Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. You're joined by journalists Sophie and Amy Torbert for a special episode we've decided to call Confessions of a TV Reporter. Now. For those who are OG listeners, you'll know we started our careers in the media before launching our public relations firm, the PR Bible, and we do get asked a lot of questions about what it is really like to be a TV reporter, So we thought we'd address some of our favorite questions
we've got along the way. I mean, I always get asked how you and I actually got into the industry, and people might be surprised to know our parents are teachers, so we didn't have any sort of uncle or AUNTI your parent that was involved in the media, which really.
Doesn't help you out, does it. No, it doesn't.
So we all studied a journalism degree and did a master's in journalism as well, and basically just hit up every news station, every newspaper to get work experience whilst we were at UNI, And for those who are at UNI, it really is worth it because that's the only way you can, you know, gain those connections.
They're going to get your foot in the door.
Well, the big connection that helped me get my foot in the door was the fact that I happened to play tennis alongside one of the Channel ten reporters, and that was because we actually, Kate, soph and I. We actually got invited to do some work at ten after a news industry night, so we started writing the weather and my favorite thing to do was there was a button where you could change the weather to snow. That was never ever used because it doesn't snow in Adelage,
but that was the best. But yeah, I joined the ten tennis team and one of the lovely reporters tipped me off that there was a job going at Today tonight and I should put my hand up for it as a sort of producer slash researcher role. Yeah, and you were saying before we were invited in for work experience, and that was because our group actually won the news night.
So it does pay off to really put in the hard yards at UNI because we put together each a different news story, a TV news story, and that's when all of the industry leaders were basically the judging who they liked the best.
So luckily we went. It was like.
Australian idol that judging Panawa. They did not hold back, did they. I remember one guy I got told he was Wooden and then his last name was wood I mean he is now working in the industry and doing very well.
So it doesn't always tore people to shreds.
It was, oh, your voice isn't good, you don't look good on camera. So that is something in journalism you do have to have a very very thick skin. One of our big breaks, I suppose you call it, while we're at UNI was doing sa NFL, which is a South Australian football league for those who don't know. So we did sports reporting for them, and I think they thought it was a little bit of a gimmick, the fact that it was three girls and the fact that we were triplets.
And I remember, you know, we.
Were so excited when they said that we could do the match reporting and then they made us pose in this photo of us or looking out at the game, and it was so embarrassing. But I remember you and Kate being quite shocked when you guys reported on your first game. You've got to tell everybody what happened when you went into the chains. The chain drooms can be a very daunting place to go into, especially for a female.
Kate and I walked in to interview the coach and literally all the players were just in the nude and you just felt like the biggest perv and it was really uncomfortable. I mean we were probably twenty one twenty two, and you get the vibe that everyone thinks that you want to be in there, and like, really, I since the age of seventeen, I wanted to be a sports journalist and have changed my mind obviously along the way, but I really loved football and I really wanted to
be taken seriously. So it was quite a confronting situation when people think that you are there just to talk to the players or gork at the players. We're talking about confronting situations. I remember my sort of first real journalism job, and that was at a current Affairs style program and I remember walking in and I got sent straight into a meeting and it was just everything you think it's going to be. It was hilarious. I had
so much fun in this meeting. They were talking about cookie diet and all this kind of stuff like neighbors from Hell, and I was just licking my lips. I was like, Wow, this is so interesting. And I remember I got sent out with one of the reporters and I had to put a hidden camera in my bag
because we were doing a sting on this. I'm sure people remember at Studio two thousand, remember they used to hand out you know, flyers and you could apparently get a free shoot, but the photos turned out being really expensive. So remember the first few weeks I got sent out undercover to do a shoot with Studio two thousand, and they did your hair and makeup. It was humiliating, like they made us look like dead set idiots. Isn't that just what you would picture in a current affair style
program to be like? It lived up to every expectation hearing about your first day did. I genuinely had so much fun there. Though it was a good environment to learn a lot. My entrance into my big break was a bit longer than yours.
I did a lot of shit kicker jobs.
I think that people think the second you step in the door at a TV station, you're going to be on TV. I did the really long route. I did AUTOQ for many years. I listened to scanners early on Saturday mornings. I basically did everything just to get my job and finally get noticed. And a lot of it did come from if anyone is out there trying to get their break, is you've really got to start coming up with your own story ideas and just really pitching
and talking to the boss. I used to be so scared about Boss Terry, who we actually work with now and who I absolutely adore, But it's just breaking down those barriers and making those connections.
Oh, definitely.
Another question that we get asked a lot is about the industry's focus on appearance and whether there are any guidelines, And there are heaps of guidelines out there, so there are so many. There's a style guide, so a number of networks I've been out, they've had specifically outlined what colors you're allowed to wear, what jewelry you know is actually pretty much no jury.
You're allowed to wear hairstyles. I remember.
I remember at one TV station I worked out, there was an ongoing joke that the boss only liked women with blonde bobs because literally all the women on staff had blonde bobs. And luckily for me, my hair was a blonde bob at the time, so it was quite good.
Well, when I was on my Cadet Chip.
We actually had a whole class that was a makeup class that was actually really cool. So one of the makeup artists who does all the news presenters makeup came and spoke to us and she even showed the men
how to put makeup on, which was pretty funny. Like they've got this eyebrow gel that they have to smooth their eyebrows with, and a lot of the hard core male journals will actually wear foundation and a bit of powder over the top, which is I must admit, it was pretty hilarious to watch them put it on because.
They love it. I think they really get into it.
And as a man, you're also if you're out on the road and you've got a beautiful pair of pants with pockets, you're not allowed to put a phone in those pockets because you cannot crease those pants. Despite them never really being on camera. Well, I absolutely love makeup, so for me, I found it really fun every day to do my makeup really nicely. But you know it is for those who love the more casual look. It
can be quite daunting. If anyone listening is preparing to be interviewed on TV or is actually wanting to be a journalist, you do have to wear really over the top makeup because the camera just really washes you out. Yeah, it doesn't pick it up. The other thing that comes along with, I suppose this image obsessed industry is the continual criticism about your appearance, though, because especially when you're starting out, you don't really know what colors work for you.
And I remember being told by one of this style people that they couldn't see my eyebrows, so I had to draw them in. I had a camera man tell me I looked green on camera. That's always great when you're trying hard and you get told you look green. I remember one particular piece to camera and my hair was blowing in the wind and the cameraman was just getting really irritated at me because my hair wasn't heavy enough to sit down and it wasn't thick enough. My
hair has always been one of my insecurities. So the next day I went out and got some clip in hair extensions, and it looks so much better on camera. But for anyone who's worn them, if you've got a twelve hour day starting at six am, it is so uncomfortable and is so time consuming. I remember doing what they call a piece to camera. That's a bit that the reporter obviously says in front of the camera.
I remember doing one.
In the studio at a particular news station, and at this station, everything that happens in studio feeds into the televisions of the other people working there, so they had a TV in the makeup and hair part of the office, and I remember being buzzed. It was like, could you please come to hair and makeup immediately? And they were just like, your hair looks basically shit, like we need
to fix it. And I remember they did it, and I thought I looked so stupid, it was so buffy, and I was actually so embarrassed about it.
You did get the tag of being a bit scruffy sometimes, Oh I know.
I got told that I looked like I just sort of woke up and threw my clothes, which I'm sorry when on my alarm, when if at four thirty I did just get up and throw my clothes on Well, it was really unfair because Amy was a full time
employee and I was a freelancer. And she got this whole wardrobe bought for her all new jackets, dresses, and she even had a little cupboard at work that was built in where you could just go to your cupboard if you want to change your clothes, and I literally had to fork out for all of my own stuff. Do you remember that time that we wrapped up to work in the same outfit?
Oh, that was so embarrassing. This is when we lived together.
So I happened to leave earlier than Sophie that morning, and then I arrived and she and I were both wearing white tops and blue blazers and we were like.
Oh my god.
The worst thing is it wouldn't have mattered on a normal day because we would have been out at different things. But the only time ever we've been sent out on a story together, and it was a stakeout of Billie Brownless.
Oh, I still feel a little.
Bit bad about that now that this happened. When drimble that controversy Billy Brown, this is of course one of the male hosts that were on the Footy Show, and there was that big scandal about his wife hooking up with Gary Lyon, and so he kind of was in Adelaide and he was showing his face for the first time. So it was quite an important story. People wanted to get him on camera. So I got sent to sit in the crowd and I suppose to get sneaky phone
shots of him. He was appearing at a local football club, and then soph was sent out the front to bounce him. And when they say bounce, that means you know, when the reporters run up with the camera and they're like, Billy, how's it going. Have you had from your wife? How's your friendship with Gary Lyon going?
That kind of thing?
So I looked like a massive dick. I went up and I took a photo with Billy so I could get close to film, in which I felt so bad about, and then he's bounced by my identical systory outside. It was so funny because I literally sat outside all day with the cameraman and soundo and Amy was inside, she said, and.
A few people spotted up outside with the.
Camera and they're like, what parasides sitting out there waiting, and Amy was just like, yeah, terrible, isn't it.
It's so terrible.
I did get Billy to say something, though, I killed him with kindness instead of being very aggressive.
What did you say to him?
I think I just said, how are you enjoying the day and he's like, yes, it's good, thank you, and they used that grap. Well, we did get praised heavily, didn't we because we Actually that's the thing. You do, these things that you feel bad about, but you get kind of praise and you're like, oh, okay, I did good. And steakhouts are something that is a regular occurrence on the job.
It is. It can be very boring.
It depends because I remember I got sent out. It was to some kind of home invasion or something like that. A poor woman got hit over the head with a crowbar, and I remember rocking up at about six thirty in the morning and we were waiting. I think we're waiting to see if she returned home. I mean, that's the first thing you want to see when you've returned home from a horrific injury, is it? News reporters on your
front doorstep? But I remember it was all the networks had waited and we'd got interviews with neighbors and stuff, and we had a jolly old time. We was sitting out in the sun on the gate, sorry, on the fence out there, and a lady brought us water and cookies, which is a very rare occurrence. People normally tell you to piss off and get a real job. Well, there are a lot of mind games that happen on steakhouts
because you're obviously there with the other networks. And there are occasions where I had to pretend that I was leaving, so we drive around the block, wait for about ten minutes, then drive back hoping that the other crew had left.
Well, because that's a thing.
So for those who don't know, most of the time the steakhouts go for such a long time because none of the networks want to fold because the big fear is that if you miss someone and someone else gets it, you're going to get in trouble because that's going to be what they call an exclusive. So most of the time it just gets pushed out because everyone refuses to leave. We've both been on jobs where a competitor has left a car. Yeah, so sometimes say there'll be you know,
the person you want to speak to isn't home. Sometimes a reporter will leave their business card in the door, and the question is always do you leave.
It there and be a good person or do.
You throw it away now? So, if you have you thrown any business cards away before no.
I actually haven't, but I hear that you have. Well I didn't know.
I didn't know what's such a bad thing because I'd had it drilled into my head. You know, you've got to get the exclusive. You got to you gotta win and do this. And I remember once I've never I never normally did it, but I've been to some specific training and I saw the card there and this particular reporter had been a bit of a dick, so I thought, I'll take that card with me. Well, it is a bit lazy, I mean maybe because I never had my
own card until I worked at Today tonight. But yeah, I didn't have a card, so I didn't end up playing those games. Well, there is someone who did a little bit worse than that. There was a reporter who climbed through a nursing home window just to try and get that exclusive. I think that might be going a little bit too far, but I supposed talking about going too far. I know we've both faced backlash while out
in the public about particular stories we've done. And I think one of my favorite stories has to be about when I was working at a particular current affairs show and we had done a story about solariums. And obviously now there aren't any solariums around in South Australia. But before you used to be able to go in, and there was meant to be some kind of system in place. So when you walked in, they gave you a sort
of sheet to fill out. And if you had really pale skin, I think it was class A skin or whatever it's called, you weren't meant to be able to get a solarium tan. So if you were like a bit pale, or you had fair hair anyway, they decided to send myself and another friend in. So and that was because you guys had very fair skin.
I was told I had fair skin. I was quiet, I was quite.
You do have fair skin anyway. So yeah, we were told to purposely make our scores low. So then they'd question us about it and be like, oh, you know, like whether they'd encourage us to bump it up or whatever. And there were some places that did say, oh no, no, just give that a two and whatever and you can
come in. So I remember sitting at dinner. You were there, soph and it was Kay and our bestie Owen, and we were just at this beautiful pizza place, and all of a sudden, this man walks up to me and he goes, you're that girl on that show, aren't you? And I said what and he's like, you know that show? And I said, oh yeah, and he's like, how dare you come into my scelarium and put such a story on, and like just went off at me. I was so embarrassed, and then I had to try and diffuse the situation.
It's all very, very awkward. You also do face a little criticism from your senior colleagues. I had worked this really, really long day and I remember being quite happy with my story and relief that it went to air on time, and then I copped a phone call from my boss saying, oh, you pronounced kilometer wrong. It's killer meter not and that was I was just at the end of my tether
in that situation. But it's you'll always get I remember, you got a super wrong, and you just get absolutely scolded for the small if the good thing is I mean, it is bad to get those small things wrong if there is a way that you meant to say it, and it does make you never forget those small things
like how to say kilometer and all of that. It is funny though, there's a lot of things that are pronounced a certain way on the news, like in South Australia they all say Peter phile if they're the news, the news reporter. Well, I can't stand people saying schedule Now it is one hundred percent schedule if you're speaking the English language, and I get so mad at Brandon
for saying schedule. That's your boyfriend, of course. Yes, Other than getting in trouble for saying things, there's also issues on the road that could get you in trouble. A lot of dangerous situations that you actually find yourself in. I mean one of those situations is when you have to knock on people's doors. So if you're working as the early journal you start at five point thirty and you basically see what's happened overnight. There might be a fire or a crime or whatever, and you get sent
out to that. So you've got to start door knocking people about the event that's gone on. And I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want people knocking on my door that early. And you can, and you can find yourself in quite dangerous situations. So if you had one in Elizabeth, which is an area in South Australia's North,
which isn't the most amazing place to live. Yeah, I was sent to this molotov cocktail attack and I was getting ready to do a piece to camera and we got to tip off from one of the neighbors that the owner whose house was attacked he was in a pretty foul mood about the whole thing and didn't like
the fact that media were there. And it actually interrupted one of the other journalists who was their piece to camera, so he said, Oh, he's running around with a bat and pretty angry, so you might want to do it quickly. And I had a full light set up and I felt so stressed because it literally was the quickest piece of camera I've ever done, because once I got through the third take, we actually we saw him out of the corner of our eye running towards us, so we had to like leap back in the car.
God.
I remember getting sent to a story and it was somewhere up north and it was just it was something to do with some prisoner that had escaped and they thought he was at his family's homes. We had to go knock on the door and I remember the woman whose house it was, Her daughter answered the door, and this massive like great dane came to the door with her and started barking at everyone, and she say, sorry,
mom's still in bed and she can't talk. So we had to stand on the street and sort of stake out the place in case she came out to get comment from her.
I remember hearing.
This dog just barking and barking, and then all of a sudden I noticed there was this cute elderly couple walking their little Maltese past the house, and all of a sudden, the huge great dane shot out the door and starts mauling this dog.
And I remember my.
First instinct was I said to the cameraman, are you filming this? And then I felt so bad because I could just see in my head like I didn't you know what was about to happen.
I didn't want to see the dog die.
And then they somehow managed to get the maltese out of the dog's mouth, and then the dog ran off. Anyway, this all like, can you imagine what a difficult story this is now to put together. There's a somebody that's escaped prison. The person's in the house, there's a dog attack on the street.
Sound sensational. It was a story in the end.
But what was the most hilarious thing was a few days later I heard something over the scanners about a dog attack and that the council was coming or something, and I.
Was like, I bet that's that dog.
So on a whim, we just drove out to the address and we found the RSPCA like leading the dog out to take it away, and it had mouled the kid inside. The kid was fine after a little while.
But how crazy is that?
So you got two good stories out of that one? I did?
I did.
Now, when we say good, it sounds all because I'm like, oh, great pictures. We don't actually mean that their nice photos is just But it's a very newsworthy story, isn't it. And the fact we've got that as an exclusive, And another huge thing in journalism is the exclusive. If you can have the word exclusive flashing on your report, oh my gosh, your news boss is going to love you.
And at the moment there's obviously huge bushfires in Queensland and New South Wales which have kind of reminded us a lot of our time reporting because I'm you reported on two of the biggest bushfires in South Australia. Yeah. Well, the first bushfire I reported on was the Samps and flat fires, and I was one of the first journalists who got sent out. I don't think they realized at the time how big it actually was. And this was
the first fire I'd ever been in to. It only just really had the fire training, and so you have to get all kitted up in your fire suit. And so many people who might do live crosses from the fire scene, they actually don't really get anywhere close to the fire, so they always put their suits on, have.
To roll on the ground to make it look not so clean.
Any I remember going and doing interviews with people who were in the fire zone area, and I remember ringing my chief of staff to tell them about the interviews I've got and I said casually, I was like, oh, do you want us to stay around here or leave?
It's like where are you? And I told her She's like, oh my god, get the fuck out of there.
The fires are coming. So we had to just speed out.
Oh my gosh.
I remember it was so I was with this cameraman who was so lovely, and we because what happens in a fire situation is obviously the police carding off the
roads to keep people safe. But as a journalist, your job is to get in there and get those pictures and get that story, so you have to try and sneak past the police and so on the map, I found there was a road, like a secret sort of dirt road that led into one of the areas that we wanted to film anyway, so we use this track a lot, and one day we were one morning, we were driving on this track to get to this area,
and a tree had fallen across it. And when I say tree, it was probably a huge branch maybe instead of a tree anyway, extremely heavy to lift, and I remember we were just like, oh no, we're not going to be able to get here now. All the other roads are closed. So we were like, okay, we'll try and move it.
Somehow. We wish we'd.
Filmed it because we didn't want to get in trouble like having vision of us doing it. But we somehow gathered this extra human strength and dragged the fucking branch off the road and drove through.
It was crazy.
In those high pressure situations, you do get really shocked by what you can do. Another question we get quite a lot is what is it like to work with people who are on TV?
Hmmm, that is an interesting one.
I think what you'll find is that the cameramen become your best friends because they are the most down to earth, knowledgeable, kind people, I would say in the journalism industry, and most often they're the ones who've been there the longest. So I actually think that compared to some of the reporters,
I think they're even more knowledgeable. Yeah, if you're a young journalist, the best advice is to actually listen to what the cameraman is saying and pick their brain because they've been out to every story you could ever imagine, and they are Like one of the camera guys who were good friends with he just knew everyone in Adelaide. He knew where every bit of CCTV vision was that you could get.
He was incredible.
The thing I loved about getting in the car with the cameraman was it was kind of like a break from the office and the bitching that goes on in there. Everyone just vents to the cameraman because it is quite a bitchy industry. It's a very competitive industry. And I found that not everyone. There's obviously some lovely people in there,
but some people just don't want to make friends. Yeah, and that's what I always sound weird, because in all news environments you meant to work as a team, and then there are some people that, I suppose, like in every other industry, really are there for themselves in their career. I remember there was one girl that I worked with and she told everyone that she doesn't accept work colleagues on Facebook and Instagram, and just having said that, it made me feel like, what is the point of even
getting to know You've clearly already got barriers up. That being said, I have met some amazing people in the industry that just have hearts of gold and would just go out of their way to help you as well. So I suppose it's like every office there's always someone that's really nice, and then there, of course those dickheads that you work with. One of the harsh realities of working in news is that you do have to work Christmas Day, which is just awful because sofen I love
Christmas Day. I think we ended up I think I ended up working two or three Christmas Days in total. I think it was two and I worked one. Yeah, it just that's the thing. I can see why people don't like Christmas Day. That might work in that in that industry, because it's just like every other day. I always think, who the hell watches news on Christmas?
Anyway? Well, I suppose news doesn't stop, does it?
Just because it's Christmas? And everyone celebrates Christmas? And the cushy story you want if you've been put on a Christmas Day shift is the morning story where you go to the church, you go to someone's house to film them opening their presence.
I never got that. I got the follow of.
The person, poor person who drowned on Christmas Eve.
I can't even remember the other story. Oh that's right.
Oh, and then I got the story about how a blackout had ruined everyone's Christmas dinner.
That would have been in good moods. Yeah, so isn't it great to knock onto us? Hey have you had a blackout? Oh fantastic?
Can you film you as buy a candle eating your dinner? Well, mine was worse. I had a car explosion on Peachy Road, which is in the heart of Elizabeth. So that was a bit of fun. I can imagine that, and it was a scorching summer's day as well, with a huge car one and that in the news they all say scorching, like you're sitting at home and it's forty five degrees scorching out there.
It's like, I'm even hotter from everyone saying this.
It's funny because when they do have those scorching days, it's in the newsroom. There's always that one person who's like, go and get an egg and crack it on the ash felt. Another question we get is how do you encourage people to speak to you on camera? And it is a very difficult task. So I will throw that to Amy, who did get the name of the weasel
at work. Look, and that was as a compliment. Let me just preface that because I don't know, I seem to I don't mean to preact, but I seem to have this uncanny ability to be able to get people to speak on camera and seek out exclusives. And I suppose the number one tip if anyone is studying journalism is just to make people feel really comfortable. You don't want to try and force them into doing something right away. Compliments Compliments go a long way as well, That's right,
I have to tell the story. I don't think I've told it on the podcast before, but I remember being sent out to a fire in the Northern Suburbs.
Sorry, the way I said fire just.
Reminded me of on Front Night Fat the Fires right anyway, So there was a fire in the Northern Suburbs and all the news crews went out to it with this woman just refused to speak. So it's kind of like, Okay, we'll just get on the next story. I came back to the office at about three and my boss Terry, who is absolutely legend, he'd read on the wires that the woman was a mother, and he I mean, obviously
that's a great story. You want to have the mum that's potentially saved her kids from this a human interesting. So he's like, hmm, Amy, can you go out and make that woman speak? And we need it for the bulletin tonight. And this is at three pm. The news starts at six. And we had to drive her all the way up to Elizabeth, which is probably like a forty minute drive. So I was like, oh, okay, Terry, she wasn't speaking.
He's like, well, I need you to get her to speak.
So we got out there and we knocked on the door, and just to preface it, she'd previously told people to piss off, understandably, so I knocked on the door and she's like, oh, you're back again, and I said, oh yeah, I'm really sorry to interrupt. We're just wanting to get a few shots inside. Is that possible? So step one? You want to get inside, that's it. Right. Once you're inside, you can orchestrate so you can start talking. She's like, I don't want to be on camera and I said,
I totally understand that. Do you mind if we just get vision of where the fire broke out? Okay, no worries. So this gave me time to talk to the woman and obviously be human with her. And I said to her, so, what is it that you're worried about? And she said, oh, it's my teeth. I said, what's the issue with your teeth?
And she said, well, I've got none and I said, oh, I hadn't even noticed.
Don't worry. We've got our cameraman Matt here. He'll be able to light you perfectly that no one will notice your teeth at all.
May I butt in here?
Our mother is a dental therapist, and teeth is one of the first thing we have been taught to notice. So you know, you've got to pull out little white lives here and there. I feel bad telling this story now, but so anyway, I said to Aga, we'll get the light up.
You look fantastic. So are you sure, I said yes, like.
You know, a girl to go, I wouldn't make you look bad. Anyway, she did the interview, great story, got back, got a little bit of kudos, and I got all that night from my mom after she saw the story and she was.
Like, what the hell was with that woman with no teeth?
And I was like, oh. One of my most memorable stories was about a turtle who disappeared and then found its way home. It was obviously a very hard hitting story, and I think this was out in the South, and we traveled quite a far away to get there. So what So this turtle had just gone missing from the family home. So this woman emailed in and claimed that
her pet turtle had disappeared. I think he was Actually he wasn't urtle the turtle that yeah, So he had disappeared for three months and then miraculously found his way home, according to this woman.
So it was clearly a different fucking turtle.
It might not a bait anyways, did have any distinguishing features?
No, we did not.
Well, we can't let facts get in the way of a good story anyway, So we rock up and we asked the woman if we could get some vision of the turtle. And the turtle was swimming in his little pond outside and the camera was pretty you know, adamant that he needed these shots. So the woman tried to
call the turtle out, thinking that that would work. I mean, we've got a deadline here, so in sheer desperation, I put my hands into the absolutely filthy pen sorry filthy pond, and yanked the turtle out because I also needed him for my piece to camera.
And I actually got to find that piece to cameras. Bloody hilarious.
The turtles just like walking around while I'm speaking right in front of me, So it was worth it.
In the end. We had a lot of puns in that story.
It sounds like a good story, nice little closer piece talking about piece to cameras. I remember when I was doing a bit of training, when I was doing my cadet. Shit, we had this woman come in to talk to us about how to get the confidence and record the perfect
piece to camera. And it's so funny because I've got such a wicked sense of humors, I really had to stop myself from laughing because so basically what she'd do is she get you to read out one of your you sent piece of cameras and then kind of critique you. And she said to me, Hey, okay, so why don't you add a little bit of a smile when you say that line? And this story was about someone who'd been murdered, and I was like, oh, so you want me to smile, we're talking about someone being murdered.
Yeah, kind of AD's a bit like if you just have a little bit of a smile and a smirk.
And I remember the other girls and I were just laughing after this because we couldn't believe it. And then there was other training involved voice coaches, and I think voice coaches are the most strange individuals but also the loveliest. And I've had a few voice coaches who've been amazing, But some of the warm ups they get to you
to do you just feel like the biggest idiot. So one of them is you stick your tongue out and you're meant to start saying words because that's meant to sort of, I don't know, loosen up your mouth and oh I remember, yeah, I asked the woman if I could film her doing the rehearsal things just to show caves because it was so funny. Yeah. I had to go to a voice coach when I went to seven because they told me my voice was too channel ten
whatever that means, but I remember it. Yeah, it was a very awkward experience because you are just being judged like it's just it's kind of yeah. Yeah. I remember having some particular voice training, and this was after the my cadet training, and I remember with these other girls you could kind of roll your eyes at them and have a bit of a snigger about how uncomfortable you were. But I was with a group that was taking it
so super seriously. And I remember one of the tasks they got us to do is we had to turn to the person sitting next to us and whisper in their ears something.
And I just felt so uncomfortable. And I remember the.
Lady whispered in my age like ohitch or something.
And I was like, oh my god. I tried to give.
Someone else the eyes, but no other eyes were coming back to me.
I was like, what the hell?
That is a question you do get asked a lot though, how did you develop your voice?
And I think some people just have it or you don't have it.
Then again, I have heard people and they do like amazing work with what they've got, you know what I mean, Like they've actually actually been able to really change up their voice. But yeah, I think when you're first starting out, you can obviously get ahead if you do have quite
a nice voice. Actually, one of the other funny things a voice coach did was she showed us the insides of a throat singing I was like, nah, it was my voice coach said that you can actually train someone who has the most awful singing voice to have a beautiful singing voice. I think she was trying to get me to come in for lessons. It's like, yeah, honey, I have no interest in being We realized it would take about.
One hundred letters to get that going.
I suppose one of the most interesting things I've found so about stepping out of the media, and I don't know if you agree, but is the realization that nobody actually cares who you are, Like, I never actually thought that anyone cared who I was or anything like that, but I.
Know a lot of people do.
And it's quite amusing because the only people that actually recognize you are old people who watch the news, Like nobody else knows who you are.
So I don't know, have you found that?
So yeah, I think some people do get into TV news thinking that they'll get some form of notoriety or fame or whatever, but really you are a nobody. I mean every state there are news readers, news reporters, So I mean I would say to people, get into journalism because you love telling a story, not because you want to get noticed and be famous. That what's the crazy thing, though, because I know for you and I it was never about getting in there to have our face on television.
If anything, I felt uncomfortable about doing piece to cameras and that side of things. I just really love telling people's stories. And I know that might sound wanky, but it's true. So but there were a lot of people who were driven by the fact that their face was on TV. And I still have a little bit of a giggle when I see some of the reporters around the state whose whole instagrams are dedicated to their journalism career,
and I just find it all a bit cringe. Although we the people that put on their journalist's voice when they're just speaking in a normal converse station.
Yeah, you're like, oh, take your hand off.
I would like that thinking. It is funny though, when you are working in the newsroom all day and the newsreaders rock up. So yeah, here's a little bit of an insight into what really goes on.
So not all of them.
Some do come in earlier, but a few of the old veterans, they will probably roll in about four o'clock in their big fuck off cars. They oh yeah, and it'll be like a competition of who can look like they've cared less, like to put no makeup on or the hair's crazy. Honestly, that was my biggest fear working in news, because if you're the reporter who does the updates, you have to come in with no makeup on because the makeup artist wants to do your hair and makeup.
And obviously some of the women looked amazing and you couldn't tell really that they had no makeup on. But as so I've said, some of them would be like, fuck it, I'm not. I'm coming in with wet hair, I'm covering in my daggiest clothes, and I'm going to be done.
Up to the macs.
I can kind of see why people feel that way, because it is a lot of upkeep being a TV reporter. And now when we're in PR there's nothing more than I love them just chucking my hair in a ponytawel and putting on comfy stuff while we work at the office.
Oh for sure.
I think the cruisiest job, though, in a newsroom has to be the sports reporter because they come in at the late sorry, the sports presenter because they come in at the latest time. They can wear shorts. Oh my god. Another sort of you know, confession of a TV reporter. When you were talking about the wardrobe before, they have sensational wardrobe sales at newsrooms. So as a reporter, you get bought clothes. They're not actually yours, they're the network's clothes.
So and each person has their own cupboard with all their clothes in it, and they get washed for you. So you just drop them in a bin and they washed and will dry clean them and then they'll appear. But you really had no excuse to be digitaled when you were yes anyway, And so you know, obviously, after a few years the clothes get old and outdated and they want to replace them.
So they do this.
Amazing sale where you can come in and buy, like a said suit, a Hugo Boss suit that's only been worn on air for fifty bucks. So remember, we got so excited we bought our dad a suit and he happens to be the identical dimensions of one of the news readers. And I felt so bad for him because he wore this particular suit to a wedding and a mom kept mentioning whose suit it was to all of their friends, and he was so embarrassed.
I think that's all we have time for now.
We are going to do a second episode on this topic as well. Now, if you do have a question, you can either send them to our Facebook or Instagram account. They're under the same name Outspoken Underscore, the Underscore podcast.
Well, thank you so much for listening.
I know I personally have had a lot of fun talking through some of these memories. Some of these things I'd even forgotten They've only just come up now, So we do appreciate you.
Listening.
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