Wise Buddah are proud to manage a first-rate roster combining some of the finest established broadcasters and exciting young talent the UK has to offer.
Jamie Wood, Radio and Voiceover Agent at Wise Buddah Talent has offered an insight into what they look for in a presenter and how presenters can get noticed by Wise Buddah
What catches your ear/what do you look for in a radio presenter demo?
Someone who can instantly connect with the audience and leaves us wanting more. There are a lot of poor demos if I’m being honest. I can’t believe someone would want to showcase the station sound producers power intro as a priority over their own work – most of them are also way too long, people don’t have time to listen to 9 minutes of traffic reports – I tell people if the person you sent your demo to stops it, you’ve lost them. The challenge is to make them get to the end and it leave them wanting more – keep it 2 to 2 and a half minutes absolute max I would say. It’s about blowing us away and being memorable and engaging.
What makes a radio presenter really stand out for you?
Someone with great warmth and fantastic communication. You could be on Capital or Radio 4, completely different radio strategies in every way, but these attributes are vital on any station. The presenter needs to bring their personality to the brief allowed. I remember when I first heard Too Much Gravy with Chris Evans on Radio 1 – it blew me away, I also remember hearing this guy doing the Top 10 chart countdown every week as Elvis on the late night Sunday show on Capital and thinking this guy is class, he was Chris Moyles. Those two presenters bought creativity, fun and entertainment to the air – and that (in music radio circles) is what makes you stand out – I’d love to find someone doing that kind of stuff.
How can people get noticed by Wise Buddah Talent?
Do something out of the box, I encourage a more creative approach to making us first notice talent, we receive a load of emails with various links – ask yourself, how can I make this email stand out as if you do there is more chance of getting interest from it.
Do you actively go looking for new talent in radio?
Yes, we are always keeping an ear for the next radio talent, there are less opportunities now so it’s harder than it was but there are some really talented communicators out there. We no longer look for talent just through listening to radio stations, but also looking in other areas. When the SRA nominations were announced I tried to find audio from every nominee to scope out what the talent was like and if we could grow and we have an eye on the progress of a couple – we monitor You Tube and there are some talented bloggers and internet online stars out there. You can’t wait for the talent to find you and you need to be proactive in looking.
Is there a particular type of radio presenter that you look for?
As radio is such a broad medium, you have to keep an open mind for talent that can sit on all platforms. There are so many people chasing the same pie and you do need something special to stand-out. We have a slightly different view as opposed to a PD as we are also looking for a radio presenter who can grow other areas of their careers through TV and continuity opportunities so we have to take into account that too.