How do radio and TV professionals learn to speak without saying “uh” and “uhm” all the time?
Practice, practice, and more practice.
Don’t forget, too, that normally your Paul Harvey’s and network newsreaders don’t have to make up words in their head on air – they are reading off of some kind of cue system (cards, screen, etc.).
Other times (morning shows), the "uh"s and "uhm"s still creep in a little bit, usually when speaking extemporaneously.
You can train yourself not to. It just takes being aware that you were about to say it.
I’m a member of Toastmasters International, which is an organization devoted to practicing public speaking and improving communication and leadership skills. One of the actions they take is to have a person assigned each meeting to notice how many “ahs” and “uhms” each person uses while speaking during each meeting. With this feedback and attention, members learn to reduce them, through practice, pauses, and preparation.
It also means that when you see a public figure speaking, it drives you crazy if you hear them insert these words every 5 seconds.
I imagine other communication or speaking courses or programs address the issue as well.
I am a former debater and a former debate judge at the collegiate and national/regional levels. When I first learned debate techniques, my coach was an old Oxford grad who insisted that using proper speech patterns was as important as preparing a solid argument. In mock debates, she kept score - a tick for every ahhh, umm, stutter, fidget, hand in pocket, slurred word, and slouch. Once she taught us to pay attention to these bad habits, a little practice was all it took to overcome them. When I began judging competitions, I would also flow speech patterns along with arguments. Unfortunately, modern debaters are more interested in speed reading their cites than form, so they were sorely dissapointed to learn I was judging. 
An interesting article I read this week on the possible linguistic validity of “uhms” and “uhs.”
I spent a lot of hours on the air, and it does take a while, but you can train yourself out of it. I just learned to either pause rather than insert a verbal expression. It helps to work with an on-air partner, too, because if you get stuck they can hit the mic and cover for you.
As mentioned above by bordelond, a lot of the material read by air personalities is scripted anyway, and either fed by a TelePrompTer in the case of TV, or kept close at hand in the case of radio. (Not that this stops people who have a hard time reading extemporaneously from inserting “uhms.”) Even a lot of the stuff that sounds extemporaneous isn’t: Program directors will give radio DJs a list of approved IDs, bumpers and logos to use on the air, so that they maintain a consistent image.
An interesting oddity is that there are times in radio when they go out of their way to add a few “umms”, when they want to make something seem more realistic. One example is when prerecording something that is scripted, but you want to make it sound live. Also, in commercials, when they want to make it sound as if a real person is talking, rather than some hired flak, because people tend to trust “word of mouth” praise more than commercial spokespersons.
At the link that pldennison provided, the article mentions in passing that a reason for inserting these filler words is to fill in space while the speaker is thinking. This matches my experience in Toastmasters.
Most members come in to the club with a moderate amount of filler sounds. Through practice, these decrease, but before they go away, they start to be replaced with more enunciated filler words. For example, someone who is trying to avoid "uh"s may instead start adding a lot of “and” to connect sentences, or add a lot of introductory phrases: “Also”, “You know”. These come when someone is aware of the "Um"s, and avoids them, but still needs some time to think. These gradually get replaced with pauses, instead, and get shorter and shorter, and the better speakers have done away with the pauses altogether, except where they intend them for effect.
Not only do experienced speakers have less pauses than inexperienced, but extemporaneous speakers (who have to speak for a few minutes on topics they have not prepared for) tend to add more fillers than people speaking on prepared topics. People who read speeches have correspondingly fewer, and this would apply to those reading from teleprompters as well.
whitetho is right inserting pauses to seem more realistic. I don’t feel more inclined to trust the person speaking; but I do feel more inclined to believe that it is spontaneous, rather than scripted. When watching segments of TV shows or commercials where they claim to be interviewing real people, the amount of fillers stands out to support or detract from believing that it is not scripted.
I’ve done radio shows before.
I keep a post-it-note on my computer monitor that says “and uhhh” to remind me to NOT say it.
I can live without “um.” :rolleyes:
A lot of the information in the article posted by pldennison seems obvious to me. Basically, uh and um are used to indicate a pause in thinking. Uh, yeah.
I think the difference between what you hear in conversations and on TV/Radio, or experienced orators is the target audience. When someone is speaking to one or a few people that have the opportunity to respond, the speaker will add uhs and ums to indicate that their thought or point is not yet complete. When someone is orating where the audience does not have the opportunity to interrupt, then the pauses for thought do not have to fill the void to ensure that they are not interrupted.
The difference is due to most people not having the opportunities to speak uninterrupted and are used to using the void filling sounds. When given the opportunity to orate, it will be hard for them not to use the fillers.
During a 10 minute presentation I made in college a classmate counted 43 ums/uhs that I was oblivious to. I knew the material and felt fairly comfortable in front of the small audience, but wasn’t aware of the speech patterns I was using.
I tried reducing the number of um and uhs in my regular speech patterns, but it annoys my wife, because she doesn’t wait long enough for me to complete my thought (a 2 second pause is not uncommon while I attempt to ensure the accuracy of what I am saying) and interjects with “What? I don’t understand.” (I’ve had to resort to the Monty Python (Micheal Palin) method of indicating a pause in speaking by making a large arc with my hand from my chest upwards to a foot in front of my chest)
I’d rather hear “uh” and “uhm” than “You know?”
Sorry, I know it is off topic, but this dude I know, he says it in almost every statement he makes. Very irritating, IMO.
I was a member of Toastmasters, too. I almost never say uh or um when speaking, publicly or otherwise. It annoys me to no end when I hear others doing it. Somehow, though, I survive.
I have no idea how ‘nathan’ wound up in the title field.