Syed Ahmed Hussain HOD-Productions & CTS

10 Production 10 Production Tips Tips

Radio News BulletinsRadio News Bulletins

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips

What is a radio news bulletin? Nourishing the audience Putting together a radio news

bulletin is like serving up a satisfying meal that nourishes and prepares your audience for the day

It’s not about making you sound great. It has to be focused, digestible, easy to listen to and catch the attention of the audience

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips 1: Serving the audience Understanding their needs

Addressing there concerns

Informing the public debate

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips1: Serving the audience Understand their needs Think target audience. You

need to know who is tuning in for the information you are delivering and what they need to know

Focus on the news stories and information that is relevant for your radio station’s targeted audience

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips1: Serving the audience Addressing their concerns Your top stories are not

necessarily the biggest stories, but will be those that have the most impact on the lives of your target audience

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips1: Serving the audience Informing the public debate

The audience will be listening for information that they can use

Your top stories must make up their staple diet of ‘must know’ information

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips2: Variety The Spice Of Life

Issues not processes

Voice of the Voiceless

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips2: Variety The spice of life Offer an information mix

News tends to be multi-coloured and multi-faceted, as is real life

Your job is to reflect the realities of the issues that most affect your audience

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips2: Variety Issues not processes If you are covering politics

you must highlight how the issue impacts on the lives of your audience

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips2: Variety Voice to the voiceless Always try to include the

voice of those affected by whatever the story is highlighting

If you are covering a story, it’s important that you talk to the victims and the man and woman in the street, not just officials

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips3: Listenable Would you Listen?

Do you turn people off

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips3: Listenable Would you listen? A voice that pleases is

important to ensuring the audience returns

Try recording a few of your bulletins and listen back to them

Would you like to wake up every day and listen to that?

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips3: Listenable Do you turn people off? 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

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips4: Slow down It’s not a race

Practice difficult Words

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips4: Slow down It’s not a race Don’t rush. Make sure your

audience can understand what you are saying

Reading too quickly could result in your audience not understanding what you are saying and not being able to absorb your information

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips4: Slow down Practice difficult words 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

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips5: Deliver fresh material Not stale News

Always re-write

Editorial Justification

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips5: Deliver fresh material Not stale news Is your bulletin fresh,

dynamic, and stimulating?

Re-writing is essential

Many people will listen to several bulletins during the day

It's important they are not served up stale news that hasn't been reworked

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips5: Deliver fresh material Always rewrite When you come out of studio

after reading the latest bulletin consider sitting down and rewriting all the top stories and refreshing the key points

Don’t just put the bulletin down and expect to pick it up again an hour later untouched and unchanged

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips5: Deliver fresh material Editorial justification Don’t change your format

randomly as this will confuse your audience

A confused audience may switch channels to a place where there is less confusion

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips6: Radio needs sounds Not just your voice

But only the right sound

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips6: Radio needs sounds Not just your voice Sound bites are important

A longer news bulletin becomes a lot more attractive for audiences if you include short sound bites

This can be a five- or 10-second audio clip from an interview or sounds from the scene of an incident

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips6: Radio needs sounds But only the right sound Such sound bites can make

your bulletin easier to listen to, more authoritative, more credible – and 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 distracts

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips7: Storytelling Short stories works best Write news stories as if you

were telling the story to a friend

This means: short, simple and straightforward sentences

The majority will be listening on the move and won't be able to rewind the bulletin

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips7: Storytelling Avoid verbiage Don’t obscure the essential

facts with verbiage

Short, simple and straightforward sentences are required

This makes it much easier for people to grasp the information

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips8: Writing style Small and effective

packaging Long, heavy sentences may

work for print but they don’t work for radio audiences

Don't try to be clever. Use words that make most sense and can be understood by all

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips9: Concise Summing up the main 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

Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips10: Be honest Only broadcast facts If you don’t believe what you

have written and what you are saying your audience won’t either

Make sure you are honest in how you describe situations and events

Don’t sensationalise; it will damage your credibility and integrity

Radio Bulletins – 10 TipsAcknowledgements Syed Ahmed Hussain

HOD-Productions & CTS FM-106.2 Just Musicahmed.hussain@1062.fm 03018551062https://www.facebook.com/sahussain1