UNIT- 2

WRITING SKILLS FOR RADIO

Writing for Radio – Radio is a fast, easy media that targets everyone, from highly educated
people to less knowledgeable ones. The writing must therefore be short, simple, in present
tense... easy to listen to and to memorize. The first rule is to properly understand what you're
writing about. If you fail to do so, you will write badly. Understanding is the key to explaining,
and the basis to the informal contract between a journalist and his audience.
It may be that you are broadcasting to millions of people, but you must write your story as if you
are telling it to just one person. You should write as if someone you know personally is listening.
Picture a favourite uncle or aunt, cousin or brother and imagine that you are speaking to him or
her. Your style must, therefore, be conversational and as far as possible simple. Remember also
that, unlike a newspaper story, your listeners or viewers cannot go back on the bulletin to hear
again something they have missed. Nor can their eyes jump around within a story or a page
searching for the information they want. In broadcasting the words and sentences are heard once
only, one after the other, and all the information must be presented in such a way that it is
understandable straight away. This is often called a linear flow of information because it goes in
a line in one direction.
You must help your listeners by presenting information concisely and logically.
You must always remember that by switching on a radio set, the listeners are inviting you into
their homes, their workplaces and their cars.
Write and speak as if you were talking to them as individuals, face-to-face.

K-I-S-S Rule-Keep it short and simple.

You should not try to get too much information into any sentence. Although you use the
inverted pyramid style of story writing, you may only be able to use one or two concepts
(ideas) per sentence. You cannot get as much detail into a radio or television story as you can
into a newspaper story.
You cannot expect your listener to understand the Who? What? Where? When? Why?
and How? of a story all in the first paragraph or even the first two paragraphs.
Although as a good journalist you should not leave any essential questions unanswered, you
may find that it takes all the time available for a single story to communicate only a few basic
facts. It is often said that you could put all the words in a ten minute radio bulletin on one
page of a newspaper.
Stick to one or two key points per sentence.

Use up-to-date tenses

The single greatest advantage of broadcasting is immediacy. You can inform your listener as
an event is happening, or immediately afterwards, without waiting for typesetters or printing
presses. Do not waste that advantage.
Keep all tenses as up-to-date as possible. Use the present tense or the tense nearest to the
present and, whenever possible, use a continuous tense to tell your listener that a thing is still
happening, as they listen.
Do not use quotes
Do not use quotes in radio or television stories. If you want your listeners to hear the words as
they were spoken, record them on tape and use them as actuality (the actual sound of
something or someone, sometimes also called audio). This ability to hear people speak is one
of the great benefits of broadcasting.
Also, quotes in broadcasting cannot work as they do in print, where the readers can see the
quotation marks. It is just as effective to turn quotes into reported speech

Put attribution first

Attribution in radio and television goes at the front of a sentence, as it would if you were
talking to that favourite aunt.
This is unlike traditional newspaper style, which commonly puts attribution such as he said at
the end of the sentence, after the quote.
In newspapers, readers can see both the quote and the attribution together. In radio and
television, your listeners need to know who was speaking before they can judge what was
said. Remember the linear structure of broadcast news.

Avoid unfamiliar words

If a newspaper reader does not understand a word, he or she can return to it and maybe look it
up in a dictionary before proceeding to the rest of the story. Your listeners cannot do this.
By the time they have worked out the meaning of an unfamiliar word, the story will be over
and they will have missed all the other details.
If you have to use an unfamiliar word or name, you must not hit your listeners with it without
warning. You should never put it as the first word in your paragraph, but work your way
towards it over familiar ground.

Repeat important words

Because radio and television listeners do not pay attention all the time, and because people
often switch on their sets half-way through a bulletin, it is important that you repeat the
essential features several times in the story.
They might be half-listening to the radio or TV until something - perhaps a word relevant to
them or their interest - triggers their attention. They then 'tune in' with their mind but, because
of the linear nature of broadcast news, they cannot go back and retrieve any words they have
missed. So repeat important words at least once in the story.
Of course, too much repetition can be boring, so do not overdo it.

Keep punctuation simple

Keep punctuation as simple as possible. In broadcast news, punctuation marks are not only
there for grammatical reasons. They also give the newsreader clues on breathing.
In general, the only punctuation marks you need are the full stop, comma, question mark and
dash. Some writers like to use a series of dots to denote a pause, as in the following example:
The Prime Minister... speaking at a business lunch... said the economy is looking brighter.
Where two words go together to form a single concept, hyphenate them whether or not it is
grammatically correct to do so. For example, write mini-market, winding-rope, pocket-book.
Simplify numbers
Numbers should be included to inform, not to confuse - either the newsreader or the listener.
Wherever there is the possibility of confusing the newsreader, write the number in full.
Better still, round off large figures, so that the example above becomes "almost three million".
This simplifies matters for both the newsreader and the listeners.
 The same rule applies to fractions. Write them in full, for example one-half, three-quartersetc.
With money, spell out the units, so that $1.50 becomes "one-dollar-fifty".

Avoid abbreviations
As a general rule, avoid abbreviations. You can, of course, use "Mr” or "Mrs" in your script,
but do not abbreviate other titles.
Where the initials of an organisation are read as a word, write them as such, for example
Nato, Asean, Apec.
But if they must be read individually, separate each letter with a dot, as in U.N., P.N.G. or
Y.M.C.A. Some broadcasters prefer to hyphenate the letters, to make it even clearer that they
must be read out separately, for example P-N-G.
The first reference must be written in full unless the initials are widely understood on their
own - as are the three examples above.
Do not use the abbreviations a.m. or p.m. There is always a better way which tells your
listeners much more. Phrases like "this morning" or "tomorrow afternoon" mean much more
to most listeners.
Give a guide to pronunciation
Pronunciation is a very large field. Most newsrooms should have a pronunciation guide for
place names and other difficult foreign words.
Good dictionaries should give you correct pronunciations, but if you are in doubt, check with
a senior journalist or someone who is likely to know the correct pronunciation. For example,
if it is the name of a species of fish, check with a fisheries officer.
When writing an unfamiliar word for the newsreader, make their task as simple as possible by
writing it phonetically. For example, the state of Arkansas should be written as ARK-en-sor;
the French word gendarme becomes JON-darm, placing the stress on the syllable in capital
letters.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF RADIO

Every Radio programme is, in fact, a message to the listeners. If this message is communicated
to and understood by the listeners and appreciated, then radio writing can be considered effective
and fruitful. A message through radio or any other medium has certain codes from the sender,
and one who receives the message decodes them. Let us understand this by some simple
examples.
When we talk to each other, then the codes which work to deliver the message are:
• Spoken words
• Facial expressions
• Body gestures such as hand movements
The person to whom we are talking decades i.e. understands these. For instance, just by staring
sternly, a father can convey his anger or disapproval to his child. A professor can stop a student
from coming late to the class just by a movement of his hand. In the print medium, i.e. books,
magazines, newspapers etc., written words, pictures, tables, graphs etc., work as 'codes' to take
the message to the readers. Now, let us try to understand the codes which work for a radio
message, i.e. the basic elements which create the ‘language of radio’. Whenever we listen to any
programme of any radio station from any part of the world, and we shall hear only these four:
• Spoken words
• Sound effects
• Music
• Pause or Silence
Words are the most important part of any radio programme. These words are different from
printed words because they reach a listener through a ‘human voice’ and thus are 'spoken words.
Words of radio form a double code. Their meaning is embellished by the beauty of language and,
second, the voice in which these are rendered. Thus, the quality of voice and the delivery of
words can make the language of radio more effective, depending on the style of presentation. In
brief, we may say that:
• Words used in a radio programme are spoken words.
• These give a feel of human presence.
• These also reflect some aspects of the speaker’s personality.
• These may tell us about the ‘broadcast stations’ or even the country where the broadcast is
coming.

Because radio is a blind medium with no visuals, appropriate sound effects enrich the visuals
created by spoken words in listeners’ minds. Radio plays, and documentaries take immense help
from suitable sound effects. Music also helps in developing the language of radio. For example,
a musical piece of just 30 seconds, played as a ‘signature tune’, identifies the broadcast
institution and the individual programme. Similarly, the effect of an opening or dropping curtain
in a theatre is achieved by ‘fade in’ and ‘fade out’ of music in a radio drama. The background
music in a radio drama helps make a scene lively. Radio is a sound medium, but the absence of
any sound is also an important part of the language of radio. The most interesting contradiction
is that no radio programme can be imagined without natural and even deliberate pauses or
silences. Pause is an integral part of the grammar of radio. A pause in radio replaces the use of a
comma or full stop in print.
In radio, we try to paint a picture through spoken words as radio is a blind medium. Hence, if we
say that the height of Bhakra Dam is 740 feet, it may not conjure a picture. But, if we say that
Bhakra Dam is as high as three Qutub Minars put one above the other, it will make a visual
impact in a listener's mind. We may also say that the height of Qutub Minar is the same as 125
people standing on one above the other. It again creates a visual. Still, on the radio, it will be
appropriate to say that Tokyo is the capital of Japan, Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital, and
Jakarta is Indonesia's capital, thus avoiding using the word ‘respectively’. We avoid using
complex and complicated sentences in radio language.
Simple words and short sentences are the requirements of radio communication. Likewise, while
talking about history, instead of saying '1520 AD', it might be better to say approximately 500
years ago. Long figures such as ‘Rupees 15 lakhs 53 thousands 9 hundred 74’ may be better said
as ‘about 15 and a half lakhs’ or ‘more than 15 lakhs’.
While listening to the radio; therefore, we should keep our words simple and friendly as in our
normal conversation. Long and complicated sentences need to be avoided. Short sentences and
simple words are essential requirements of radio language.
 NEWS BULLETIN: TYPES AND ELEMENTS

A bulletin-
Also known as an announcement- is a collection or summary of current news broadcasted over
the radio or TV. It consists of reports that discuss matters of public interest that are then issued to
be aired straightaway- usually live.
A bulletin is a brief radio news broadcast, giving the bare facts of news stories before more depth
is added in a full programme. A bulletin (also called a summary) is usually broadcast on the hour
or half hour.
Journalistic writing skills - the art of being clear, concise and factual - are much the same
whether for print, online or broadcast. However, composing a radio bulletin also involves editing
skills - selecting and prioritising stories.
If you are writing a bulletin you must source, select, check, write and rank stories. A three-
minute summary normally has about eight stories, two or three with a piece of audio (e.g.
illustrated with an audio clip of someone speaking).
The anchor and the whole team are liable for the bulletin. It is made out of headlines, anchor
intros, reports and copies. It's a melody. It last between 10 and 15 minutes, or more, depending
on the radio station. Usually, there are a few bulletins in the morning, a long one at noon and a
long one in the evening. As with everything in radio, it must be prepared, written, and is read out
loud as many times as necessary before the anchor reads it on air.
Types of News Bulletin
Main Bulletins
AIR broadcasts hourly news bulletins. There are however, three main bulletins in English and
Hindi, broadcast in the morning, afternoon and evening. The morning bulletin in English iscalled
the Morning News and Samachar Prabhat in Hindi.
It is divided into three segments;
 the main news,
 a topical commentary
 a look at the newspapers' and
 finally the main points.
The segment, 'A look at the newspapers' has been designed to provide the listener with an
overview of the lead and other front page stories, editorials and sports stories in the National
Dailies. The compiling editor is assisted by two editors, one looks after the segment on
Commentary and the other 'A look at the newspapers'.
Generally, the break-up of 15 minutes programmes is like this:
 Main News- 8 minutes
 Commentary- 2.5 minutes
 A Look at the Newspapers- 2.5 minutes
 Headline and Signature tune- 2 minutes
The day and evening bulletins cover all the major developments of the shift. The five minute
duration 1800 hours bulletin in English and the 1805 hours bulletin in Hindi, give a resume of
important happenings during the day. They are treated as a preview of the 15-minutes Hindi and
English bulletins at 2045 and 2 100 hours. These bulletins give the listener a roundup of the
major events of the day. There are also hourly bulletins of five minutes each giving the listeners
the latest' news.
Language Bulletins
Language bulletins broadcast from Delhi and Regional stations are widely listened. You would
be surprised to know that the listener-ship of these bulletins is much more than the combined
listener-ship of all the English bulletins! The language bulletins broadcast from Delhi have a
national character to give the listener a feel of the important national and international events in
his/her language. The bulletins, however, do include important regional items.

External Bulletins
The News Services Division of All India Radio, broadcasts three types of External bulletins.
English bulletins targeted at foreigners and Indians living abroad, foreign language bulletins like
Chinese, Burmese, Russian and French for foreigners and Hindi and other language bulletins for
Indians living abroad. Indian languages such as; Bengali, Tamil,Telugu, Punjabi, Sindhi and
Urdu are spoken in our neighbourhood and bulletins in these languages have a wide listenership.
A common misconception among people is that external bulletins should carry more foreign
news. In these days of satellite television the notion that we will be the first to break a news, say
about African region to the people of that area will be entirely misplaced as other local sources
are better equipped to tell them about the happenings in their regions.

Special bulletins
We have been speaking so far mainly about regular news bulletins. There are, however, special
bulletins which need considering.
News flashes
A news flash is when the newsreader breaks into a program on-air to read an important, urgent
news story, such as a major disaster or the death of a national leader. The news flash should only
be used on extremely important stories.
Urgent news which arrives in the studio as the bulletin is going to air should be read at the next
most suitable break in the bulletin, although it usually makes sense to use it at the end of the
bulletin, just before any closing headlines.
The newsreader should have the story as soon as possible, so that they can decide where in the
bulletin to use it. If you intended ending the bulletin with a light story and the flash comes
through of a major air crash, you must drop the light story.
It is possible to interrupt a non-news program for a news flash, although you must warn people
in the studio that you are coming with the flash. The best method of introducing a flash is for the
program presenter to introduce the newsreader with words like: "Now we interrupt the program
to cross over to the news desk for some urgent news."
The newsreader should then read the story in their usual tone, speaking clearly and repeating
details. If you only have one sentence, you can read it twice to get the message across clearly.
You should end with words like: "Those are all the details available at the moment. We will give
full details in our next bulletin, at six o'clock."
Weekend bulletins
You may need to treat weekend news bulletins in a slightly different way from weekday
bulletins, because there are usually fewer stories available.
You will need to re-assess newsworthiness at weekends, perhaps running stories which you
would not use at other times. Your listeners will understand this. In fact, they may even welcome
a change from a diet of death, disaster and politics.
You may want to make your weekend bulletins shorter and perhaps include a segment on sports
news. You may want to save lighter stories during the week to run at the weekend, as long as you
still cover the major events as well.
Bulletins of a day
Morning Bulletins: Early morning news bulletins present the previous evening’s important
headlines, overnight developments and early morning updates. The objective here is to cover
yesterday’s news briefly.
People who prefer to get updates on their way to office so people tune in to radio news. Notes
Kallu Tapu. Kuch Kuch Naam Purcelena Beach Ramesh

Introduction: Good afternoon, I’m from La Trobe Live and this is the 2pm news update.
Whether you work for radio, television or online media, all your effort as a broadcast journalist
leads ultimately to one thing - the time when your listeners and viewers hear what you have
produced. This can be a news bulletin, a current affairs program or a longer form documentary.
You have to use your on-air time effectively. Understand the principles of producing radio
bulletins, adapting to the style of your particular newsroom.
The principles of bulletin preparation
Radio bulletins are usually made up from three types of material:
written stories in the form of a script;
voice reports from journalists, either recorded or live;
Recorded sound called actuality. This is usually the sound of someone speaking, perhaps
taken from an interview or a speech. A short segment of actuality is called a grab. Grabs are
used in a similar way to quotes in a newspaper story. In some countries, grabs are
called cuts or inserts.
Preparing a bulletin should not be difficult if you remember the basic principles of news
reporting. Remind yourself of the criteria for what is news: Is it new, unusual, interesting,
significant and about people?
Each of these criteria will help you to decide what stories you should include in your bulletin
and where you should place them within your five, 10 or 15 minutes. It is usual to give the most
important story first and the least important story last. If you are putting together your first
bulletin, stick to this technique.
However, once you feel confident that you can put together a simple bulletin, you can start to
consider some extra factors which will change it from a list of stories to a proper bulletin.
The two main factors you have to consider are the overall order or balance of the bulletin and
the pace of it.
Balance- Try to avoid seeing the bulletin simply as a collection of individual, self-contained
stories. If you put a string of economic stories (however important) at the start of the bulletin,
you risk losing your listeners' interest.
They expect a balance of items, some heavy and some light, some about major political events
and some about ordinary people. Of course, the actual mix of stories, their tone and pace of
delivery will depend to a degree on the format of your station; serious national broadcasters
tend to use more serious stories, delivered in a more deliberate style whereas youth-oriented
music station bulletins might be lighter and brighter with more stories about popular culture.
Whatever your station format, your ranking of stories in order in the bulletin will give your
listeners some indication of how important you consider each story. But there is some freedom
within bulletins to re-order stories to add variety and balance to the bulletin as a whole.
Pace – They must also get the right pace of stories through your bulletin. By pace we mean the
length and tone of a story as it appears to the listeners.
Some stories have a fast pace. The report of a fire, for example, will usually be written in short
sentences, using short snappy words to convey simple ideas. It will have a fast pace.
By comparison, a story explaining some involved political controversy may need slightly longer
sentences with words expressing more complicated ideas. The story itself may need to be
slightly longer. The whole effect is one of a slower pace.
Too many long complicated stories will slow the pace of the whole bulletin and allow the
attention of your listeners to wander. Too many short, sharp stories may leave listeners confused,
unable to keep up with the pace of changing stories.
Your ideal bulletin will have a steady pace throughout to maintain interest, with variations in
pace during certain sections; slower at times to let your listeners catch their breath or faster at
other times to pick up their lagging interest.
How do you achieve balance and pace in practice? You should rank your stories in order of
importance then look at the order afresh, to see that you have a good balance of items and
variations in pace.
You may decide that you’re most important three stories are all rather serious political stories
about taxation, health insurance and an internal party squabble. Ask yourself: "What will my
listeners think of three minutes of this at the start of the bulletin?" If you think they will be
bored, what about putting the report of a street fight up to the third place in the bulletin, to inject
some pace into that section? This may force your party argument story into fourth place, but you
will now be giving it new life by changing pace after the street fight story.

Structuring the bulletin - Now you understand the basic principles behind building a news
bulletin, you can start thinking about how the stories and components such as headlines and
actuality can fit. Bulletins are the broadcasting equivalent of a page on a newspaper, except that
in radio and television you are more limited in where you place the different parts because, as we
know, news bulletins are linear, therefore all the elements must be placed along the line of time
so they are used most effectively.
Starting the bulletin - The start is the most important part of any radio bulletin. It determines
whether or not your listeners will stay tuned. Just as the intro is the most important part of a
news story, the lead item is the most important one in the bulletin. If your listeners find this
boring, they will assume that there is nothing better to come and go out to dig the garden.
If you are faced with a choice between two stories of equal strength for your bulletin lead,
choose the story which is more dramatic. If your obvious lead story is rather dull, you should
write it in such a way as to add life. Keep the sentences short, the ideas clear and simple.
Although you should try to write every story well, you should give special attention to your lead
story. This is the one by which listeners will judge the bulletin.
Headlines - Once you have decided on the order of stories, you should write some headlines for
the bulletin. It is usual to start a long bulletin by headlining the major stories. This may not be
necessary for a short, three-minute bulletin, but for longer bulletins your listeners will want to
know what kind of stories they can expect.
Your listeners will use the headlines to judge whether or not the bulletin is worth listening to, so
write your headlines to promote the stories in the most powerful way possible.
It is good practice to headline the first two or three most important stories, and also one or two
dramatic stories which come later in the bulletin. Many stations also like to headline the final
story, on the assumption that, if they make the headline attractive enough, listeners will stay
tuned to the entire bulletin until they hear that story.
You should write headlines for dramatic stories in such a way that you hint at the drama without
giving away all the details. Remember that if you tell everything in the headlines, listeners have
no need to hear the rest of the bulletin.
In English bulletins, headlines do not have to be grammatically complete. They can be more like
newspaper headlines, stripped down to the main words. The following are examples of possible
headlines:
"More trouble for the Asean alliance."
"Twelve die in a mine blast."
"Why Russia is angry with Israel."
When writing headlines about announcements or humorous stories, it is best to be mysterious, to
keep the real information secret until the listeners hear the story itself. Such headlines are
sometimes called teasers, because the tease the listeners' interest.
For example, if you have a story about rising petrol prices, you might write the headline
"Motorists face another shock at the petrol pumps". Never write the headline "Petrol is to rise by
10 cents a litre" - that gives the whole story away, and your listener can now tune to another
station's bulletin or go and dig the garden again.
Closing stories - Sometimes called tail-enders, closing stories are almost as important as lead
stories. They are the last stories your listeners will hear and remember from the bulletin. You
need to choose them carefully. However, because many listeners do not maintain their attention
throughout the whole bulletin, you should not keep your best stories to the end.
Light or funny stories make the best tail-enders. They add relief and a change of pace to heavy
bulletins. They should be written in a more informal way than other stories, possibly with a play
on words which your listeners will appreciate.
It is usual in English radio bulletins to signal the light tail-ender with the words "And finally...",
as in the following example:
And finally, police in Apia are looking for a thief who broke into a house last night ... and left his
trousers behind.
Be careful, though. Humorous stories may not be appropriate if the rest of the bulletin is
dominated by a major tragedy.
Closing headlines- With longer bulletins, you can use closing headlines to remind your listeners
of stories they may (or may not) have heard 10 minutes earlier.
Again they should be the major stories of the bulletin, excluding the tail-ender, which they
should have just heard anyway.
Unlike opening headlines, which should attract your listeners to listen to the bulletin, closing
headlines are simply there as a service, especially to listeners who may have tuned in late.
Each closing headline should be a summary of the main point of the story, written in one
sentence. Any longer and they become a repeat of the story itself. Do not simply repeat the
opening headline or intro of each story as a closing headline. This is laziness which does not
serve your listeners. Never repeat teasers as closing headlines: give the details.
Closing headlines are usually introduced with a phrase like: "Now to summarise the main
stories, ..."
Actuality - Short grabs of actuality are a useful part of news bulletins, for a number of reasons:
They can often tell the story more effectively than a script. If your story is about a violent protest
outside an embassy, a 10-second grab of demonstrators chanting and shouting will convey the
atmosphere better than any words.
They can add variety to the pace of the bulletin, breaking up a long section of reading by one
voice. On the practical side, they allow the newsreader to take a 30 or 40 second rest.
They are often a chance to let people within your community speak on the radio. People like to
hear their own voice on radio occasionally, or the voices of people they know.
Using a grab of someone speaking can convince listeners that the person really did say a certain
thing. They might not believe your report that the Government is resigning. When they hear the
Prime Minister announcing it, they have to believe.
Actuality grabs should be kept short (between 20 and 40 seconds), clear and well-edited. A
minute-long grab of a dull voice will slow the pace of your bulletin and may force listeners to
switch off.
Grabs must be introduced, stating clearly who will be speaking. You only need to identify a
person after paying the actuality (called back-announcing) if the grab is long and the voice is
not familiar.
Grabs in languages other than your own should be overdubbed with a translation. This means
that you fade down (reduce) the sound of the original speaker until it can only just be heard, then
play the voice of the translator over it.

You can occasionally use grabs in languages other than your own without overdubbing, but only
if you know that your listeners will be able to understand them. A short grab in simple language
may be usable without an overdub, especially when it is used to show the emotion behind a
speech, rather than the content.
It is occasionally possible to open the bulletin with dramatic piece of actuality, then explain it
with a back-announcement. Such a grab must be dramatic, short and make sense to your
listeners. For example, a radio journalist used a 10-second grab of guns firing and people
screaming during the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, then back-announced:
"The guns which destroyed the hopes of peace in the Middle East as President Anwar Sadat of
Egypt was assassinated."
Only use such opening grabs on special occasions, otherwise they lose their effect. Also, it is not
good to play the grab before the opening theme, as it will confuse your listeners.
Music - Never use music as background to a news bulletin. It is distracting and ruins any
variations in pace within the bulletin.
A special theme should be used to announce the bulletin and may occasionally be used within
the bulletin, perhaps to separate different segments. We call such short music
inserts stabs or stings.
Your opening theme should be short and dramatic. It should either end before the presenter starts
reading or should be faded out under their opening words. Many record companies now produce
selections of electronic or instrumental themes especially for use as stabs.
Any stabs within the bulletin should echo the opening theme as a link throughout the bulletin.
However, too many stabs will annoy the listener and reduce the amount of time available for real
news.
It is possible to use a closing theme at the end of the bulletin, although this should be different
from the opening theme (you do not want to fool your listeners into thinking that this is the start
of the bulletin). The best compromise is to use the opening bars of a theme at the start of the
bulletin and use the closing bars at the end.
Timing your bulletin - There is never enough time on radio for all the stories a journalist would
like to include, so the timing of your bulletin is very important. By careful timing you will be
able to include all your important stories, giving adequate details of each.
The exact time of each item depends upon:
 How long the whole bulletin is;
 How many items you need to include;
 How many grabs of actuality you want to use.
You have to balance these three considerations. If your bulletin is 15 minutes long you can use
up to 20 stories, several of them with grabs, and still treat each story properly. If the bulletin is
only five minutes, long you might not manage more than seven or eight items and have time for
only one or two short pieces of actuality.
Because some important stories can be told briefly and some less important stories need lots of
explanation, you cannot set a fixed time for each story. However, if you aim to tell each story in
about 30 to 45 seconds, you will be able to cover the news properly and in some detail.
If you have a number of less important stories which you want to mention, run them as briefs at
the end of the bulletin. Briefs are short stories, no longer than one or two sentences each. They
are not designed to tell the whole news, simply to let people know that something has happened.
The inclusion of briefs also helps to increase the pace of the bulletin if the rest of the stories are
long and heavy.
If you are a newsreader too, you must always read your bulletin through fully before going to air.
Use this opportunity to time each item, writing the time in the bottom right-hand corner.
Eventually you will be able to look at a piece of copy and estimate within a second how long it
will take to read. Initially, timing each item with a watch will help you to develop the skill. Some
modern newsroom computer systems can automatically calculate the duration of a story based
on the number of words and the newsreader’s reading rate.
Below, in the section Reading rate, we give some practical advice on how to calculate the length
of your bulletin and its components.
Always take more copy than you need into the studio, just in case you have misjudged your
timing or you have problems with a piece of audio which does not play. The extra copy may be a
story which you would not normally consider important enough for the bulletin, but which will
provide a useful reserve in emergencies.
Keep glancing at the studio clock as you read the bulletin so that you can make adjustments,
adding or taking away stories. And always be ready to use that extra story in an emergency.
In some cases, when your bulletin comes before a current affairs segment, you will not need to
run full details of some stories in the news. You can say something like: "We will have full
details of this story in our current affairs program after this bulletin."

Special bulletins - We have been speaking so far mainly about regular news bulletins. There are,
however, special bulletins which need considering.
News flashes - A news flash is when the newsreader breaks into a program on-air to read an
important, urgent news story, such as a major disaster or the death of a national leader. The news
flash should only be used on extremely important stories.
Urgent news which arrives in the studio as the bulletin is going to air should be read at the next
most suitable break in the bulletin, although it usually makes sense to use it at the end of the
bulletin, just before any closing headlines.
The newsreader should have the story as soon as possible, so that they can decide where in the
bulletin to use it. If you intended ending the bulletin with a light story and the flash comes
through of a major air crash, you must drop the light story.
It is possible to interrupt a non-news program for a news flash, although you must warn people
in the studio that you are coming with the flash. The best method of introducing a flash is for the
program presenter to introduce the newsreader with words like: "Now we interrupt the program
to cross over to the news desk for some urgent news."
The newsreader should then read the story in their usual tone, speaking clearly and repeating
details. If you only have one sentence, you can read it twice to get the message across clearly.
You should end with words like: "Those are all the details available at the moment. We will give
full details in our next bulletin, at six o'clock."
Weekend bulletins - You may need to treat weekend news bulletins in a slightly different way
from weekday bulletins, because there are usually fewer stories available.
You will need to re-assess newsworthiness at weekends, perhaps running stories which you
would not use at other times. Your listeners will understand this. In fact, they may even welcome
a change from a diet of death, disaster and politics.
You may want to make your weekend bulletins shorter and perhaps include a segment on sports
news. You may want to save lighter stories during the week to run at the weekend, as long as you
still cover the major events as well.
Current affairs programs - Current affairs programs can be seen in some ways as similar to
news bulletins, except with fewer but longer reports. While a news bulletin story or segment is
usually measured in seconds, a current affairs program segment may be several minutes long.
Similarly to a news bulletin, a script will be prepared for the segment reporter to work from and
to show editors and program producers and presenters what is being said. It should contain the
words the reporter will read and usually contain a transcript of what any talent, such as
interviewees, said, although in busy newsrooms there may not be a full transcript, only the first
few words and last few words of what they said, possibly with the duration of their speaking.
This is to help producers, directors and program presenters/anchors know what is coming up and
help them to time the progress of the segment itself and the current affairs program as a whole.
The script should also contain an announcer introduction (known in the US as an anchor intro)
which is read by the program presenter to introduce that segment. It will usually be only a few
sentences short and contain not only the main news angle or direction of the report but also
information such as the reporter's name and the place where the segment comes from.
A segment script will also often contain a back announcement, a few sentences at the very end
which will be read by the presenter in the studio after the segment finishes. It may repeat the key
essential point or just the reporter's name and location.
In large newsrooms and where the presenter is also an experienced journalist, he or she may
write their own introduction and back-announcement based on what they know or have read
about the segment.
Practical techniques - There are many practical techniques which will make the job of
preparing news bulletins easier and more professional. If you use these techniques, they will help
you to overcome many of the problems which inexperienced journalists can encounter.
Ranking stories - One of the major problems in bulletin preparation is ranking the stories in
correct order. Just follow some simple steps.
First read through all the stories available. Then go through them again, making three lists (or
selecting the stories on to three piles). These categories should be:
1. Important stories which you must use;
2. Stories which you can use, but which are not so important;
3. Stories which you cannot use, for any reason.
First look at the stories in category one. Calculate roughly how much news these will give you
(if each story will be approximately 40 seconds long and you have four of them, they will take
about 2 minutes 40 seconds to read).
Now choose enough stories from category two to more than fill the remaining time. Together
with your essential category one stories, decide the order in which you want to use them, taking
into account their importance, length and pace.
You can combine stories on similar topics, either running them as one story or as two stories
linked with words such as "Meanwhile" or "Still on the subject of ...". A word of caution. Do not
combine too many stories, because they will become a shapeless mass and you will lose the
impact of separate intros.
Reading rate - It is very useful to know your reading rate or the reading rate of the newsreader
who will read the bulletin. Once you know how long it will take you (or the newsreader) to read
one line of type, you can time your bulletin by counting lines, rather than by timing yourself
each time you practice.
Reading rates are calculated in words per second (wps) and usually range from 2 wps for
slower readers in some languages to 3.5 wps for quite rapid readers in other languages.
Ask a colleague to help you calculate your reading rate. Get them to time 60 seconds while you
read a short piece of news script. Mark where you stop after 60 seconds. Add up how many
words you read in 60 seconds and write this number down. Repeat this process ten more times
with different scripts. To calculate the average number of words you read in 60 seconds, add up
all the numbers from the ten scripts and divide the total by ten. Divide this figure by 60 to get
your reading rate in words per second.
For example, you might find that over 10 scripts, you read 125, 126, 119, 123, 118, 120, 122,
126, 118 and 117 words in 60 seconds. Add these up; they total 1214 words. Divide this by 10 to
get the average number of words per script (121). Now divide this average by 60 to get the
number of words per second. The answer is roughly 2 words per second - your average reading
rate.
Once you know your average reading rate, you can estimate how long it will take to read each
story. Of course, you will not want to count all the words in all your stories; this would take too
long. It is better to count just the number of lines.
First, count how many words there are in 50 lines of your standard news scripts, then divide the
total by 50. This will give you the average number of words per line. For example, if there are
600 words in 50 lines of script, the average is 12 words per line.
Now you can calculate how long it takes you to read a line of script. For example, if your
reading rate is 2 words per second and your script contains an average of 12 words per line, you
can read one line in 6 seconds (12 divided by 2). By counting the total number of lines in each
story, you can calculate quite accurately how long they will take to read. For example, a story
with 8 lines of type will take 48 seconds to read (8 times 6). Mark the time on the bottom right-
hand corner of each story.
One final step is to add up the times for all your stories. This will tell you the total time it will
take to read them all. When you are adding up total reading time for the bulletin, add an extra
two seconds for the pause between each story.
(One tip on counting lines: If the final line in the paragraph ends less than half way across the
page, ignore it. Count only those lines which end more than half way across the page. Over a
number of paragraphs, this will average out accurately.)
Of course, you may need a calculator to work out all the sums, but it is worth the effort. Once
you learn how to calculate the length of your bulletins, you will be able to time them accurately.
After many years, you may become so experienced that you can judge the length of a bulletin
just by looking at it.
The script - Most newsrooms today use computers to produce news stories and features which
newsreaders can either print out. Intend copies are more common in radio than in television,
where the autocue is the main method of projecting the script into the newsreader/presenter's line
of sight with the principal camera.
If your newsroom uses printed scripts - either as the main "read" or as a back-up - they must be
typed neatly, with any last-minute changes clearly crossed out. If you make more than a couple
of crossings-out, re-print that script.
Start a new paragraph for each sentence and type double-spaced. Type only one story per sheet,
as this will make it easier to find stories if you want to drop or insert them during the bulletin.
Use good quality paper which will not rustle as you move it.
Never turn a phrase from one line to the next and certainly never hyphenate words from one line
to the next.
Never staple the pages of your bulletin together. You must be able to pull the sheets aside
noiselessly as you read them. Stack the stories neatly on one side after you have read them; do
not throw them on the floor.
Even if you read “off the screen”, much of the above advice still holds though the challenge now
is how to manage the scrolling of the script and the re-arrangement of stories while you read. As
mentioned earlier, television newsreaders usually read from an autocue operated by another
member of the production staff. Radio newsreaders seldom have such help so have to present
their bulletins single-handed.
Whether you work in radio or television, if your news stories and bulletins are well-prepared in
an orderly manner, you will make your work easier and serve your audience more effectively.
 10 tips for producing radio bulletins

Putting together a radio news bulletin is like preparing a satisfying meal that leaves your
audience nourished and prepared for the day; what you produce has to be balanced and
digestible.
1: Remember who is listening and broadcast for them
You need to know who is tuning in for the information you are delivering and what they need to
know. A local, region or national audience is not the same as an international audience. Each will
have different needs, although all will require a mix of information. Your job is to focus on the
news that is relevant to your regular listeners.
Your top stories are not necessarily the biggest international stories of the day, although they
could be. Your job, and the task of the news team you work with, is to focus on covering the
issues that have the most impact on the lives of your target audience. These top stories will
define how close your news organization is to that audience.
The audience will be listening for information that they can use. The stories you include in your
bulletin must make up their staple diet of "must know" information. This story choice will
reinforce your credibility as a relevant information provider in the minds of your audience.
Ideally you should be stimulating a daily conversation about the issues that matter to your
listeners.
Putting the most important stories first guarantees that listeners who tune in for the start of your
bulletin catch the most relevant news, even if they cannot listen to your entire bulletin.
You need to know who your listeners are and cover the issues that concern them.

2: Variety is the spice of life

Offer an information mix. Life is multi-coloured and multi-faceted, and so is news.If you are
covering politics you must highlight how the issue affect the lives of your audience and not
dwell on the politics alone. Always find someone affected by the issue and don't just feature
those in positions of power who are talking about the issue.
If you are covering a corruption story it's important that you talk to either the victims or carry
out a vox pop in the street to try to find out what the general feeling is about the issue. Ideally,
you should always try to include the voice of those affected by whatever the story is
highlighting.
Your audience will have a wide range of interests and concerns including health, education, jobs,
homes, science and technology, culture, social developments, sports etc. Most of the time this
means that you have to provide a mix of news, current affairs and other information items.
Your bulletin should be wide-ranging in its subject matter

3: Would you want to listen to yourself?

A voice that pleases is important for ensuring that the audience returns. Record a few of your
bulletins and listen to them. Would you like to listen to that voice every day? If not, do
something about it.
Audio creates emotions. An attractive voice that catches the attention of the audience is
important. The last thing you want is a grating voice that makes people switch off.
Avoid the sing-song voice that plays the same tune for every sentence, going up in tone at the
beginning of the sentence and then dropping down at the end regardless of what is being said.
And never give the impression that you think you know more than the audience. There will be
someone listening who knows far more than you. Never patronise.
The last thing you want is a grating voice that makes people switch off.
4: Small may be striking
Longer is not necessarily better. A seven-minute news bulletin is not going to be an improvement
on five minutes if the extra two minutes are merely filler material.
Try to imagine yourself in the place of the audience and think through what pressures they may
be under. They will probably be doing other things as they listen. You are asking for their time
and attention.
It's better to have a short bulletin that people can remember than a long bulletin that
leaves the audience confused.

5: Slow down, it's not a race

Don't rush. Make sure that your audience can understand what you are saying. Reading too
quickly could result in your audience not being able to absorb the information you are sharing.
You could end up becoming background noise.
News readers often read fast when they are nervous or when they know that they are about to
pronounce a name about which they are uncertain. If you know there is a foreign name coming
up in the bulletin, highlight it and practice it until you are sure. Then approach it slowly, pause,
and pronounce it clearly.
A handy tip is to make a mark in your script where you need to take a breath and pause. These
can help you when you come to reading the information.
Don't rush. Make sure your audience can understand what you are saying

6: Don't serve up stale news

Is your bulletin fresh, dynamic, and stimulating? Rewriting is essential. Many people will listen
to several bulletins during the day.
It's important they are not served stale news that hasn't been reworked. If you don't refresh, your
audience might think you are either not doing your journalistic job properly or you are being
lazy.
When you come out of the studio after reading the latest bulletin, rewrite all the top stories.
Don't just put the bulletin down and expect to pick it up again an hour later untouched and
unchanged.
If you have a news bulletin at the top of the hour and headlines on the half-hour, the headlines
can't just be shorter versions of the main bulletin. You will have to rework them and create a new
headline that conveys the main point of the story and encourages people to stay tuned for the
next bulletin.
You can also use the half-hour bulletin to add stories that you could not include in the main
bulletin. However, if you choose that kind of presentation format, make sure that you stick to
this pattern so that your audience knows what to expect.
Some stories could run in different formats in different bulletins. For example you could do a
straight read of the information in one bulletin followed by a voice report and or an audio clip in
another. Having several ways of telling the same story adds variety to your bulletin and gives
you options and flexibility when constructing it.
Refresh, rewrite and update your bulletin throughout the date.
7: Radio is about sounds, not just your voice
Sound bites are important. A longer news bulletin becomes a lot more attractive for the audience
if you include short sound bites. This can be a five- or 10-second audio clip inserted in a voice
report or a stand-alone 20- or 25-second clip.
Such sound bites can make your bulletin easier to listen to, more authoritative (because you are
including first-hand evidence) and, therefore, more credible. It's also more interesting for the
listener.
However, all sounds have to have an editorial reason for being there. You should not fill with
sound clips that distract because they don't relate to the thrust of the information you are
delivering.
Every element of your bulletin has to have an editorial justification

8: Tell a short story

Write news stories as if you were telling the story to a friend. This means: short, simple and
straightforward sentences.
The audience cannot go back and check what you said 10 seconds ago. (Well, they can if they
record it or are listening online, but the majority will be listening on the move and won't be able
to rewind the bulletin.)
You need to be clear, focused and memorable. Crafting complex information into simple
sentences is a skill. Don't obscure the essential facts with verbiage.
Write news stories as if you were telling the story to a friend

9: Small and effective packaging

The bulletin should be a compilation of short but powerful stories. This format makes it easy for
people to grasp the information.
Writing for radio is one of the most challenging journalistic disciplines. The simple editorial rule
about creating short, clear sentences with a subject, verb, and an object is essential.
Don't try to be clever with words. Use words that make the most sense and can be understood by
all.
Read through your bulletin several times. Shorten the sentences and replace complex concepts
with simple terms that avoid any ambiguity or any possible misunderstanding.
Keep it simple, clear and easy to follow

10: Some final points

If you are putting together a longer bulletin (e.g. seven minutes or more), you may want to end
the bulletin with a brief recap of the main stories. This can help audiences recall the top stories
and/or other relevant information.
If you don't believe what you have written and what you are saying your audience won't either;
and what is more, they will not respect you for broadcasting information that anyone with
average intelligence would not swallow.
Make sure you are honest in how you describe situations and events, don't over sensationalize.
Your audience will know when you are going over the top and your credibility and integrity will
be damaged if you do.
If you don't believe what you have written your audience won't either
News writing: Opening, Headlines, Body and Closing/Conclusion

Now you understand the basic principles behind building a news bulletin, you can start thinking
about how the stories and components such as headlines and actuality can fit. Bulletins are the
broadcasting equivalent of a page on a newspaper, except that in radio and television you are
more limited in where you place the different parts because, as we know, news bulletins are
linear, therefore all the elements must be placed along the line of time so they are used most
effectively.

Starting the bulletin

The start is the most important part of any radio bulletin. It determines whether or not your
listeners will stay tuned. Just as the intro is the most important part of a news story, the lead item
is the most important one in the bulletin. If your listeners find this boring, they will assume that
there is nothing better to come and go out to dig the garden.
If you are faced with a choice between two stories of equal strength for your bulletin lead,
choose the story which is more dramatic. If your obvious lead story is rather dull, you should
write it in such a way as to add life. Keep the sentences short, the ideas clear and simple.
Although you should try to write every story well, you should give special attention to your lead
story. This is the one by which listeners will judge the bulletin.

Opening
Opening of a radio news bulletin is when the presenter introduces himself and the radio channel
in the beginning of the programme. Every radio channel has their own identity and a different
way of opening a programme. For example: the All India Radio has its own way of opening a
programme and if we talk about BBC radio they have their own way.

Headlines
There is no need for headlines in a newsflash because it's a series of short news lasting between
2 and 3 minutes. However, headlines are needed for a 10 to 15 minutes bulletin. They announce
the major news so as to catch the listener's ear and make him want to keep listening. “Hey,
wonder what's new today?”
The headlines are the major news that will be discussed in the bulletin. The anchor chooses to
put the spotlight on them by putting them at the beginning of the newscast.
Once you have decided on the order of stories, you should write some headlines for the bulletin.
It is usual to start a long bulletin by headlining the major stories. This may not be necessary for a
short, three-minute bulletin, but for longer bulletins your listeners will want to know what kind
of stories they can expect.
Your listeners will use the headlines to judge whether or not the bulletin is worth listening to, so
write your headlines to promote the stories in the most powerful way possible.
It is good practice to headline the first two or three most important stories, and also one or two
dramatic stories which come later in the bulletin. Many stations also like to headline the final
story, on the assumption that, if they make the headline attractive enough, listeners will stay
tuned to the entire bulletin until they hear that story.
You should write headlines for dramatic stories in such a way that you hint at the drama without
giving away all the details. Remember that if you tell everything in the headlines, listeners have
no need to hear the rest of the bulletin.

In English bulletins, headlines do not have to be grammatically complete. They can be more like
newspaper headlines, stripped down to the main words. The following are examples of possible
headlines:
"More trouble for the Asean alliance."
"Twelve die in a mine blast."
"Why Russia is angry with Israel."

When writing headlines about announcements or humorous stories, it is best to be mysterious, to

keep the real information secret until the listeners hear the story itself. Such headlines are
sometimes called teasers, because the tease the listeners' interest.
For example, if you have a story about rising petrol prices, you might write the headline
"Motorists face another shock at the petrol pumps". Never write the headline "Petrol is to rise by
10 cents a litre" - that gives the whole story away, and your listener can now tune to another
station's bulletin or go and dig the garden again.

Radio News Writing Structure

 Be brief: A good newspaper story ranges from hundreds to thousands of words. The
same story on television or radio may have to fit into 30 seconds—perhaps no more than
100 words. If it is an important story, it may be 90 seconds or two minutes. You have to
condense a lot of information into the most important points for broadcast writing.
 Use correct grammar: A broadcast news script with grammatical errors will embarrass
the person reading it aloud if the person stumbles over mistakes.
 Put the important information first : Writing a broadcast news story is similar to
writing a news story for print in that you have to include the important information first.
The only difference is that you have to condense the information presented.
 Write good leads: Begin the story with clear, precise information. Because broadcast
stories have to fit into 30, 60, or 90 seconds, broadcast stories are sometimes little more
than the equivalent of newspaper headlines and the lead paragraph.
 Stick to short sentences : The announcer has to breathe. Long sentences make it
difficult for the person voicing the script to take a breath.
 Write the way people talk : Sentence fragments—as long as they make sense—are
acceptable.
 Use contractions: Use don’t instead of do not. But be careful of contractions ending in -
ve (e.g., would’ve, could’ve), because they sound like “would of” and “could of.”
 Use the active voice and active verbs : It is better to say “He hit the ball” than “The ball
was hit by him.”
 Use present-tense verbs, except when past-tense verbs are necessary: Present tense
expresses the sense of immediacy. Use past tense when something happened long ago.
For example, do not say, “There were forty people taken to the hospital following a train
derailment that occurred early this morning.” Instead, say, “Forty people are in the
hospital as a result of an early morning train accident.”
 For radio news stories, write with visual imagery: Make your listeners “see” what you
are saying. Help them visualize the situation you are describing.

WHAT ARE HEADLINES USED FOR?

If your bulletin were a shop in which you were the seller, the headlines would be the window.
The headlines are what the listener will hear first and they’ll be a deal breaker in convincing him
to keep listening. They can be compared to the first sentence of an anchor intro or a copy. They
give the most important news and catch the listener’s ear.
WHICH NEWS SHOULD YOU CHOOSE FOR THE HEADLINES?
The three or four major news items in the bulletin: the lead item and the two or three capital
pieces of news of the day. You may also want to put the spotlight on some news that are not the
freshest, if they are intriguing: the closing story (tail-ender), if it’s humorous, for example.

HOW TO WRITE THE HEADLINES?

Headlines should consist in one or two sentences at most – it’s a matter of rhythm. The first
sentence will peak the listener’s interest by giving the actual news. The second one sells the
angle.

HOW MANY HEADLINES ARE NEEDED?

You need at least three headlines; else the bulletin will seem to be “poor”. At most you can have
five headlines, because you need to choose which news to highlight. Please refrain from simply
listing every single news item.

DURATION
The headlines last a variable amount of time depending on the bulletin. For a classic bulletin,
lasting between ten and fifteen minutes, the headlines should last around 40 seconds.

WHEN TO WRITE THE HEADLINES?

Most of the time the anchor writes his headlines last. In a newscast, you need to be ready to add
some last minute news. If it’s major news, you will have to put it in the headlines. Better then to
redact the headlines half an hour before going on air.

HOW TO MAKE THE HEADLINES PEAK THE LISTENER’S INTEREST?

You need to choose AND write them well. Packaging also plays a great part. You will have to
put a jingle before the headlines and a stab after them. The headlines can be underlined by a
shunted musical loop that will give rhythm and intensity. Make sure the anchor’s voice can still
be perfectly heard and understood.
Body When you start writing the body of news for radio the first thing you decide is your lead
story and after that you decide your closing stories.

The Lead Story Examining the news with regards to these criteria must lead you to make a
choice: the news you’ll start your bulletin with, the lead story. Once you’ve chosen it, you will
have to structure the rest of the bulletin in different chapters. Let’s imagine for example that your
bulletin starts with politics. You must therefore follow up with the rest of the news in politics. If
you think that economics must come afterwards, put all of the news item regarding economics.
Repeat this manoeuvre until you’ve fully structured the bulletin.

Closing stories Sometimes called tail-enders, closing stories are almost as important as lead
stories. They are the last stories your listeners will hear and remember from the bulletin. You
need to choose them carefully. However, because many listeners do not maintain their attention
throughout the whole bulletin, you should not keep your best stories to the end.
Light or funny stories make the best tail-enders. They add relief and a change of pace to heavy
bulletins. They should be written in a more informal way than other stories, possibly with a play
on words which your listeners will appreciate. It is usual in English radio bulletins to signal the
light tail-ender with the words "And finally...", as in the following example:
And finally, police in Apia are looking for a thief who broke into a house last night ... and left his
trousers behind.
Be careful, though. Humorous stories may not be appropriate if the rest of the bulletin is
dominated by a major tragedy.

Closing/ Conclusion Closing headlines

With longer bulletins, you can use closing headlines to remind your listeners of stories they may
(or may not) have heard 10 minutes earlier.
Again they should be the major stories of the bulletin, excluding the tail-ender, which they
should have just heard anyway. Unlike opening headlines, which should attract your listeners to
listen to the bulletin, closing headlines are simply there as a service, especially to listeners who
may have tuned in late.
Each closing headline should be a summary of the main point of the story, written in one
sentence. Any longer and they become a repeat of the story itself. Do not simply repeat the
opening headline or intro of each story as a closing headline. This is laziness which does not
serve your listeners. Never repeat teasers as closing headlines: give the details.
Closing headlines are usually introduced with a phrase like: "Now to summarise the main
stories,”

Process of Editing News and Preparing News Cast Content Production for Radio & TV Rewriting the story
for radio news, writing in inverted pyramid format, writing the lead, writing the rest of the story, writing
the headlines, attributions including the dateline are important principles of editing the news. How do
we go about it?
Select the lead news story.
Also select other stories to be included in the rest of the bulletin.
Redraft the stories to suit the need of the bulletin without altering any fact.
Use sound inputs – voice casts, sound bites, capsules or wraparounds, expert comments and live
inputs.
Inverted Pyramid Format: Write the story in inverted pyramid format. The most important
information should be on top and the rest of the information should follow in the descending order of
importance. It is just opposite to the composition in a literary form. In literary writing, the story is slowly
built up and usually the climax comes at the end. Not so with news writing. It is actually in the reverse
order. The climax will be at the top and the other details are given in the decreasing order of priority. This
style makes it easier to edit the story even at the last minute. If the item seems too long, the last one or
two sentences can be removed without materially affecting the story if it is written in the inverted form.
Even if all the other sentences are edited out except the first sentence, it will still indicate what the news
is about. That is the advantage of writing in the inverted pyramid form.

Lead/Intro - The opening lines of the story, called Lead by the Americans and Intro by the
British, must catch the attention of listeners. Leads have to be short and brief to catch listener’s
ears. Lead sets the tone and tenor for the subsequent narrative of the story. It must entice the
listeners to listen further. A great story with a poor lead can drive away listeners from hearing the
news. In the earlier days, journalists used to sincerely follow the five Ws - who, what, when,
where & why - to write a lead. If even two or three of these are properly followed, the lead or
intro would be good.
Cut out non-news leads: Lead should contain important and substantial news. ‘Today is
Independence Day’, ‘A workshop will be held this afternoon to discuss climate change’ -
these kinds of leads will not be very effective without any substantial news.
Hard or soft lead: A hard lead comes out with the crux of the story immediately. Example:
Opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih defeats Abdulla Yameen in the Maldives
presidential poll. A soft lead does not straightaway gives news. It prepares the listener to wait for
the news to follow. Example: Yameen concedes defeat in the Maldives presidential poll;
Mohammed Ibrahim triumphs.

Suspense and delayed lead: Here the key information is not revealed at the beginning of the
story. The real news may come in the second sentence or even later. Example:
“It was water, water everywhere. But the global search for Commander Abhilash Tomy did not
go in vain. French Shipping vessel OSIRIS located him at last in the vastness of South Indian
Ocean today.” The lead of the story should present something new. It cannot start saying “As
reported earlier……”
Normally avoid negative lead. If the listeners miss the first word ‘no or not’, they will get it all
wrong. Example: No increase in the Income Tax rates, says the Finance Minister.

Refresh the lead: Refresh the lead every two or three hours. If a train accident is reported,
subsequent stories should give different leads like information on rescue and relief operations. If
the arrival of a foreign dignitary is reported, subsequent stories should lead with details of
his/her activities since then.
Techniques for writing Headlines
Headlines are very important in a radio news bulletin.
Following facts explain more about headline writing for radio news:
Headlines come at the top of the bulletin.
Generally comprise a single sentence for each of the story mentioned in the headlines.
They work as teaser making listeners continue listening.
Headlines should not reveal too much or too little. If these reveals too much, the listener need
not listen to the details in the bulletin.
If these reveal too little, interest of the listeners to listen to the bulletin may not be aroused.
Chiselling and honing are must for writing a good headline.
Headlines are repeated at the end of the bulletin to enable those joining late to be apprised of
the salient details of that bulletin.
An example: News item: “India has accelerated to buy drones from Israel that can be armed,
Defence sources said, allowing military to carry out strikes with less risk to personnel”
The headline could be: India’s plan to buy Israeli drones is put on fast track
 Writing and Packaging for Radio Infotainment Programs

'Infotainment' word is a combination of two words i.e. information and entertainment. The basic
objective of radio is to provide information, education and entertainment. Therefore, in radio
there are programs comes under the category hard-core information programs like news,
announcements, documentaries, news reel etc.
While there are programs such as film-based programs, cultural programs and many other
human-interest programs are called entertainment programs and programs like traditional
educational programs, awareness programs, skill development programs etc. are comes under the
category educational programs. Passing the time choice of audience has been changed. They
want some integrated programs which may inform people with entertainment or in entertaining
way. Therefore, a new terminology 'Infotainment' has developed.

Formats of Infotainment Programs

Radio broadcast varied programs fulfilling the basic objectives - to inform, to educate and to
entertain. These covers news, news based programs, announcements, educational programs,
awareness programs, film programs, cultural programs, music programs, plays etc. But the
infotainment programs provide information in an entertaining manner. Therefore the radio is able
to fulfil the varied needs of the audience and a large audience may associate with the radio
station.
The basic formats of infotainment programme are:
1. Talks
2. Talk shows
3. Discussions
4. Interviews
5. Newsreels
6. Commentaries
7. Radio reports
8. Quiz
9. Poetry Recitation and Symposia
10. Book Reviews
11. Features and Documentaries
12. Magazines

1. Talks
Talk is a straight delivery of words by a particular speaker. Radio talks are generally of short
duration i.e. 5 to 10 minutes. Talk can be an effective format to present an opinion on an issue or
a problem. A talk can cover any subject of human interest on contemporary issues such as
economics, politics, science, sports, social, art, culture, festivals, anniversaries etc.
This format can be effectively used for treating a subject in an absorbing and interesting manner.
It is the speaker who makes the listener interested through his/her presentation style and manner.
Talk can be presented at random without writing a script. But most radio program producer
prefers a written script to ensure that the theme gets properly covered and vetted and
conforms to the channels' policy. All the important talking points pertaining to the subject of the
talk, the key phrases, quotes, if any, and the substance of introductory and concluding remarks
are put down in a proper sequence. Scripting facilitates the talker to conform to the scope of the
programme. The script also helps to adhere to the time limit imposed by the station's programme
schedule.
Production of talk includes following steps:
a. Selection of Theme
b. Identification of Talker
c. Vetting the Script
d. Rehearsing
e. Recording the Talk
f. Briefing the Announcer
The delivery of the talk should follow a smooth and easy pace to facilitate the listener to keep
pace with the exposition. Flowery sentences and phrases jitter the smooth pace of exposition and
the flow of communication, hence need to be avoided. It is always advisable for the talker to
mark points of punctuation and emphasis. Repetition of words and phrases sound odd
phonetically hence need to be deleted.
A radio talker has to overcome the psychological limitation that she/he is not able to look into
the eyes of the audience and get their response, which is a crucial factor in a person-to-
person communication.
As regards the speed of the delivery, the golden mean is 120 words per minute - marginally plus
or minus. While delivering a radio talk, the talker should not distort the natural breathing pattern.

While writing and packaging radio infotainment programs:-

Infotainment, radio program that presents information (as news) in a manner intended to be
entertaining. Infotainment came about through the blurring of the line between information and
entertainment in news and current affairs programming, whether in the selection of news stories
(e.g., more emphasis on celebrity gossip, crime stories, and human-interest pieces) or in their
presentation (stylistically, fast-paced editing, music, and sound effects, as well as in terms of
tone and approach, through the use sensationalism or satire).
Radio for Information
Radio is an important medium for disseminating information on key community issues. For
instance, when people in the region lose their lands due to heavy floods/ cyclone, their
immediate information requirements would be for alternative cultivation methods. The radio
station not only broadcasts the essential information, but also can give insights on issues, such as
safety and health.
On – air Internet browsing & comments by experts during the broadcast make the programme a
dependable and credible source of information.
It includes:
Documentary Programme
Interview Programme
Panel Discussion Programme
Social Awareness Programme
Radio for Entertainment
Radio is very good entertainers. Even in this era of Internet & Social media, there are people
who look forward to radio for entertainment. It is undoubtly medium of education &
information, one of the good instructional medium and is why radio is being used by the
government for giving instruction to the masses in developing countries.

Entertainment Program In Radio

1. Songs: film song
Classical song
Pop Song
 Folk Song

2. Serials: A fiction work continued in various episodes constitute in a radio serial.

3. Radio Drama: It has the added advantage of getting over in an hour (or utmost two) when
compared with the serials that would run for weeks.
4. Film Based Programme: Films are absolute entertainers in all parts of world. Hence, film
based programme entertain the entire world. Film Reviews, film in audio format, film song,
playing popular film dialogues, etc. Are liked by most of the audiences and hence they
enjoyed good popularity.
5. Folk Media Performance: