Interviews
As a freelance journalist, Iain supplies news and interviews to radio and TV networks as well as printed and online media. He can be available at most times to get news stories out.
Skype has proved to be the way to get great-sounding live and recorded interviews broadcast from distant cities, towns, villages and, in one notable case, a sheep shed on South Uist. Most people have it on a computer in the house – even if they’ve never bothered to use it properly. Most kids use it. Yet, even when it’s installed, too few people think of setting up their Skype properly – even when they have excellent microphones.
“My Skype is not very good” usually means it has not been set up properly. Get someone with experience to do it and check the microphone or webcam is up to the job. Nine-year-old are especially good at this.
Why do Skype interviews with some people get on the air but not interviews with other articulate people? The reason is usually technical. Radio stations want good quality sound whenever possible. They can only get that if the contributor uses a good quality webcam or microphone.
You may have a laptop with a good built-in webcam already. Try it. However, not all built-in mics are of good quality. Test your own mic, headset or webcam at http://www.recordmenow.tk to see if it plays back clearly.
Be sensible. Don’t rely on a cheap and nasty stalk microphone for under £7 from eBay. The sound quality will be dire. However, you can buy a perfectly good Sennheiser headset for £15 or a Logitech C270 HD webcam for under £20 on some websites. Or just ask your local computer shop to recommend one.
Skype username : radio-interviews
Online recorder : http://www.recordmenow.tk
