Al's Morning Meeting

Every time CBS 2 in Chicago digs a little deeper, it finds more broken fire hydrants.

I told you about the station's earlier investigation that found cracked, sealed and dry hydrants. The more the station looked, the more it found. Some of the hydrants have not worked for months.

Over the last year I have seen many such stories around the country. I have seen investigation like this in Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Detroit; Philadelphia; and Toronto.

Sometimes people get so frustrated, they post photos on public Web sites like Flickr.

Check with your fire department to see how many times it has told the public works in your town about hydrants that do not pass inspection.

As I look out my office window, I see a big construction crane. There are several dotting the Tampa Bay area skylines. And so it is nationwide -- while the home construction market is cool, the commercial market is hot, hot, hot. As a result, there is a national -- in fact, international -- shortage of construction cranes and crane operators.

The shortage of crane operators is only projected to grow worse. The Associated Press moved a story that says:

"Nobody's son is getting into it anymore," Bentley said. "The average conventional operator in our area is probably in his late 50s."

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers has taken to providing high school students with information and scholarships in construction. The Milwaukee-based group estimates the construction industry will need to add a total of 1 million jobs by 2012.

Look at this site, which tries to track skyscrapers worldwide.

In North America, I am not surprised that New York is No. 1 with the most skyscrapers and that Toronto is second and Chicago is third. Having visited Vancouver, British Columbia, over the weekend, I am not surprised it is fourth on the list.

How to Improve Your Voice (Even if You Hate Your Voice)

There is one thing that now binds just about all journalists, now that print people are "doing audio" online. Just about all of us, it seems, are unhappy with the quality of our recorded voice. I hear it all the time from newspaper people who now are producing podcasts. Radio and TV people struggle to "find their voice" too.

Some days I feel that my voice is in fabulous shape, and other days I crackle like a teenage boy. That's why I contacted Dr. Ann Utterback.

In her 35 years as a voice specialist, she has rescued many a struggling journalist; in fact, her entire practice is limited to journalism. She has written eight books on voice and delivery. She even offers voice coaching over the phone. I interviewed her by e-mail, however, so she would focus on my questions and not spend her energy analyzing my voice.

Aren't some people just born with great voices and others with crappy voices? There is nothing I can do about my tonal quality, right?

I would answer "yes" to the first part of this question if we had a time machine and could go back to the beginning days of broadcasting. That was the era of the great booming voices like Lowell Thomas and Edward R. Murrow. But that was a long time ago, and on-air delivery has changed enormously since then. What we want to hear on the air now are comfortable communicators. If you flip through the channels during a news hour, you'll hear voices that range from higher pitched to lower, richer to fuller, and softer to louder, and they're all making a living as news broadcasters. I define a good broadcast voice as "a healthy voice that enhances meaning." Now that's not to say that you can't work to make your voice sound better. I've helped people do that for over 30 years, and I've heard amazing improvements. But the goals have changed from the early days of broadcasting, and they continue to change with Internet webcasting.

I have an accent. It sounds fine when I am just talking with people, but when I hear it in a recording, it sounds awful. How do I overcome it?

WRITING FOR RADIO

Series by Al Tompkins: "Veteran Radio Reporter Shares Secrets to Writing Short" "Sound for the Eyes: Writing Visually for Audio" "When Old Radio Dogs Learn to Use Pics"

Anything about your voice that is distracting needs to be corrected before you go on air. An accent that is severe can break down meaning for the listener. Accent reduction work is a slow process, but it can work. I suggest you check with speech pathologists or speech or drama departments at universities to see if they have someone on staff who works in the accent reduction area.

If I can't afford to hire a voice coach, how can I get better? Are there exercises, DVDs or books that you recommend?

There are several books that can help you improve your voice. I contributed to a book titled "Sound and Look Professional on Television and the Internet," by Michelle McCoy. This book is a great place to start if you want to improve your voice. My book "Broadcast Voice Handbook" is devoted to every aspect of voice and includes many exercises. I wrote it in such a way that it works as a self-help manual. It's used in newsrooms and universities across the country.

I have heard you say that people often try to read sentences out loud that are too long. How long is too long?

One of the main misconceptions many people have is that writing for broadcast is the same as writing for print. They are really two different animals. In print, we use clauses, phrases, compound and complex sentences freely. If you want to stifle comfortable conversation, continue using these. Would you ever say to a friend, "Having parked in front of your house, I walked, slowly at first, up to your door"? Surely not. In conversation, we talk in short sentences that are usually simply constructed with subject, verb, object and have no more than one idea per sentence. We might say, "I parked in front of your house. I walked slowly up to your door." This may not seem as appealing in print, but try saying it. You'll find that it flows much better. If you want to learn more about conversational writing, check out Mervin Block's "Dozen Deadly Sins" in his book "Writing Broadcast News -- Shorter, Sharper, Stronger." One of his dozen focuses is on "Using Newspaper Constructions" and can help broadcasters who come from print backgrounds make the transition to broadcast writing.

As a voice coach, you often talk about stress. What's the connection?

For the voice to work effectively, relaxation is the key. Because the voice depends on various muscles in the body, it reflects the degree of tension a person is experiencing. A tense body will produce a tense voice. Can't you always tell when a friend is tense by the sound of his or her voice? Keeping your body relaxed and your life balanced will actually make you a better broadcaster. I work with clients on keeping their voices healthy by eating well, exercising and finding time to relax.

I have heard you talk about eating or drinking before cutting audio. What's that about?

Two things are involved here. First, you want to have eaten within an hour or two of your on-air time. With news broadcasters, I often hear horror stories of making it through the whole day on a couple of cups of coffee. That won't cut it, because if your blood sugar has taken a dip, your mental, visual and motor skills also drop off. It's almost impossible to do a good live shot for television, for example, if you have only had those two cups of coffee. The combination of the caffeine and the low blood sugar will affect your ability to stay focused. The second point I often make is to stay away from dairy products for a few hours before air time. Dairy tends to increase the mucus in our bodies, specifically in the throat. You may find yourself clearing your throat on the air if you consume dairy. What you do want to do is drink lots of water. Water is the best way to keep your throat healthy (except for not smoking). I suggest clients drink at least half their body weight in ounces of water daily.

Does it matter if I am standing or sitting when I cut audio?

It will be easier to breathe if you stand. You can still sit, though, if you sit up straight and slightly away from the back of the chair with both feet flat on the floor. You want to be able to breathe all the way around your chest area, even in the back. If you're slumping in a chair or pressing your back against the chair, it will inhibit this full breathing.

When you think of a "great voice," who do you think of?

I don't think so much about "great voices" as I do about "great communicators." Peter Jennings was one of the best because he always made you feel that he was talking right to you alone. That's the goal I set for my clients. They should sound so comfortable and conversational that every member of the audience thinks it's a personal interaction between them and the broadcaster. As I explained in the first question, gone are the days of staid broadcasters. What we want now are comfortable communicators. This is especially true of the Internet. If I'm watching you on my cell phone at Starbucks, I want to hear you speaking as if you are sharing a latte with me, not as if you are announcing something to an audience.

Is there anything you can do to make me sound like James Earl Jones?

I hope you see now that that's not the goal. But one thing you can copy from James Earl Jones is his complete focus on what he's saying. When he says, "This is CNN," he's so completely connected to what he's saying that it has amazing vocal energy. I often use him as an example of someone who has the best vocal energy I've ever heard. He doesn't achieve this by talking loudly or fast or with lots of pitch changes. Vocal energy is not cheerleader or used-car-salesman energy. It's focus and passion for what you're saying. That you can learn.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.