Over", and "Out" punctuate every line of dialog.  It was and still is a life-saver for emergency communications but it lacks a gunny-sack full of qualities that the land-line phones have.

Now the problem with conducting your important interview while using a cell phone is that few of us using cell phones have been properly trained on how to use them. We still think of them as “Phones” because the industry calls them by that name.

Remember the button on the side of the walkie-talkie that you pushed to “talk” and released to “listen”?   Where is that button on your cell phone? Can't find it? That's because technology has found a way to electronically sense which side of the conversation (speak or listen) you are attempting to do. With a radio, you can't do both simultaneously.

The old hard-wired phone was actually two instruments in one. Because of the wire, conversations could travel in both directions and the way the phones were built you could actually speak and listen at the same time. The term for it is called “Duplexing”.

Today's cell phones also have a term. It's called “Simplex”- meaning the phone must perform either transmitter or receiver functions independently.

The result of all of this when it comes down to an artist doing a live interview is something that is very difficult to listen to and follow. What is missing in the conversation is all the little nuance utterances that naturally occur when two people have a conversation. The little ''uh-huhs”, “I see”, oh really” etc. etc. never get into the conversation because the electronic switch between transmit and receive doesn't occur that quickly.

Also, the amount of background noise, room, car, wind, other people talking, etc. can have a disastrous effect on your phone's ability to discern which function you want it to perform. Try a test. Use your cell phone to call someone. With the phone to your ear, ask someone in the car with you or someone across the room from you to speak to the party on the line with you. The microphones in our cell phones are so sensitive that the other party will hear that person just as if you handed the phone over.

Another test you can try will give you an excellent picture of just what a typical listener would hear if you were doing your radio interview using a cell phone. Listen to any radio talk show that takes call-in questions from listeners. Dr. Laura Schlessinger (The Dr. Laura Program) is a very good example because she takes several calls and keeps them fairly short so that you can hear a lot of different examples.

You'll easily be able to spot the cell phone users. The conversation between Dr. Laura and the caller quickly digresses to frustration on both sides because it always seems as if one party is trying to interrupt the other. Each of them is mentally assuming the other doesn't want to hear what they are saying but in reality it is the phone attempting to switch back and forth and back and forth again and again faster than it is capable because the two parties are using it like a phone rather than like a radio.

The way the conversation should sound when using a cell phone is like this:

Dr. Laura:     Hello this is the Dr. Laura Program, you’re on the air, who is    this? OVER

Caller:           Hi Dr. Laura, I’m a first-time caller. OVER

Dr. Laura:     Welcome. OVER

Caller:           I’m nervous. OVER

Instead what you hear when a cell phone is in use sounds more like

…”hello this is Dr. Laur…I’m a first tim…welco...call….excuse me let me finish my sentence before you interrupt…..”

Certainly you don’t want your interview to sound so mechanical that every time you finish a sentence you conclude with the word OVER so the announcer will know to ask the next question.  Nor do you really want an interview that sounds like the frustrated example just mentioned.

So the next time you're planning on doing a radio interview, think about where and what type of equipment will serve you best.

Today's communication plans have left many without any hard-wired phone at all for a home phone. Their cell is all they ever use. If that's the case and you can be at your record label's offices and use a private office with a desk phone...guest what, it's most likely going to be plugged into the wall.  By the way, the land-line phone you have with the walk-about (cordless) handset is the very same thing as a cell phone. The handset transmits and receives to and from the base unit. We've just been fooled because the base unit is plugged into the wall.

Another way to conduct an interview that is getting to be very popular and produces excellent results if used correctly is the Internet's SKYPE service.  It's free but that's material for another day.

With every new convenience we buy into, there is always a trade-off or sacrifice.  Do you want your image and future successes to be sacrificed even to the slightest degree because of a momentary convenience?

Best of luck on all your interviews. 

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