Carol Mott is a radio talk show host featured on multiple stations across Ontario with her co-host and husband, Paul, from the comfort of their own home in the small town of Erin. Carol was planning on becoming a veterinarian and pursuing university, but all that changed one summer when she began working for CJMR radio station in Mississauga’s Square One. She was lucky enough that her father, a shoe company owner, was friendly with the advertising agency that staffed the station and they offered her the job. It was no surprise given Carol’s bubbly personality and go-getter attitude.
Carol found she really liked what she was experiencing and she wanted to learn as much as she could. This is where she met Sally Jones, a veteran radio broadcaster, who offered to teach Carol some tips and techniques to conducting an exceptional interview. She was quickly putting these new skills to use, conducting interviews around the community about occurring and upcoming events and editing them before it would air on the radio. After the summer the station offered her a full-time job doing interviews for the show which she gladly accepted. Because of this, Carol never went to post-secondary school, meaning everything she knows is directly from the field and experience which gives her a unique vantage point over other journalists.
After a year at CJMR, Carol landed a commercial writing job at CJRN in Niagra Falls; there she had the opportunity to fill in for some of the hosts and she loved the interaction and meeting new people. Then met her future husband, Paul Mott, the stations news director and talk show producer at the time, and they worked so well together that their program director suggested they co-host their own show together. They worked so well because of their very different personalities, Paul being straight forward and Carol being more interactive, but it brought balance and different perspectives to an issue, which made the interview more interesting.
A few months later Paul and Carol married each other and continued doing talk shows together. Eventually, many of CJRN’s employee’s began working at NewsTalk 1010 CFRB in downtown Toronto, including the Mott’s. They had plenty of success there for 16 years until they decided they wanted to focus more on their family and have a farm. So, they moved to Erin where they built a studio in there home where they are able to record shows without having to leave the property. This luxury allowed the Mott’s to spend more time with their kids and their horses, another passion of Carol’s. Other stations from across Ontario purchase their show to air on their station, this is a unique form a journalism and talk show business, but it is also easy thanks to our advanced technology today.
Carol had a lot of great advice on how to prepare and present myself for an interview. For starters, “read everything you can about everything”, this way there is more room to relate to your guest or something they say in the interview because you already have somewhat of a background on the subject to further support your opinion. Not only reading, but research is important to the journalist in ensuring they have the proper questions and information about their guest or to dig deeper. In the case of a co-host, it is important to establish boundaries with them otherwise it can be tense if you are not comfortable debating with each other. Particularly talk show interviews teach one how to argue and debate professionally on matters of interest, which is an invaluable skill to develop.
What do you want from an interview? The best responses or debates possible. Obviously a journalist needs to cover the 5 W’s in an interview but they also need to think outside the box and find stories people are passionate about. For example; Carol was scheduling an interview to talk about the Clarkson Cup for the WHL, a women’s version of the Stanley Cup, and she only wanted to interview its creator, Adrian Clarkson, former Governor General. She knew Adrian would be perfect because this was all about her and her idea. When she finally got the interview it turned out so well because Carol chose someone who was the most passionate about the topic and that passion came through in the interview.
A good journalist will ask what is most important about the story? Is it effective? If it does not interest you it probably won’t interest your audience. Your presentation should be fast but good, asking all the best questions at the same time. Talk show radio is about opinion and feelings, emotion makes for a good interview. Some guests (politicians for example) can be professionally coached on how to handle the media’s questions but there are ways to get the answers you’re looking for. By re-phrasing the question or approaching it from a different angle it can sometime take the guest by surprise and get them to answer. Or sometimes changing the subject to a matter of their interest for a minute can get them to lower their barriers between you two.
Possibly the most important piece of advice Carol could offer me during an interview: LISTEN! Be inquisitive and interested in your guest and their responses. Not only is it respectful but if you are able to expand on their responses with follow up questions it makes the interview more in-depth and you may even hear something you didn’t expect to that changes the course of the interview. Mostly, if the interviewer and the interviewee are both generally interested in the discussion then it makes the whole interview so much better.
Laura Ω 