As a DJ, you are judged by what you say as well as how you say it. The first thing you need to work on is your voice. This is not to say that you have to create a fake voice to use on the air that sounds like some used-car ad on late-night TV; it simply means that you need to analyze how you speak and make adjustments that will make listening to you more pleasurable to your audience.

            NASAL VOWELS: We in the Midwest pride ourselves on not having any accent at all compared to people in the South or the East. Sorry to destroy your illusions, but if you were born and raised in Illinois, you DO have an accent, the most pronounced feature of which is the tendency to drive your vowels right through your nose. This gives your voice a brittle, harsh tone that will be accentuated when it’s broadcast and sent through cheap car speakers. You don’t need to go through major voice alterations; just watch your short A and long I sounds: Practice saying, "I like lightning and limes, but Andy and Ann have allergies to apples and hats." Okay, you can make up your own sentences to practice.

            VOCALIZED PAUSES: This is a biggie for a radio broadcaster. Sounds technical, but all vocalized pauses refers to is the tendency for people to insert needless words or sounds in the middle of their sentences instead of pausing in silence. You still might not know what they are, but have you ever listened to someone who couldn’t speak more than four words without sticking in "you know," "like," or "uh"? Isn’t it annoying? Figure out what words or sounds you use for vocalized pauses, and work to limit and eliminate them from your speech patterns. This will do you good as a speaker in all aspects of your life, so this practice will benefit you in much more than just radio broadcasting.

            PACE: Too fast is much worse than too slow, but we will work to find the happy medium.

            PITCH: CHANGE IT! No one wants to listen to someone speaking in a monotone unless he wants to fall asleep. The good DJ’s sound like they’re having a conversation with their listeners—clear, informal, friendly, with the normal ups and downs in pitch that we all speak with.

            VOLUME: You’ll need to practice with the equipment to figure out just how loudly or softly to speak. Some of you will have to tone it down while others will need to turn it up. Your distance from the microphone will also have a great impact on this, so work to maintain a consistent distance so your volume also remains consistent.

            That’s pretty much it—it’s not much more complicated than that when it comes to your voice. Speak clearly, without nasal vowels or vocalized pauses, at a pace comfortable for your audience with variation in your pitch and a good volume and you’ll be all set.