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Radio Production

Fifth Edition

Radio Production

Fifth edition

Robert McLeish

Focal Press

Taylor & Francis Group NEW YORK AND LONDON

First published 1978 This edition published 2005 by Focal Press 70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803

Simultaneously published in the UK by Focal Press 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Focal Press is an imprint o f the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2005, Robert McLeish. Published by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

The right of Robert McLeish to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN-13: 978-0-240-51972-2 (pbk) ISBN-13: 978-0-080-46847-1 (ebk)

• 1 Characteristics of the medium Preface to the fifth edition xv
  • Radio makes pictures
  • Radio speaks to millions
  • Radio speaks to the individual
  • The speed of radio
  • Radio has no boundaries
  • The transient nature of radio
  • Radio on demand
  • Radio as background
  • Radio is selective
  • Radio lacks space
  • The personality of radio
  • The simplicity of radio
  • Radio is low cost
  • Radio for the disadvantaged
  • Radio teaches
  • Radio has music
  • Radio can surprise
  • Radio can suffer from interference
  • Radio for the individual
  • Radio for society
  • The public servant
  • Types of radio station
  • ‘Outside’ pressures
  • Personal motivations
• 2 The radio studio
  • Studio layout
  • The studio desk, mixer, control panel, console or board
  • Computers
  • Digital compression
  • Digital audio workstation
  • Tape formats
  • Editing principles
  • Editing practice
  • CDs, albums and other discs
  • Microphones
  • Stereo
  • Equipment faults
• 3 Ethics
  • Declarations of intent
  • Objectivity, impartiality and fairness
  • Watchdog
  • Bad practice
  • The status of the media
• 4 Writing for the ear
  • Who are you talking to?
  • What do you want to say?
  • The storage of talk
  • Words
  • Structure and signposting
  • Pictures and stories
  • Double meanings
  • The script
• 5 News – policy and practice
  • Codes of Practice
  • Objectivity
  • Legality
  • News values
  • Investigative reporting
  • Campaigning journalism
  • The news reporting function
  • Accuracy
  • Intelligibility in the writing
  • Being fair
  • Giving offence
  • Causing distress
  • Civil disturbance and war reporting
  • A summary
  • The newsroom operation
  • Style book
  • Radio car, mobile phone
  • Equipment in the field
  • The news conference and press release
• 6 Interviewing
  • The basic approach
  • Types of interview
  • Securing the interviewee
  • What the interviewee should know
  • Preparation before the interview
  • The pre-interview discussion
  • Question technique
  • Question ‘width’
  • Devil’s advocate
  • Multiple questions
  • Leading questions
  • Non-questions
  • Non-answers
  • Non-verbal communication
  • During the interview
  • Winding up
  • After the interview
  • Style
  • Interviewing ‘cold’
  • Interviewing through a translator
  • Location interviews
  • The triangle of trust
• 7 Vox pop
  • Phrasing the question
  • Interviewing children
  • Choosing the site
  • The recorder
  • Putting the question
  • The editing
• 8 Cues and links
  • Information for the broadcaster
  • Information for the listener
  • Links
• 9 Newsreading and presentation
  • The seven Ps
  • Newsreading
  • Pronunciation
  • Vocal stressing
  • Inflection
  • Quotation marks
  • Alterations
  • Corrections
  • Lists and numbers
  • Station style
  • Continuity presentation
  • Errors and emergencies
  • Headphones
  • Trails and promos
• 10 The discussion
  • Format
  • Selection of participants
  • The chairperson
  • Preparation
  • Advice to contributors
  • Contributor nerves
  • Starting the programme
  • Speaker control
  • Subject control
  • Technical control
  • Ending the programme
• 11 Phone-ins
  • Technical facilities
  • Programme classification
  • The open line
  • Support staff
  • Choosing the calls
  • The role of the presenter
  • Presenter style
  • Reference material
  • Studio operation
  • Additional telephone facilities
  • Use of ‘delay’
  • The specific subject
  • ‘Early lines’
  • Consumer affairs
  • The need to be fair
  • Linking programmes together
  • Personal counselling
  • The presenter as listener
  • Non-broadcasting effort
  • Anonymity
  • Phone-in checklist
• 12 Listener participation
  • Letters and e-mails
  • Programme follow-up
  • Texting
  • Helpline
  • Visitors
  • Special involvement
  • Travelling roadshow
  • Major events
• 13 Music programming
  • Attitudes to music
  • Clock format
  • Computerized selection
  • Requests and dedications
  • Choosing music
  • Item order
  • Prefading to time
  • Preparing letters and cards
  • Programme technique
  • Guest programmes
  • DJ programmes
• 14 Sequences and magazines
  • Programme title
  • Signature tune
  • Transmission time
  • The presenter
  • Linking style
  • Information content
  • Programme construction
  • Programme variety
  • Programme ideas
  • Voice piece
  • Interview
  • Discussion
  • Music
  • Sound effects
  • Listener participation
  • Features
  • Drama
  • Item order
  • Production method
  • Responding to emergency
• 15 Making commercials
  • Copy policy
  • The target audience
  • The product or service ‘premise’
  • Writing copy
  • Voicing and treatment
  • Music and effects
  • Stereo
  • Humour in advertising
• 16 Outside broadcasts (remotes)
  • Planning
  • Visiting the site
  • Communications to base
  • People
  • Hazard assessment
  • Equipment
  • Safety
  • Accommodation
  • Programme research
  • Liaison with the base studio
  • Publicity
  • Conflicts of approach
  • Tidiness
  • Gratuities
• 17 Commentary
  • Attitude to the listener
  • Preparation
  • Working with the base studio
  • Sport
  • Communicating mood
  • Coordinating the images
  • Content and style
  • News action
  • Sports action
  • Actuality and silence
  • The ending
  • An example
  • Coping with disaster
• 18 Music recording
  • Reproduction of internal balance
  • Creation of a synthetic balance
  • Studio layout
  • Microphones for music
  • Frequency control
  • Dynamic control
  • Echo
  • Channel delay
  • Mixing technique
  • Recording technique
  • Production points
• 19 Drama – principles
  • Adapting for radio
  • The idea
  • Story construction
  • The setting
  • Characterization
  • Dialogue
  • Radio as story
  • Get the evocative bits
  • Rough the drama
  • Prune and polish
  • Truth vs drama
  • Script layout
  • The actors
  • The acoustic
  • Sound effects
  • Music
  • Production technique
• 20 Documentary and feature programmes
  • The documentary
  • Planning
  • Research
  • Structure
  • Collecting the material
  • Impression and truth
  • Music
  • Compilation
  • Programme sequence
  • The ending
  • Contributors
  • Programmes in real time
  • The feature
• 21 The work of the producer
  • Ideas
  • The audience
  • Resource planning
  • Preparation of material
  • The studio session
  • Taste
  • Ending the session
  • Post-production
  • Programme administration
  • Technician, editor, administrator and manager
• 22 The executive producer
  • Station management
  • Staff development
  • Scheduling
  • Rescheduling
  • Strategic planning
  • Commissioning programmes
  • Codes of Practice
  • Complaints
  • Website
  • Archival policy
• 23 Programme evaluation
  • Production evaluation
  • Programme quality
  • Audience evaluation
  • Personal meters
  • Research panels
  • Questionnaires
  • Letter response
  • Cost evaluation
• 24 Training
  • Triggers for training
  • Learning objectives
  • Course organization
  • Stretching imagination
  • Editorial selection
  • News priorities
  • News exercise
  • Voicework
  • Personal motivation
  • Vox pop
  • Commentary
  • Drama
  • New challenges for old producers
  • Maintaining output
  • Assessing quality
  • Training evaluation
• 25 Back-announcement
• CD-ROM
• Websites
• Glossary
• Further reading – a selection
• Index

Preface to the fifth edition

The world of radio broadcasting moves on. The computer and its develop- ing software are firmly at the heart of the operation – controlling the sta- tion, editing the interview, scheduling music and streaming the output on to the Internet. This edition comes with a CD that reflects some of this – illustrations of MP3 compression and digital acoustic effects, as well as programme extracts, exercises to work on and innovative commercials. I am most grateful to my colleague Jeff Link, not only for his comments on updating the text, but also for his work on producing the CD, which forms a significant and interactive part of the book. We are both most interested in how you use the illustrations and downloadable files. My research for this new edition included an international survey of how stations work – from Argentina to Ghana, and from Taiwan to Mexico and Slovakia. Indeed, it was on a Lutheran Hour station in the Philippines that I first learned of a major use in broadcasting of a text messaging response by listeners from mobile phones. So techniques progress. Digital transmission moves ahead, with governments talking of switching off their national analogue services, while in the United States car manufac- turers are installing satellite radio receivers as standard. And everywhere costs are coming down, fuelling the proliferation of stations and the meth- ods of making radio. Equipment becomes ever smaller, lighter and immensely more versatile, so that the facilities of whole studios can be compressed into a portable package for automated playout. What this means for the listener is largely a vastly increased choice – off the air or the Internet, the range of what can be heard is huge, which of course means in turn that the audience for any one channel or programme is likely to be much smaller. The question then is whether this must inevitably mean that the income for any one channel is decreasing – and if so, what happens to quality? For me, this is the key trend to be watched and for broadcasters to see that radio continues to meet the widest possible range of listener needs. I must acknowledge my debt to so many who have contributed to this book – to the late Frank Gillard for his encouragement with the original draft and for Dave Wilkinson’s ideas for the early illustrations. The BBC was ever helpful – Radio 4 supplied the complete documentary pro- gramme for the CD, and the Health and Safety department updated the

xv

entries on hazard assessment. Kevin Johnson, a senior BBC Trainer, answered my many questions on current studio practice, as did the staff at BBC Radio Solent and Radio Norfolk. The commercial station WAVE 105 and the Radio Advertising Bureau were most supportive in my research, providing invaluable information in the commercial sector. Here I warmly thank the advertising agencies and the owners of the copyright who gave permission for the text of their commercials to be reproduced, some of which can be heard on the CD. Dr Graham Mytton, an international audience research consultant, revised the section on programme evaluation, while Campbell Hughes, an authority on music recording, provided new insights on orchestral balance. Tim Dean of the World Media Trust suggested additional source material for the new chapter on Ethics, including the UK Government’s Department for International Development booklet, The Media in Governance , which I have quoted. Finally, two lecturers in Media Studies, Bill Dorris of Dublin City University and Ken Hall, Senior Lecturer in Radio Production at The University of Teesside, generated a flow of ideas, many of which found their way into the final text. I am grateful to them all. As I have noted before, revising and updating a book is far more diffi- cult than writing one from scratch. Producers will know that the challenge of a blank sheet is more exciting and often easier to deal with than an existing script. I therefore willingly thank my wife for once again working with me through the process. Her clear, not to say blunt, advice has been what all producers need in their times of doubt – the voice of the listener.

Robert McLeish

xvi Preface

content – interviews with witnesses of a bomb blast – the breathless joy of a victorious sports team. Unlike television, where the pictures are limited by the size of the screen, radio’s pictures are any size you care to make them. For the writer of radio drama it is easy to involve us in a battle between goblins and giants, or to have our spaceship land on a strange and distant planet. Created by appro- priate sound effects and supported by the right music, virtually any situ- ation can be brought to us. As the schoolboy said when asked about television drama, ‘I prefer radio, the scenery is so much better.’ But is it more accurate? Naturally, a visual medium has an advantage when demonstrating a procedure or technique, and a simple graph is worth many words of explanation. In reporting an event there is much to be said for seeing video of, say, a public demonstration rather than leaving it to our imagination. Both sound and vision are liable to the distortions of select- ivity, and in news reporting it is up to the integrity of the individual on the spot to produce as fair, honest and factual an account as possible. In the case of radio, its great strength of appealing directly to the imagination must not become the weakness of allowing individual interpretation of a factual event, let alone the deliberate exaggeration of that event by the broadcaster. The radio writer and commentator chooses words with preci- sion so that they create appropriate pictures in the listener’s mind, making the subject understood and its occasion memorable.

Radio speaks to millions

Radio is one of the mass media. The very term broadcasting indicates a wide scattering of the output covering every home, village, town, city and country within the range of the transmitter. Its potential for communica- tion therefore is very great, but the actual effect may be quite small. The difference between potential and actual will depend on matters to which this book is dedicated – programme relevance, editorial excellence and creativity, qualities of ‘likeability’ and persuasiveness, operational compe- tence, technical reliability, and consistency of the received signal. It will also be affected by the size and strength of the competition in its many forms. Broadcasters sometimes forget that people have other things to do – life is not all about listening to radio and watching television. Audience researchers talk about share and reach. Audience share is the amount of time spent listening to a particular station, expressed as a per- centage of the total radio listening in its area. Audience reach is the num- ber of people who do listen to something from the station over the period of a day or week, expressed as a percentage of the total population who could listen. Both figures are significant. A station in a highly competitive environment may have quite a small share of the total listening, but if it manages to build a substantial following to even one of its programmes, let alone the aggregate of several minorities, it will enjoy a large reach. The mass media should always be interested in reach.

2 Radio Production

Radio speaks to the individual

Unlike television, where the viewer is observing something coming out of a box ‘over there’, the sights and sounds of radio are created within us, and can have greater impact and involvement. Radio on headphones happens literally inside your head. Television is, in general, watched by small groups of people and the reaction to a programme is often affected by the reaction between individuals. Radio is much more a personal thing, com- ing direct to the listener. There are obvious exceptions: communal listen- ing happens in garages, workshops, canteens and shops, and in the rural areas of less developed countries a whole village may gather round the set. However, even here, a radio is an everyday personal item. The broadcaster should not abuse this directness of the medium by regarding the microphone as an input to a public address system, but rather a means of talking directly to the individual – multiplied tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of times.

The speed of radio

Technically uncumbersome, the medium is enormously flexible and is often at its best in the totally immediate ‘live’ situation. No waiting for the presses or the physical distribution of newspapers or magazines. A news report from a correspondent overseas, a listener talking on the phone, a sports result from the local stadium, a concert from the capital – radio is immediate. The recorded programme introduces a timeshift and like a newspaper may quickly become out of date, but the medium itself is essentially live and ‘now’. The ability to move about geographically generates its own excitement. Long since regarded as a commonplace, both for television and radio, pic- tures and sounds are beamed and bounced around the world, bringing any event anywhere to our immediate attention. Radio speeds up the dissemin- ation of information so that everyone – the leaders and the led – knows of the same news event, the same political idea, declaration or threat. If knowledge is power, radio gives power to us all whether we exercise authority or not.

Radio has no boundaries

Books and magazines can be stopped at national frontiers but radio is no respecter of territorial limits. Its signals clear mountain barriers and cross deep oceans. Radio can bring together those separated by geography or nationality – it can help to close other distances of culture, learning or sta- tus. The programmes of political propagandists or of Christian mission- aries can be sent in one country and heard in another. Sometimes met with hostile jamming, sometimes welcomed as a life-sustaining truth, pro- grammes have a liberty independent of lines on a map, obeying only the

Characteristics of the medium 3