Radio interview: Parenting Today 93.8 FM

This afternoon's 'live' radio interview was much more enjoyable than I thought, and my fears did not materialise. It's more accurate to call it a chat show rather than an interview. That's what we did -- we chatted.

12.35pm: Zubaidah, Juffri, Jaime & I meet the chat show host, Ms. Susan Ng, at the NewsRadio studio. Susan gives a quick sketch of what she would cover. We ask a few questions. The 'live' show is unrehearsed.

Susan gives me permission to take pictures. It's my first time in a radio recording studio. We're ushered into the studio and sit in comfortable chairs. There are mikes in front of us. The headphones are used if we take calls from listeners.



1:08pm: The "RED LIGHT" comes on (signalling that we're on air). Susan starts by making a traffic-watch announcement off a screen. Heavy traffic along the usual roads, I think.

Then came the show proper. Susan introduces Zubaidah (my colleagues who heads the Children Services), Juffri (he's from Programmes & Events Management), and myself (Susan reads my designation as "Manager & Librarian, Service Management, Public Library Services" -- Ok, technically correct, but I'm responsible for the Adult & Young People services only and not the entire Service Management department).


The radio interview centers on the importance of reading, and what parents can do to get their children and/ or teenagers to read. I'm having too much fun to remember what we say exactly. Will have to listen to the recording later.

(A colleague listening to the chat show SMS me later, saying she heard every single word, and also my shameless plugs about our enquiry services, and my urging the listeners to talk to our librarians. Yeah, I might have been carried away).

1:30pm: We take a break. We return on air with NLB CE, Dr. N. Varaprasad. Susan gets him to share more about READ! Singapore. Dr. Prasad says READ! Singapore is not a campaign but an initiative. It's also not about using libraries per se, but making reading fun. The library wants to support the local booktrade by encouraging people to buy the books in the selection.


L-R: That's Susan in the foreground, followed by Juffri and Jaime (our Corporate Communications Executive).

Around 1:45pm: We take a call on air. The caller asks for clarification on the library's self-study rule. He asks if it was true that security guards "chased students out". I take the question. I say the library had spent much time & effort getting teens to come into libraries, so it didn't make sense for us to chase students away. But there has to be a balance.

(What I didn't add was that those who don't abide by the general rules, like making unacceptable levels of noise, would be asked to leave. More about self-studying in another post.)

2pm: Show ends. We are ushered out the studio. Susan remarks that we all said the right things, at the right time. Well, it's because you're a good host, Susan.


L-R: Dr N. Varaprasad (NLB Chief Executive), Zubaidah and myself (sharing a private joke).

Susan is a professional; a veteran in the radio business. She doesn't follow a script and sounds so smooth. She's a great supporter of reading & libraries, and she's promotes reading to her own children. I'm her new fan.



Before the end of the first segment, I closed off with this soundbite: "If parents are really serious about getting their teenage daughter or son to read, then lead by example."

Intuitively we know reading is a good thing, But we say we have no time to read. We have to catch up with our emails, watch TV, play computer games, look after kids...

There's no quick answers to this issue. I guess like many things in life, if we feel something is important enough, we'll have to find time to do it.


Tag: rambling librarian interview