Broadcast Voice Handbook: How to Polish Your on Air Delivery (Audio Cassette) [Audio Cassette]

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• ISBN-10: 9992905921
• ISBN-13: 978-9992905920
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,828,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Improved speaking skills - not just for broadcasters, June 22, 2003

By 

Karen Chung (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Broadcast Voice Handbook (Hardcover)

This book came highly recommended over the Voice & Speech Trainers Association list, Vastavox, so it seemed like a pretty good bet.

It has turned out to be an extremely useful and practical guide for me not just in improving how I sound over the radio, but also in teaching oral presentation skills and phonetics to university-level EFL learners.

Utterback starts with the basics, namely, how to breathe correctly, i.e. with the diaphragm. From there she proceeds to health, diet and lifestyle issues, e.g. stay away from caffeine and cigarettes; don't strain your vocal cords by coughing, clearing your throat, or yelling at sports events; and don't ruin your voice by trying to artificially lower your pitch.

Next is resonance, how to improve it, and how to correct problems like nasality (a sticky issue for many of us Mid-Westerners). The chapter on articulation includes an introduction to basic articulatory phonetics, and word lists to identify problem areas, with suggestions on what to watch out for and how to fix it.

I especially appreciated the chapter on stress and intonation, since I feel this is at the heart of good speaking, whether in ordinary conversation, as an EFL learner, or when broadcasting over radio or TV. I am adopting the idea of script marking, which I had been doing to some extent anyway, in my teaching of EFL learners, who really need to pre-read a text before reading it aloud, or they will make all their same old habitual mistakes again and again.

The chapter on 'Sounding conversational' also provided an important direction to work on. I hear lots of broadcasters getting it right, i.e. reading prepared copy as though they were just ad libbing it to a friend, something much harder to do than one might think. This chapter gives many practical suggestions on how to sound warmer and more natural when reading.

The chapters on going live and dealing with stress were useful, especially the part on how to deal with stalkers. You become a relatively public kind of person once you're on radio or TV, and this sometimes brings unwelcome attention. I now feel a bit better prepared to deal with it.

Most chapters have practical exercises at the end, like warm-ups to get you going before speaking or going on the air, which I will be coming back to frequently.

Two appendices containing survey data and advice from news directors for prospective broadcasters were informative, though repetitive - I guess this serves to emphasize that there is considerable consensus on what is really important. Finally, the last two appendices contain word lists for identifying problem phonemes and difficult-to-pronounce words. (For the latter, an online or CD-ROM dictionary with sound files is a real convenience, and much more explicit than the ad hoc pronunciation symbols used in US dictionaries.)

This book contains no frills or fluff, just lots of what you really need to know to learn to speak and read better and more engagingly. It's an incredible bargain compared to hiring a voice coach, who would certainly spend most of his or her paid time telling you what can be found in this book, and you have it as a permanent reference besides.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book that is Needed, November 5, 2000

By 

david mccoy (Cleveland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broadcast Voice Handbook (Hardcover)

Finally, a book that focuses on broadacst voice! Many reporters and prospective anchors have finished school with good writing skills, but they are not polished in vocal production or delivery. Utterback's book is a "must have" for journalism schools and news rooms throughout the country. If people are serious about getting into this profession, this book will be a resource for a lifetime. Whether it's proper breathing, script marking or delivery styles, Utterback's book enables journalists to master the skills of the craft.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, March 9, 2007

By 

Robin Cartwright (Carlisle, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Broadcast Voice Handbook: How to Polish Your On-Air Delivery (Hardcover)

This book is the assigned text for a course I'm taking in broadcast performance. While some of the chapter material is a little dry, it's still pretty useful and the exercises are excellent for warm-up and practice. It's very good advice and help for the price.