What's the one habit that makes a host sound radio without gear, mic technique, breathing, plosive angle, or just talking 20% slower? It's 11% slower.
ASKED BY · Paul Valhus · AUSTIN, TEXAS · 16 SEP 2026 · ▶ 00:23:20
Being a good broadcaster requires skill that can be learned; it's like exercising a muscle, requiring practice and development over time, though some people have natural advantages.
Energy and compelling delivery matter as much as proximity; good broadcasting requires engaging the listener, not just technical proximity that can sound monotonous like NPR-style close miking.
Discussed proximity effect with directional microphones; demonstrated how getting close to a mic boosts low frequencies, and how the Shure SM57 allows closer proximity than the SM58 due to its exposed diaphragm.
The key habit is practice; without practicing their speaking style, people won't naturally develop the sound regardless of technical skill with mic technique or polar patterns.
Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.
From the transcript.
Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.
22:56different ways. And with Mukana and the backend chat, this show is a totally different experience. And I would highly recommend you get involved and learn how to do that. Now, Alexander, let's go to the next question. All right. This question is coming in from Paul Valhus in Austin, Texas. What's the one habit that makes a host sound radio without gear, mic technique, breathing, plosive angle, or just talking 20% slower?
23:23It's 11% slower. And Alexander, your thoughts? so this is just being a good presenter being a dj what you call being on the radio that requires some level of talent but also skill that can be learned over the years of just exercising your voice it's a muscle like anything else put in your 10 000 hours as they say and you and you
23:46will become better but uh yes microphones audio all that matters to a degree but what we're talking about here is just a skill that you build up. Some people just naturally have these big voices, right? Naturally, like, you know, my friend Mitch Hill has that kind of voice, but also he developed that over the years too. And now he can't get rid of it. And he always threatens, he always
24:14threatens, don't make me use my radio voice. And I always joke, you know, I'm sure you use that voice to book a good table at a restaurant right so it's skilled Jeff Francis definitely skill dealing with plosives but since we're audio day let's remember proximity effect we have a directional mic and we get very close to it you notice I'm talking quieter because I don't want
24:37to make the game go up but you should hear a boost in the low frequencies of my voice and this is because directional mics have a thing called proximity effect we look at our friend, the beta 57, notice the change in the low frequencies there as you move from two feet away to two inches to one inch to extremely close to the diaphragm. This is actually one of the things
24:59that is most different between the 58 and the 57 is you can get closer to a 57 than you can to a 58 because the 58 has a grill on it. You cannot get right up against the diaphragm of a 58 without removing that grill so you can get additional proximity effect as you see Mickey removing the grill of a 58 and now it looks like a 57 question but really
25:25close question how close is the 57 to the 58 minus the grill very close okay Yeah. Jeff Francis. I mean, sorry, Mickey. I'm doing this all out of order. I'd say one habit, practice. Again, so many, just like the previous question, it's not really a technical thing. It's a skill thing. If they don't know how, like with the previous one, if they don't know how to record themselves properly or perform properly, you'll have,
26:03you know, a bad recording. Same with this. If the person, no matter what, you know, technical skill they build up, be it mic technique or, or pickup pattern, polar patterns, whatever, working, working the mic, if they don't actually practice their, their speaking, whether, whatever style it may be, be it what you call a sound sounding radio. If they don't practice that, then they're not going to get that sound and make it sound natural and just a second nature to them.
26:40So I'd say practice. And Jeff Cohen. I think there's really two parts to that. One, what Jeff Francis said, of course, is that sometimes we come in here, but just because we get close and we get this doesn't mean we're all the way there because now what we're doing is really kind of more NPR. So we're really close, but we're talking like this that would put anyone to sleep in two seconds.
27:08But energy is really what it's all about. That's the other thing is just the energy of the person. Are they compelling you to keep listening because the next thing they're going to say is so exciting? And that's part of it. I'll tell you, as an aside, two phrases that I hate. We're using a radio mic or I'm using my radio voice. I just hate those phrases.