Essential Tips for Successful Interviewing
A Guide to Asking the Right Questions on Radio
Nov 8, 2009
The interviewer is not expected to be an expert or even knowledgable about all the subjects they may have to quiz guests on. Neither are they expected even to hold views on every or indeed any subject under discussion. Considering the amount of subjects and topics a radio presenter may have to talk about in their career and discuss with their guests, to expect them to be familiar with every one of them would require a unusual breadth of knowledge.
Preparation for the Interview
A radio host need not be an expert on every subject they find themselves talking about but there are certain basic preparations a good interviewer will complete before they open the microphone to talk to any guest.
- Research. A basic knowledge of the subject at the very least is essential
- Read the Book. The first question any author interviewed will ask
- Read the Biography. Often supplied
- Listen to the Music. Again any musician or band, will know if the interviewer has or hasn’t
- Ground Work. Even a few minutes spent setting the subject in context is useful
While the presenter may not have time to read all of every book of every author they interview, listen to all the recorded output of every musician, watch every film or play of every actor, the very least a presenter should do is familiarise himself both with the person being interviewed and the subject being discussed.
Ask the Right Questions
The right research will provide a good source of questions and provide the basis for a good and interesting interview. The reverse is obviously equally true. If the presenter expects to interview a subject they know nothing about, the questions will reflect this and the interview will suffer. Finding the right questions to ask will develop from:
- Assume the listener has no knowledge of the subject
- The interviewer should be able to provide an introduction to and explanation of the topic for the casual listener
- The initial question should not be too deep or intricate; the interviewer needs to keep control of the interview
- The first question if too complex may be difficult to follow up
- The questions don’t have to follow events, time may dictate the specific events are passed over
- Responding to issues raised in the conversation will provide additional questions
- Follow up questions will provide further and more in-depth information or explanation.
A good maxim to follow in any interview, and one that helps give the programme or programme insert focus is to think of and ask the questions the listener would want to ask. This will involve carrying out appropriate research on the listeners behalf and then putting this into practice by thinking of appropriate follow up questions.
Sample – Useful and Revealing Questions
Experience will show which questions work best for each individual interviewer and as the interviewer develops their own unique interviewing style over time, they may find some questions more useful and work better for them than others. Here is a sample of some useful questions in different parts of the interview:
- Introductory questions: “Tell me more about,”/ “Talk to me about the first time,”/ and “What were you thinking when?”
- In-depth questions: “What do you mean by?”/ “Do you really mean to say...?/ “Can you simplify that for the listener?”/ “Can you sum that up quickly?”
- And to finish the interview: “Essentially what are you saying?”/ “What does the future hold for you?” /and “If you want us to remember one thing what would it be?”
And the Best question of them all is always “Why ?”
The Listeners Questions.
Every interviewer will tell you the one question to keep out of the interview is the closed question. The question that can only really be answered ‘Yes,’ or ‘No.’ A really good interview will flow more like a conversation that the listener is part of, albeit on the sideline, where the interviewer is asking the questions on the listener’s behalf.
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