Before Air Time

To succeed on television you need more than good ideas. Presentation is important, but presentation is often difficult because few people, even those who frequently speak in public, are used to the environment of a TV studio.

Suppose you're a guest on the "Bill Local Show." You'll be asked to arrive at the station anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes early, a period used for permissions, introductions, attire, reviews and make-up.

• Permissions. Most talk shows and many news programs will want you to sign a permission sheet, a statement that gives the show authority to use your name and image for promotional purposes. Such permission statements often contain language that makes you legally responsible for slanderous statements.

• Introductions. When you arrive at a station someone on the show's staff will typically greet you in the lobby and then escort you to a "green room" to wait until air time. The green room usually contains newspapers and magazines as well as a large color television so you can monitor whatever is being aired. Here too you can meet other guests. ("Oh, so you're a lawyer defending the civil rights of a gopher. How interesting. And you're on before me . . . .")

• Attire. Television is a visual medium and you need a proper wardrobe. Avoid white (it glares on camera) as well as provocative and unseemly clothes -- aside from being inappropriate, they devalue your position as an authority figure. Good dress is commonly equated with good thinking, though obviously there need not be a positive correlation between the two. Test yourself, if two people are talking about gold futures, who are you more likely to believe: Someone in conventional attire or someone who shows up wearing a toga and scuba gear?

• Reviews. Once in the green room (which rarely is green), someone from the show will come and describe how the show works, the host's approach, the day's topics, who watches, whether there's a live audience and how the host will introduce you. Sometimes, too, hosts will drop by to say hello and thank you for coming.

  The review process is an exchange of important information. This is the point where guests can correct introductions, suggest or refine questions for the host and better understand the host's interests and goals.

• Make-Up. Adjacent to the green room, typically, is a make-up room, complete with a table, mirror, lights and a make-up person who is there to render you camera-ready. The catch is that not all guests like the make-up process.

  *Some guests don't normally wear make-up and feel self-conscious.

  *Some guests wear make-up but prefer their talents to those of the make-up artist.

  *Some guests are allergic to make-up (though most studio make-up is designed to avoid allergies).

  *Some guests wonder how this stuff comes off before either going back on the street or meeting one's spouse.

  The purpose of make-up is to highlight good features while hiding beard lines, bags under the eyes, teen-age skin eruptions, dueling scars, etc. In addition to the usual profusion of creams, powders, talcs, liners, and astringents found in most studios, make-up artists often prepare their own custom-made and home grown solutions and chemicals; including, at one station, an ominous gray aerosol can marked only as "human dulling spray."

  Although the precise contents of this can were never disclosed, its purpose was clear. It seems that some guests have expansive and shiny bald pates, and since something must be done to prevent studio lights from reflecting back into the cameras, human dulling spray was born.

Peter G. Miller is an image, marketing, and public relations consultant whose clients include selected national corporations, associations, and web sites. Mr. Miller can be reached at peter@boardroomarts.com