Radio interviews

On monday morning I had the most recent in a series of radio interviews arranged by my publisher. Most of these have been with christian stations of some sort in the US. But this one was for a programme on a secular network, albeit with a christian host. More such interviews are being scheduled, especially for next year, which will see a presidential election south of the border.

By now I am getting a pretty good sense of what makes a good interview and, indeed, a good interviewer. One can expect, of course, that guests on such shows will have varying public speaking skills. Thus a good interviewer will try to make his guest feel as comfortable as possible and to draw out the best from him. Much as a good choral conductor can get a wonderful sound out of mediocre voices, a good interviewer can make a guest who is a relative neophyte sound like an experienced radio personality. This he does simply by asking the right questions -- questions that do not have monosyllabic yes or no answers but lead to further reflection and conversation of interest to the listening audience. He will not shy away from humour and will refrain from taking himself too seriously. And, needless to say, it helps enormously if he has actually read the book the guest has written.

I can tell you that being interviewed by such a person is a great experience. I hope to have more interviews like this in the coming year.