Cut it out

Audio for audio sake.  Don't ya hate it.  The last few days I have heard some pretty mediocre use of audio in news bulletins.  You know the kind of thing.  So and so says it can't be good for the economy: CUT: "It can't be good for the economy."  Erm didn't you just say that?

I have a sneaky suspicion that if you were a lazy journo shoving together a news bully you might well grab a bit of audio, never mind the quality but how long is it? Will it string out my badly put together bully?

Answer these questions: Does your audio add to the script? Does it bring colour and new information and features the voice of the person(s) immediately involved in the story?  If the answer is no leave the audio languishing in RadioMan or Burli IN Q.

Here's how not to put a bully together click here

Vince Cable

Vince Cable is my favourite politician - at least he has the courage and or stupidity to say what he thinks.  I love Vince mainly because I had his mobile number and he was one of the few politicians you could just call up and ask to take part in a show and he would give you a yes or no straight away.

Mostly when you book a politician you have to wade through the turgid world of the Party Press Office where they think they are doing you a tremendous favour by getting you some junior Minister to come and talk on the radio. And they always call you back just before your deadline so you never get the person you really want.

I remember working with Mike Carlton an Aussie firebrand who once presented breakfast on LBC, he was amazed that we had to seek the permission of the party press office to talk to politicians.  He told me he had the direct number for Paul Keating (who was Australian PM at the time) and would call him directly and he said that if Paul didn't want to do an interview he would just say "'f*ck off  Mike I'm busy mate."

I can well believe this to be true, maybe its time for politicians to stop hiding away and be a little more open? Did anyone really think the Lib Dems and the Tories were ever going to be much more than uncomfortable allies?

Interview Technique

The perfect interview, preparation is everything.  Here are some top tips. 

1: Find out about your subject most people have some kind of internet footprint.  Also ask yourself what you want from the interview and what questions you need to ask to get what you want?

2: At the interview a bit of chit chat helps you both establish a rapport.  Give them an idea of the area you will be interviewing them about, how many questions and how long the interview will be.

3: Get the microphone close to them, do not interview in an adversarial position you are better sitting beside your victim that way it doesn't appear that you are shoving a mic in their face but you can still get close.

4: What, who, where, when, why and how are the key words to start your questions.  Avoid closed questions - the ones that get you just a yes or no.

5: Listen, your guest might actually have answered your next question and you sound a pratt asking it and getting the answer, 'well as I have already said.'

6: Noddy but no Big Ears, nod encouragement rather than say 'yes' or 'ah huh'

7: I always get my guest to say on the recording who they are and the title they hold, that way, fewer mistakes.

8. Shake rattle and roll: Hold the mic steady clamp the lead between your hand and the body of the mic, and remember to return the mic back to you if you want to keep your questions in.

9.  Take Two: If you think that you haven't got what you want from your interviewee - don't be afraid to ask the questions again, help them by telling them what you would like them to say. (This doesn't mean putting words in their mouth)

10. Before you go, check the interview has recorded.

Good News

A top 10 guide to making a great news piece.

1 What's the story? Create one sentence that clearly explains what the story is about.  That's your starting point.

2 Language: Simple conversational words how you would speak to someone not how you would write to somebody.

3 Get out and about: A bit of atmos is great. Beware of too much noise drowning out you and your interviewee.

4 Short and shorter: Cut it down and if you can cut it again. Less is always more.

5 Mix it up: More voices in quick succession, male and female voices keep interest rather than some boring old sod droning on.

6 Vox Pops: Only if they are good and relevant to the story.  Sometimes VoxPops are overdone (particularly by the BBC) they can be the opinion of a handful of people in west London (usually) and not represent your story or the people actually involved in it.

8 Heart of the story:  Who is actually involved speak to them even if its on the phone.  You want the mother of the dead child not the spokesman from a bereavement charity.

9 Music and Effects: Never gratuitously but appropriate music and some effects can work.  No treading over vocals though it ALWAYS sounds ugly.

10 THE END: As they said in The Truman Show - how will it end? How will your piece end is it going to be a question? A summing up? Or a little cheesy play on words? Or a future line on what may happen to your story?

Going Underground

Tube strike, what tube strike? Congratulations on national BBC TV news last night for hardly mentioning the tube strike, big boo's to BBC Online who had it as a second lead.  Yesterday there was a tube strike in London and it had an impact on commuters and tourists traveling through or into London but as an interesting national story it didn't, as the hacks in Fleet Street I used work with would say; 'have legs' which by the way were the very thing I used to get to Euston from Liverpool Street yesterday.

When you work in a radio or TV newsroom and something personally happens to you it can be easy to use your own influence on the event.  I hold my hands up in guilt, in years past if I got stuck on a train through delays I would not only call up my radio stations travel centre and get them to bump the news of my train delay up but I have also been known to call my chums on 'other' stations to really give the rail company a good kicking.  Was it editorially justified? No it was not.

So how do you decide whether you should run with a story like a tube strike? The first question to ask is how universal is the story? How many of your listeners or viewers are affected by it?  Heavy snow is a great universal story for local radio and TV but again a flake of snow in London gets national coverage whilst 2 foot of the stuff 'up north' doesn't bear a mention.  The answer to that of course is where do the Editors of BBC and ITV national news live?

So just how many Londoner's were inconvenienced yesterday? And how interested were they to hear or watch wall-to-wall coverage?

Finally on ITV News London last night a plucky reporter was standing 'live' on London Bridge trying to ask passers by about what they thought.  They just pushed past her intent on getting on with their lives as usual.  I wonder if someone in the gallery was thinking - perhaps this isn't such an interesting story after all?  (Pic above Bob Crowe RMT Union Leader)

Best Recorder?

Best recorder for radio interviews?  I have narrowed it down to three.  Visit the website www.creativeradio.com and click Best Recorder.  I have used and tested each machine and give my personal verdict between The Marantz PMD661, The Tascam DR0-07 and The ZOOM H4n.

Other ways of getting that interview recorded?  Another option is to use a camcorder with an external microphone.  My camera the Canon HF21 has an external mic input and records very high quality sound.. and you get free pictures as well so you could ad some pics to your radio interview and stream them as additional material on your website.

Using personal Dictaphone machines - they tend to have crappy sound and are not geared up to quality recording and with the Tascam DR0-07 at £129 inc VAT don't cost that much less.

So visit www.creativeradio.com and check out my reviews.

Powerful Radio

I worship Valerie Geller she is a radio great and talks a lot of sense about radio, here are her 'Principles of 
Creating Powerful Radio:
 1.  Speak visually, in terms your listener can "picture." 

2.  Start with, your best material. 

3.  Tell the truth. 

4.  Never be boring. 

5.  Listen to your station. 

6.  Make it matter. 

7.  Address an individual, use "You,"
       - talk to ONE listener at a time!  

8.  Do engaging transitions & handoffs.

9.  Promote, brag about your stuff.

10. Brag about other people's stuff

11. Be who you are on the radio.

12. Take risks. Dare to be great.

You can buy her book Creating Powerful Radio through Amazon.

Goldfish

Your average listener has the attention span of a gnat and the mind of a goldfish.  Never think they are hanging on every word, do not believe they have remembered the last time you told them about a story.  True you should refresh stuff but don't worry about some repetition.  With trails and promotions repetition is actually very important. 

I have already discussed using different ways of imparting a message combining live studio reads with recorded produced promos with, if your broadcast guidelines allow, editorial which is produced for the promo/trail.

My old boss Steve Orchard once said to me that once you are so sick of hearing a promo go out you are actually ill in the waste paper basket - only then are your audience starting to absorb the message you want them to hear.  He had a point.  Carry on broadcasting!

Gosh, er cheers thanks.

Your mouth goes dry and you start to babble rubbish, your radio nightmare comes true.  There's a good  chance that if your are a spokesman in business, work for a charity or simply have a point of view someone someday will want to ask you about it on the radio or TV.

So how do you stop the nerves? How do you make your performance shine? Well you can take out some insurance against blind terror but there are days when we all find ourselves lost for words.  Here are a few insurance things to put in place before you take part in an interview.

Knowledge: Find out what the interview will be about? Who else will be talking and what they want to talk to you about?

Time: Get there early - get comfortable have a glass of water, compose and focus yourself.

First question: To you might sound like blah blah blah because you are so nervous about your performance you fail to listen to the interviewer.  So try to stay calm and listen to the first question, the rest will come more naturally.

Posture: On TV do not fidget or move around, on radio if you have to sneeze or cough or clear your throat, do it, but turn your head away from the microphone.  Keep eye contact with the person who is interviewing you. (Not while sneezing that would be baad)

Notes: Do not take loads of notes in, you will never follow them.  By all means write some paragraphs beforehand then turn them into bullet points and ONLY bring the bullet points into the studio with you.

Errrrr: Try very hard not to say Errr but think it. Also 'you know' and 'basically' are two other filler words that sound ok in relaxed conversation but make you sound indecisive on air.

ENJOY: Unless you are there for a serious reason enjoy the whole process it's fun to engage in conversation so let your thoughts flow your passion show. 

Stiff Election Competition

The UK General Election of (possibly) 6th May will be won by Twitter and Facebook.  I really think this is the election where social networking will drive the agenda of the day.  How does the rest of the media harness this interaction?  I think they need to work very hard at creating their own tribe of social networkers and most importantly make sure that the same old half dozen don't get to hog the blogs.

I also hope that the 2010 election coverage will be a bit more showbiz.  Those dull old swingometers and ITN's tedious virtual studio with graphics drawn by a crazed 10-year old on crack must be replaced by something a bit more 21st century. 

I worked on LBC's 1992 General Election which affirmed John Major's tenancy as Prime Minister with a rather sad grey majority of 21. We had Andrew Neil present the show and it was a 'show.'  LBC took over the whole of the vacant top floor of the building in Hammermsith where are studios were in at the time.

My boss Charlie Cox (above) hired an events company who built a fantastic star lit tunnel that led to a great big party area with a massive video screen where a professional TV company 'televised' the studio with Andrew Neil.  All LBC's clients and advertisers were invited along with local politicians and a few celebs.  At the other end of the room was another star lit tunnel which led to the goods lift which was also decorated and took you down to the studios.

It was my job to show the celebs and clients around the live studio.  It was very showbiz and cost a fortune but it paid for itself as advertising revenue for that month shot through the roof. So some razzmatazz please this election. (Pic credit SBS Australia)

Ina house style

It's not what you do it's the way that you do it. Profound words from Bananarama and The Fun Boy Three - and very true.  Wherever you work you will find there is a house style - a way of saying or writing material.

The BBC has a very good House Style Guide that also gives you a basic grounding in the proper way to write a news story.  Here is an extract looking at the relationship between the writer and the audience:

You have a relationship with the audience, so try to make it a pleasant and productive one. Here are some tips to consider:

• Do not describe news as good, bad, shocking or horrendous. Tell the story and let the listener decide.

• Do not frighten off your audience. One presenter began his programme by declaring that many people thought parliamentary reform was boring, but he was still going to talk about it.

• Do try to get a strong active verb in the first sentence. You want to make an impact and keep people listening.

• Do not start a news report with a question. The audience wants to be informed, not take part in a quiz.

• Do not begin a story with As expected. If your item was predictable and you have nothing new to say, why should the listener or viewer pay attention?

• Be positive. Make assertions wherever possible, and try to avoid negatives. It is more direct to say The plan failed than The plan was not successful.

Despite the above, we are mainly dealing with advice, not rules. The most interesting writing often involves creating something unexpected, and rules tend to get in the way.

If you would like more advice and have a read of all 92 pages click here

Three is still a magic number

'The key to good writing is simple thoughts simply expressed. Use short sentences and short words.Anything which is confused, complicated, poorly written or capable of being misunderstood risks losing the listener or viewer, and once you have done that, you might just as well not have come to work. '

This is from the BBC style guide and it goes on to say:

'In broadcasting, the basic sentence structure (1) Subject-(2) Verb-(3) Object works every time.The audience grasps what you are saying straight away. Anything more flamboyant, such as a subordinate clause, is a potential barrier to understanding:

With what his political opponents called a leap in the dark, the Prime Minister today committed Britain to a European daylight saving regime.

Whose political opponents? Who are the political opponents? What leap in the dark? Decide what you want to say and get on with saying it. Aim to be simple (not simplistic), fluent and easy on the ear. Your first duty is to your audience, not to your own idea of arresting prose.' (Source BBC style guide)

Being Interviewed on radio a few tips.

1. Make sure you know who you are talking to? Ask with whom you will be speaking is there anyone else involved in the interview? How long will the interview be? Will it be live or recorded?

2. Don't be surprised at being asked to be interviewed very early in the morning or late in the evening. Big audience for radio is at breakfast. So if you're plugging something the early bird really does get the juicy audience fat worm.

3. Sometimes you are asked to move your time, get dropped or get recorded for bulletins instead of live radio. It happens and you should be gracious about it.

4. Find the right place to be interviewed on the phone. Quiet and where you can focus. Worst place a speeding train with a dodgy mobile.

5. Relax, smile and focus on the points you want to make. You can suggest questions to ask when you are being set-up, often the Producer will write those into the script.

6. Adjust your product for the radio station, if it is national then find a national angle to what you are plugging if it's local do some research and have something relevant to the locale.

7. At the end you might get thanked or you just might get cut off, that happens to all interviewee's from whoever they are, so expect that to happen.

8. Through the interview, be yourself, enjoy, remember the name of the person interviewing you and remember what you want to plug.

Interview Technique

Here are a few ideas when you interview someone for a story.

1. Disarm - put your interviewee at ease, try and talk about a different subject to the one you intend to interview them about.

2. Pussy Foot - make your first question fairly safe and easy to answer, this will build confidence in your interviewee.

3. Killer Question - bury your killer question in amongst other more innocuous questions.

4. Listen - listen to what they are saying, nothing worse then asking a question they have already answered.

5. Structure - in your mind you might have worked out how you want the interview to run, don't be afraid to change particularly if the interviewee starts to talk about a more interesting related subject.

Script reading

Here are a few guidelines:
1. In your mind read three words ahead.
2. Understand what you are reading.
3. Don't drift and keep focused
4. Rise a level on consciousness but be yourself.
5. In your mind lower your voice register slightly.

What's the story?

Keep your copy concise always ask yourself what's the story? That often becomes your top line or helps you focus on how to write the copy. Here is an example of muddled writing, see how quickly you can guess the story:

Local council officials are concerned at the height and safety of a local wall. This follows an accident where a Mr Dumpty fell from the structure. The wall is over two metres in height and Mr Dumpty sustained serious injury. He was admitted to All The Kings Horses and Men Hospital where he later died of his injuries.

Closing Down

With news of radio station closures becoming increasingly common, it is perhaps no surprise that a government-commissioned review of the UK commercial local radio sector reaches some pretty gloomy conclusions.

The review by former GMG Radio chief John Myers, says that over fifty stations could as yet go out of business unless there is a radical overhaul of the way UK radio is regulated.
Much of what Myers has proposed reflects what commercial radio chiefs have been saying for years - that radio firms with a network of local stations should be able to syndicate more programming, base local shows at centralised regional studios, and make quicker changes in music and programming formats to respond to the market. He also says rules governing the merger of local radio companies, especially with other local media firms (eg newspapers) should be relaxed.

Outdated - box ticking
Myers says the current "box ticking approach" to local station obligations is "outdated" and that a "local impact" test should be used rather than basing opinions on the localness of a radio station on logistical matters. For those that fear such a change in regulation would further delocalise local stations which already often operate under national brands and take a lot of national programming from London, Myers says that local radio stations will maintain their 'localness' for commercial reasons, more so than ever in fact, because it's a local profile and local programmes that give these stations a USP against the plethora of new competing music and audio services available via digital TV networks and online.

Myers writes:
"If local radio were to 'de-localise' its broadcast content, it would simply fade into a sea of similar radio stations that offer no particular USP to their audiences".
He does, however, suggest that regulation should remain to force local stations to include regular local news bulletins.
Stressing the need for immediate action on the government's part, Myers says that the local radio industry is suffering terribly because of the advertising recession, and in the shadow of new competition for the advertiser's pound.

Small stations will perish
Even with the radical regulation changes he proposes, Myers warns that tens of local stations, especially those serving a population of less than 700,000, could go out of business in the next year. To help in that regard, he suggested letting adjacent lower population radio stations to merge their licenses, so that locality commitments would apply to the combined region, rather than both localities, reducing overall costs.
Those 'regional stations' who have less of a local remit already should be allowed to become quasi-national stations, which many already are, especially those that also broadcast on DAB nationally.

With regard to the relationship between the BBC and commercial radio, he recommends the Beeb make local news content available to their commercial rivals, and that the Beeb front most of the costs of future digital audio broadcasting roll-out.
Commercial broadcasters invested heavily in DAB in its early days, of course, seeing it as a way to expand their operations and launch new niche services. But with said new services proving somewhat unsuccessful commercially, the big players of commercial radio are in the process of all but bailing out of DAB completely.

Unsurprisingly, given that it was written by a former commercial radio chief and says what most other commercial radio execs have been saying for ages, commercial radio trade body RadioCentre welcomed the review. Calling the report "a visionary blueprint for the future of local radio", the body's CEO, Andrew Harrison, told reporters:
"Radio has committed to a very bright future in the digital age. This operational commitment must be supported by a new look regulatory framework that is in step with the realities of running modern media businesses. The replacement of outdated analogue regulation is a critical part of that reform.

The proposals set out in the Myers review bring some really visionary thinking, from an experienced radio practitioner, about how to operate and regulate great local services for listeners in the digital age. It is crucial that government and Ofcom now put the report's full proposals quickly into place".

Story credit CMU Network

Intimate Relations

If you are a busy Radio Producer setting up shows it pays to have a good relationship with publishers, charities, news providers. Seems obvious, but if you have the trust of a friendly P.R. person - they will come to you, offer stories, maybe choose you first to break a story.

Speculation

Speculation the biggest sin of rolling news-radio. To fill that great void when a story breaks and nobody much knows what is going on. Speculation populates the airwaves. 'Maybe' 'We think' or in reality 'I am just making this up to fill the time to we get some facts about the story.' Speculation devalues the work of a journalist, the obsession with sticking to a story even when there isn't anything new, interesting or true is a very poor way of reporting a story.