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Welcome to my blog, which will focus on radio news. There are some websites and books of interest in the column to your right and, at the bottom of the page, I've added an assortment of useful tools. Blog on!
Contributors
Links to Interesting Internet Sites About Newswriting for Radio and the Radio Industry
Interesting Books About Writing News for On-Air Broadcasting
- A Canadian Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker
- Air Words: Writing for Broadcast News by John Hewit
- Associated Press Broadcast News Handbook by Brad Kalbfeld
- Broadcast News and Writing Stylebook by Robert A. Papper
- Broadcast News Handbook: Writing, Reporting, Producing in a Converging Media World by C.A. Tuggle
- Broadcast News Writing and Reporting by Peter E. Mayeux
- Broadcast News Writing, Reporting, and Producing by Ted White
- On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser
- Reporter's Checklist and Notebook by Melvin Mencher
- The Broadcast Voice Handbook by Ann Utterback
- Writing Broadcast News - shorter, sharper, stronger by Mervin Block
- Writing for Radio by Vincent McInerney
- Writing for Television, Radio, and New Media by Robert L. Hilliard
- Writing News for Broadcast by Edward Bliss Jr.
1 comment:
Know Your Audience
We actually covered a lot of this topic when we discussed generating news stories. The focus is much the same; we all have to take into consideration the major influences in our communities. What sorts of educational institutions, industries, active non-government and charity organizations are situated in your stations’ listening area? Is there anything that is unique to your community? Take the opportunity to leaf through the local tourism and community guides. They will list local charities and attractions. You might find that this exercise will help you see the area through different eyes. Many people don’t often know what’s in their own back yard. Take a good look around.
Who are your listeners? What are their cultural backgrounds? A good resource to help determine your focus listening audience may be a trip to the program director or sales director’s office. They will have the number break-downs from recent ratings that tell you exactly who is listening. Keep in mind those numbers might not exactly jive with the people that station management is trying to reach. If your listeners are under 30, for instance, they may be renters rather than home-owners and they may be more active at the local arena rather than the local legion. Have you developed your contact list so that you have someone to call if there is unrest at the local post-secondary institution or public school? What about vocal business owners or community activists? Every community has a few interesting ‘characters’ who also have enough credibility that you can use them in a news story and you’ll have an added entertainment bonus.
Although most organizations generally have a particular spokesperson they would prefer deal with media inquiries, you can often find more than one. Instead of hearing from the local warden or mayor, how about getting a comment from someone who chairs one of the municipal government committees or even a department head? Listeners get tired of hearing feedback from the same people. Once you have developed your contact list to this point, you should be able to go beyond the obvious and find some really interesting viewpoints.
How are you able to tailor your stories to your audience?
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