The Fast-Paced Life of a Traffic Reporter

Want a life that involves spending your mornings and evenings in a helicopter? Who doesn't, right? Well, this is a life that broadcasting school can bring you. Not right away, but it is one way to the skies. Daredevils and everyday broadcasting mavericks can both find their satisfaction with a career as a traffic reporter!

You've probably listened to a traffic report yourself before, while in the car in the morning wondering why the interstate is backed up and just how long it's going to take you to get to work. Traffic reports most commonly come through the airwaves via helicopters stationed in the air above high traffic points during the morning and evening rush hours, where they're manned by a pilot and traffic reporter watching the scene to report the facts to you as they happen. With a broadcasting school education, you'll get the knowledge and beginning experience you need to get you on the way to becoming a traffic reporter!

A key to being a good traffic reporter is the ability to identify situations as they occur and state them in a clear, compelling way to your audience. Since traffic reports are broadcast live, it's important that you're able to speak clearly in a way that can be swiftly understood by your listeners. In broadcasting school you'll have voice, speech, and diction lessons that will give you the power to speak confidently so there will never be a question of what you just said, only what you're going to say next.

The nature of live broadcasting means that you'll be reporting on things you see immediately, so you'll have to know what you're looking at. Get good at map-reading as initial practice for a traffic reporting career, so you can more easily identify the main roads and arterials that your report will be covering. You'll have to be able to think quickly as well, suggesting the appropriate alternate routes for travelers in event of an accident, as well as being able to succinctly state exactly what you see in front of you without mincing words or wasting your listeners' time. Your broadcasting school training will help you with this – you'll learn how to write your own between-song scripts and commercials, which will help you nail down your speaking style before you get more improvisational.

For practice, check out your local news station's website, where up-to-the-minute traffic maps are increasingly available. Make sure your broadcasting school mentor knows of your eventual goal, and see if they can tailor your homework or other assignments toward reaching that end, whether it's by having you write a sample script or recording a voice lesson of yourself narrating an imaginary traffic jam. If you're at a larger station, do all you can to make a great impression and after you've been around for a few months, inquire as to whether you might go out with the traffic reporter one morning, or at least spend a little one-on-one time with them. In fact, if you're still thinking about broadcasting school right now, consider asking for a mentor who's a traffic reporter before you begin the program!

Of course you can learn much more in broadcasting school than just how to report traffic – if your interest lies in a DJ career, sound engineering, news reporting, or another broadcasting industry job, broadcasting school is the place for you. Find out more about broadcasting school today at http://www.learn-by-doing.com/!