Planning A Radio Show
Basic facts
• Know your time limit
• Remember that you need to keep the programme aurally interesting – intersperse music and dialogue. • Think about how people listen to
So, what does the
audience want?
What do the listeners want? How do you know?
– Surveys
– Interviews
So, what do the
community want?
What do the community want? How do you know?
– Surveys
– Interviews
– Focus groups
Okay, then what?
A Magazine Show
What are the resources you need? • People
• Studio
A Magazine Show
How is the show structured? What are the important
A Magazine Show
How is the show structured? What are the important
components? • Music
• Feedback
A Magazine Show
Why will your show fail? • Boring…
• Dificult to understand • Nasty music
• Nasty announcer
• Uninteresting topic
Things to remember…
• Radio is personal• Radio is SOUND
• Radio is warm, emotional • Radio entertains
• Can cross seas, mountains • Radio’s instant
Conclusion
Planning a show, you need to be aware of your CONSTITUENCY, who the show is for…
Field Interviews
Contents
• Where are you going to have an interview?
• Planning an interview
Where to have the
interview
• Look around you for distractions & for problems
• Record some ‘atmos’
Interviewing in the feld
Interviewing in the feld
• What do you need?
– Recorder
– Wires (do they work?)
– Microphone (is it appropriate?) – Spare batteries
Interviewing in the feld
• Keep control!
Power & You
• Think about the power relations between you and the interviewee • How does this change if you’re
Care of your equipment
Hold your mics properly
Don’t put any strain on fimsy sockets
• Have SOMETHING that can hold them steady (if possible)
• Ideally, don’t pull the jacks in and out constantly. BUT if they are not being held steady, DO NOT travel with your cables connected.
• Clean your tape heads regularly.
News-Writing for Radio
Introduction
1. Recap: Writing for print
2. Radio – Basics of what radio is 3. How to do a re-write
Recap: Writing for print
1. Answering the Five Ws and One H: Who, what, where, when, why and how 2. The inverted pyramid
Your lead is the most important sentence in your story.
Recap: Writing for print
Other bits & pieces: • Age
Radio: What is it?
What is radio?
Radio: What is it?
How do people listen to radio?
What do people want from radio?
Radio: What is it?
Radio: What is it?
Principles for radio news:
• Don’t lecture – you’re talking to an equal
• Be clear – you don’t get to
repeat, the listener can’t re-read what you’ve said
Radio: What is it?
Rules for radio news:
• You can’t aford to lose your listener’s attention
• Your listener isn’t listening • You have to be up-to-date
• You may not give all the 5 W’s and the H
Doing a re-write
Step One: Understand the story If the information you’re given is
Doing a re-write
Problems with re-writes:
1. The source didn’t write for radio. 2. Information may be biased/
unreliable.
3. Inappropriate style.
Doing a re-write
Step One: Understand the story Step Two: Tear it apart!
Step Three: Keep your sentences Subject-Verb-Object.
Step Four: KISS
Step Five: Figures
Doing a re-write
Step Six: Read it out loud
This is THE most important part. Can you read it and does it sound
natural?
Is this how you would talk to a friend? Is each word a word you would
Doing a re-write
Things NOT to do:
• Useless bridging words e.g. Meanwhile <grr>
• Which & that
• The time is NOW • Ages
Doing a re-write
Things NOT to do:
• Useless bridging words e.g. Meanwhile <grr>
• Which & that
• The time is NOW • Ages
Doing a re-write
Winging it – No ‘ings’ at the beginning of a sentence.
At the start of the sentence a verb
ending in ‘ing’ causes the sentence to lose power.
Doing a re-write
Cut the fab! ‘In order to’ ‘Actually’
‘In fact’
Doing a re-write
Don’t make assumptions – is it really a surprise? Is it really
unsurprising? Same goes for ‘expected’, ‘unexpectedly’ etc.
And don’t assume something is good or bad news – not all your
Doing a re-write
Signs of something wrong:
The words ‘continuing’, ‘once more’, ‘again’. Why is this story news if it has happened before?
Doing a re-write
The weakness of be-ing.
Feature writing
Introduction
• Sound conveys meaning.
• Sound stimulates our visual imagination: it creates visual images in our minds.
• Radio Theater is telling a story by the
careful mixing of sounds - both verbal and non-verbal.
Introduction (cont.)
• Radio is a "hot" medium - that is, the
listener's imagination and experience are involved in giving the story depth,
substance and meaning.
Planning the script
• What do you want to create?
• Whose point of view (POV) are you using – the main character? An
Planning the Script
• What do you want to create?
– DIALOGUE is the most important tool – ACTUALITIES/ Music are the next
most important
– SFX are the LEAST important tool
• Whose point of view (POV) are you using – the main character? An
Planning the Script
• What do you want to create?
– DIALOGUE is the most important tool
Note that dialogue can tell the audience the details that are given by pictures on television.
Planning the SFX
SFX are the LEAST important tool, BUT:
– They can RUIN an otherwise excellent script
– They can make an otherwise dull script passable
Walla
• These are crowd noises
• How do you create them?
Where to fnd SFX
Find digital SFX at: www.fashkit.com www.soundfx.com
Audacity
Setting up
Setting up
• Choose the appropriate bit depth (16) and sample rate (44100 Hz).
NOTE: Sometimes Audacity doesn’t work well with 16 bit depth, so
Recording
Editing
Editing
To cut, copy, paste – use the cursor tool as you would in Word!
You can insert silence by highlighting an area, then going to Generate,
then to Silence (everything moves). If you want to choose a particular bit
of a track, highlight it, choose Edit and Split.
Exit
• Make sure you’re on the right settings (ie 16 bit, 44100Hz)
• Go to File, choose Export in the format you want (might not be able to export as MP3).
Your Equipment
Contents
• Digital and analog • Analog recorders • Digital recorders • Which mic?
• What’s an XLR?
Digital vs Analog
There are basically two main types of recorders:
Analog - Problems
• Fidelity
• Generations
Digital
Digital recording basically
transforms the sound waves into a series of numbers.
Digital
Digital recording basically
transforms the sound waves into a series of numbers.
How and why bother? - High fdelity
Analog recorders
What are you looking for?
• A socket where you can plug your mic in • A monitor, where you can see how loud
the sound is when it goes into the recorder
• Something portable
Analog recorders
Advantages of analog • Reliable
• Easy to get tapes • Low maintenance
Digital recorders
Various types, most important for journos are:
- DAT
Digital recorders
What you need:
- Sampling rate of 44.1 kHz (that’s 44100 Hz)
- a mic socket
- ideally, some way to control loudness
Digital recorders - MDs
• Cheap• Easy-ish to use
• Digital – ie high fdelity, no loss of generations, high quality
• Can NOW download sound direct via USB port (HD MD players)
Digital recorders - MDs
• Watch out for your TOC (Table of Contents)
– Stop recording frequently – Make sure your battery lives
Get rid of the STUPID lavalier mic!!! Some data compression (but not
Microphones (Mics)
Choices you have to make • Condenser or dynamic • Pick-up pattern
• Large or small
Microphones
Dynamic vs Condenser
Dynamic mics…
• Need no external power.
• Durable.
Microphones
Dynamic vs Condenser
Condenser mics…
• Require phantom power • Fragile
Microphones
Directional vs
Omnidirectional
Simple…
Directional go in a direction
Omnidirectional pick up everything
Microphones
Directional
There are diferent types of directional mics
• Most common are cardioid (heart-shaped)
Mixer
The mixer allows you to take
diferent sound channels and, um, mix them.
• Mic inputs • Line inputs • Outputs
Care of your equipment
Hold your mics properly
Don’t put any strain on fimsy sockets
• Have SOMETHING that can hold them steady (if possible)
• Ideally, don’t pull the jacks in and out constantly. BUT if they are not being held steady, DO NOT travel with your cables connected.
• Clean your tape heads regularly.
Lecture Three
Interviewing for Broadcast
Planning the Interview
• What do you want from the interview
• Can the interviewee give you that? • What are you going to ask?
Planning the Interview
• An intro:
“Kuala Lumpur was cloaked in haze today. Radiq Radio reporter Sonia Randhawa is talking to Dr Chan to fnd out how this afects our health.” Or “I’m Sonia Randhawa, interviewing
Dr Chan of University Malaysia on
Planning the Interview
• An outro:
Choosing the interviewee
• Before you start, talk to the interviewee
Choosing the interviewee
• Before you start, talk to the interviewee
Choosing the interviewee
• Before you start, talk to the interviewee
Choosing the interviewee
• Before you start, talk to the interviewee
What are you looking for? • What do they sound like? • Are they interesting?
Doing the Interview
• Keep calm
• Ask SHORT questions – your
interviewee can’t wriggle out of them!
• Make sure you can be understood – no jargon
Doing the Interview
• Don’t just rely on the recorded interview
– Take notes with PEN AND PAPER!
• Remember the TOC edit/ write
After the Interview
• Have you got what you wanted?
– Content – Quality – Quantity
After the Interview
• How could you have improved with the interview?
– A better interviewee? – More preparation?
After the interview
After the interview
• Edit the interview – if you’re using an MD you can mark of the
Interviewing in the studio
• Equipment isn’t as a big a deal! • Water!
Interviewing in the studio
• Making your guest feel comfortable:
Power & You
• Think about the power relations between you and the interviewee • How does this change if you’re
