WRJB Radio personality Bobby “Flash” Melton and former Central basketball coach, history teacher, and longtime broadcaster Buddy Smothers visited Central’s new AV Productions class on Thursday, November 13, offering students a workshop on interviewing skills.
Melton and Smothers spent a number of years broadcasting Camden and Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central sports on the radio together.
They shared tips and advice to help students find their own voice, shape questions naturally, and listen closely for opportunities during a conversation.
After the discussion, students put those lessons to work as they filmed an interview with Smothers.
During his talk with the students, Melton pointed out that each interviewer develops a personal style.
“Interviewing goes several ways,” Melton told students. “I may interview one way; Coach Smothers may interview another way. Y’all will be interviewing your way.”
Smothers encouraged students to adapt and never imitate.
He explained that preparation matters, but authenticity matters more.
“There’s our way of doing it, and there’s your way of doing it,” Smothers said. “Be yourself. Don’t go ahead and try to be somebody else. Continue to work on what you do.”
Melton shared advice he once received from legendary University of Tennessee broadcaster John Ward.
“He told me, ‘You don’t want to be a John Ward. You want to develop your own style and personality,'” Melton recalled.
Both men demonstrated how to reshape questions in natural language.
Smothers told students to listen actively to catch unexpected angles and meaningful details, as well as to record themselves and critique their own speech patterns, habits, and vocal tics.
The workshop ended with a practice interview.
Student Gauge Rogers interviewed Smothers, while Joshua Clayton and Isaiah Melton filmed.
The interview is the class’s first in a series about the history of Bruceton and Hollow Rock.
Smothers shared reflections on his time as a student and teacher at Central, as well as the people who influenced him, and the small-town character that defined Central for generations.
By the end of the session, the class had completed its first recorded interview and taken a step forward in preserving local history through their own developing voices.
Smothers and Melton closed by telling the class that everyone in the room wanted to see the new AV program, and the students in it, succeed.
