Radio Journalism/Broadcasting

Saldivia, Cloister Kevin C. & Sulmaca, Kimberly M.

Radio broadcast, it simply refers to an audio form of communication, and using radio waves, an
electromagnetic radiation to broadcast from a transmitter to a receiving antenna. In order to
transmit the same kind of programming, stations are connected to all the radio networks
(radioactive.com).

Origin of radio broadcasting

Dr. Lee de Forest, generally acknowledge as the "father of radio," was the first to broadcast
news in the United States. In 1906, de Forest invented the vacuum tube that made
broadcasting possible, the next step after Guglielmo Marconi's transmission of dot-and-dash
messages through the wireless telegraph in the 1890s.

The immense resources of wireless and radio for mass communication were harnessed for
military purposes during World War I, and that led to the banning of private broadcasting until
1919. Even then, only very few saw the possibilities of mass radio broadcasting. One person
who did was David Sarnoff, son of a Russian immigrant family who started as a Marconi
wireless operator. When the three big communications and electric companies —
Westinghouse, General Electric and American Telephone and Telegraph (AT & T) —pooled their
patent rights interest in 1919 and formed what is now known as the Radio Corporation of
America (RCA), Sarnoff became RCA's sparkplug and eventually headed both the RCA and its
subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company NBC).

Dr. Frank Conrad, a Westinghouse engineer, was the first person to prove Sarnoff's original
contention that people would listen to radio. His broadcasts of music in Pittsburg in 1919
stimulated sales of radio sets and led Westinghouse to open station KDKA on November 2,
1920, the first fully licensed commercial broadcasting station in the United States. By 1927,
there were already 48 radio stations owned by newspapers, and 97 papers presented news
over the air.

Broadcasting in the Philippines

 Early 1920s that radio broadcasting was introduced in the Philippines. The first radio
station in the country was called KZIB, a 20-watt station, owned by a certain Isaac Beck,
an American citizen.
 June 19, 1922, the Electric Supply Company, utilizing three 50-watt stations, also started
radio operations. Unfortunately, due to technical and financial reasons, all three
stopped operations.
  1924, a new KZ 100-watt station, owned by Henry Hermann, emerged. The letter "K'
was assigned to broadcasting stations in the Philippine in accordance with United States
laws' applicable to the country which was then an American colony.
 March 2, 1929, the first provincial station, KZRC, was opened in Cebu City. It was,
however, closed down after experiments to relay signals shortwave from Manila to
Cebu were unsuccessful. The Cebu station reopened a decade later, shortly before
World War II, broadcasting fearlessly on the side of the guerilla movement. Having
antagonized the occupying Japanese forces, the station was cut off the air in 1942.
 1930, radio had gradually left the experimental stage and beginning to be a dependable
medium of mass communication in the Philippines. The major stations then were KZRM,
KZIB and KZRH (now known as DZRH). Both KZRH and its sister station, KZRC n'!" Cebu
City (now known as DYRC), owned and operated by the Manila Broadcasting Company
(MB C)

The war years. When the Americans retreated to Corregidor and Bataan, all radio stations in
the capital, except DZRH, were destroyed.

During the occupation period, however, most Filipinos with radios listened to shortwave
broadcasts originating from the American forces in Corregidor and Honolulu, an activity that
was banned by the Japanese.

When the war was over, the first station to reopen was KZFM, which was operated by the War
Information Office. After Philippine Independence was recognized by the US Government in
1946, the KZFM was turned over to the Philippine government. After July 4, 1946, the American
broadcast call letter "KZ" were replaced by 'In' for Manila, "DW" for Luzon, "DY" for the Visayas,
and "DX" for Mindanao.

Radio broadcasting today. As of January 1991, there were 435 radio stations accredited with
the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters Sa Pilipinas (ICBP), 257 of them are in AM (amplitude
modulation) and the remaining 178 in FM or frequency modulation.

The KBP story. The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas (KBP) was formed as the self-
regulating body for the broadcast industry in the Philippines on April 27, 1973, or only seven
months after the imposition of martial law in September 1972. The KBP was formed in response
to a call by President Ferdinand E. Marcos that the broadcast media should police its own ranks
against the inroads of subversive elements who, according to him, used the airlanes to
undermine the duly-constituted government. At the onset of martial law, Marcos had ordered
the closure of all radio and television stations in the country except those operated by the
government.
When the KPB was formed in 1973, it had only 37 members. Today, 435 radio stations and 50
television stations are accredited with the KBP.

Writing for Radio

For a long time, even with the advances in technology, radio will still be the most important
means of mass communication. Leaders all over the world, including those in industrialized
countries, have realized the importance of radio as a means of communicating their ideas to
their constituencies.

Since radio will be here to stay, it is imperative that a journalism student should have basic
knowledge of bro Writing for Radio

adcast writing, both for radio and for television.

Advantages of radio. Compared with television and newspapers, radio has the following
advantages:

1) It is the fastest means of transmitting news and other information materials.

2) It can be used even in areas without electricity or those not reached by newspapers.

3) The production of radio programs is cheap. The presence of local stations makes radio even
more effective in disseminating news and information in the rural areas.

4) Live broadcasting at the site of a news event is easy.

5) Illiteracy is not a barrier to radio usage.

Disadvantages of radio. Like any other medium, radio has its own dis-advantages. Some of
radio's disadvantages are as follows:

1. It relies mainly on sound. Television, with its sights and sounds, is more complete.

2. It is subject to atmospheric and other interferences.

3. Like television, radio cannot deliver complete information. It has is be concise.

4. Message transmitted through the radio or television is highly perishable. You cannot hear or
view it again unless you tape it.

Writing for radio.

If journalists are advised to write the way they speak, they would be advised to write the way
they would want to hear if they are writing for radio. Writing for radio is primarily writing for
the ears and not for the eyes as in the case of the newspaper in the print media, the eye can
take in a whole sentence at a time. But in a radio broadcast, the ear can only take a word after
word in a sentence. The listener cannot go back to recheck the facts. He also has to wait until
the end of the sentence to find out its real meaning.

Principles in writing radio scripts

There are five principles that a radio scriptwriter should remember.

1. It is spoken. A radio program is not written literature, it is TALK. Use only the spoken words
of everyday speech. The broadcast style should be natural, not affected.

Example: Don't say: Nagtahan Bridge is not motorable. Say: Nagtahan Bridge is closed to traffic.

Contractions, which are commonly used in conversations, like that's, there's, he's, they're,
don't, won't, isn't, aren't, can be used in broad-cast materials.

But avoid Contractions if you want to emphasize a word, especially in a strong negative
statement. Example: Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said today that 1w will not resign.

2. It is immediate. Radio is the "now" medium. It's greatest advantage over the newspaper is
immediacy. It can report events as they happen. News reports aired through the radio should
be in the present or progressive tense.

Example:

President Arroyo this morning accepted the resignation Education Secretary Raul Roco.

or

President Arroyo says the country's economy is well on the road to recovery.

3. It is person to person. Writing for radio is not oratory, it is informal. It is between the
newscaster and the audience. In news programs, the style may be a little formal but certainly
not as rigid as in the newspapers. Try to avoid bureaucratic language.

Example:

Don't say: The office of Consular Services of the Department of Foreign Affairs, in coordination
with other offices under the department, has started streamlining its passport-issuing function
to the public.

Say: The Department of Foreign Affairs has now made it easier for people to get their passports.
4. It is heard only once. The broadcast, once aired, is gone and the listener has no means of
referring to it. The listener should, there-fore, not be burdened with having to think twice to
get the meaning or message of the broadcast. The rule is for you to use simple, declarative
sentences. Don't cram all the information in one sentence. If necessary, split a long sentence
into two or three sentences.

Example:

Crammed: The Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Vietnam, under a bilateral trade
agreement, have agreed to expand their two-way trade, with the latter assuring the former that
it will not extend any support, financial or otherwise, to the local communist movement.

Better: The Philippines and Vietnam today agreed to expand their trade relations by signing a
trade agreement. Vietnam assured the Philippines that it will not support the local communist
movement.

5. It is sound only. Words are the bridge between the newswriter and the listener. Use words to
convey concrete images. Under this principle, the scriptwriter is also cautioned against using
words with clashing sounds.

Example:

(bad) The building was built by a local builder.

(better) A local company built the house.

Also be careful with words that sound alike.

Example: Accepted — excepted affected — effected retain — regain

Radio news copy

A radio station has a newsroom where the news copies are written, checked and edited. The
copy is then given to the newsreader or announcer who will deliver the news on the air. The
newsreader or announcer is an important member of the news team because he is the link
between the station and the listener. In most cases, the news editor is an anonymous person
whose job is to come up with a factual report. As a general rule, the announcer cannot make
any changes in the copy without consulting the editor.

Some of the general guidelines that a., scriptwriter must follow in preparing the copy are

1) it must be typewritten in double or triple space on one side of the paper only

2) every sentence should be a paragraph in itself

3) words should not be split at the end of the line.

Other features of a news script:

1. Date of the report. Usually placed on the top righthand corner of the copy. This will
enable the copy to be filed chronologically.
2. 2. Slug. Under the date would be the slug or catchline, one or two words that would
convey the essence of the story. Avoid using generic words as "meeting", or "accident."
3. Time. Just after the slug, put the time of the broadcast for which the copy is prepared.
4. Body. Body text of the story will follow.
5. Source. At the bottom lefthand corner of the copy put the source of the story. This will
include the initials of the reporter, his beat, and the initials of the editor. In some
instances, it is necessary to include the telephone number of the source so that he can
be contacted immediately if there would be any problem with the story or if the station,
need s a follow-up.

Example of a news copy for radio.

09-05-02
1900 HRS.
ROCO RESIGNATION

President Arroyo today accepted the resignation of Education Secretary Raul Roco.

The President said she had accepted Roco's resignation "with regrets."

"It is with deep regrets that I acceded to Secretary Roco's request to leave the cabinet," The
President said in a prepared statement.

Mr. Roco is facing graft charges at the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

Roco, a former Senator, said that he resigned from the Cabinet after he felt slighted by the
President's endorsement of his graft charges to the commission.

Roco said he will now return to law practice.

Reported by: Rey Arquiza Malacatiang

Copy with an audio insert. Some stories contained taped interview or taped reports by
reporters assigned to regular beats. Taped reports add to the credibility of the story and
stresses the immediacy of an event. Some big radio networks in Metro Manila have on-the-spot
reports from various points round-the-clock.

An example of a copy with audio insert:

09-05-02
REACTION - ROCO
7:00 P.M.

Varied reactions to the resignation of Education Secretary Raul Roco were aired today by
government officials.

In Malacanang, Press Secretary Ignacio Burlye said that Roco was not fired by President Arroyo
contrary to what has been reported in the papers. Rey Arquiza, our man in Malacanang has
interviewed Secretary Bunye. His report:

Cue in: "Malacanang, OPS...

Cue out: "...with presidential attention.'
Duration: 58 seconds.

At the Senate, a number of senators said the resignation was expected. Our Senate reporter,
Cynthia Balana, has filed this report:

Cue in: "Senator Edgardo Angara."

Cue out: "...bad for President Arroyo."
Duration: 45 seconds.

Planning the newscast

The planning of a newscast, whether in radio or television, begins long before air time. Some
portions of it, like special reports, may be prepared days before. Other portions, like the
breaking news of the day, will come in just before air time. In planning the newscast, you will
have to take into consideration the number of commercials and other features like the weather
report, the sports and the business portions. Some local television newscasts end with public
affairs announcements.
The news hole

At the start of the newsday, a newscast is very similar to the dummy of a newspaper or a
magazine. The ads have been sold and are laid out. What would be left, the news hole (see
Chart), is blank, waiting to be filled up by the editors and producers. The size of the TV news
hole varies with the number of commercials and the length of the program. However, it is very
rigid. Every minute or second counts. In a sixty-minute newscast in a local television, for
example, you will notice that less than thirty minutes are actually devoted to news because the
rest of the air time is eaten up by commercials and other non-news reports. Other features of a
newscast include consumer report, sports, weather, teases, bumpers and introductions, post-
program commercials, promos, station ID, and the opening or closing credits.
Shaping the coverage

As the day goes on, the time of the newscast gets closer with every tick of the clock. The role of
the producer of a newscast is very important here. Some stories will turn out to be duds. New
stories or better angles to planned stories will prop up. Some producers have a summary or a
rundown of expected stories of the day. Some call it a "menu board", with blank spaces that
can be filled up later. No matter what method is used, the producer should constantly evaluate
what components will go into the newscast. He monitors coverage by giving instructions to
reporters and cameramen out in the field. He directs the script writing, voice-over narration,
and the use of special effects to enhance the meaning and production values.

Timing

The single most important factor in preparing the newscast is timing. Scheduled news
programs start at a precise minute and second and end the same way. A seventy- second news
update wedged into a prime-time evening show is just that: forty seconds of news headlines,
and a thirty-second commercial. Nothing will wait for the end of that small news segment; it
begins and precisely ends on time. If the program is thirty minutes or an hour in length that is
all the time available.

Even then you really don't have thirty minutes or one hour. Before anything else is done, the
time for commercials, the opening and the close, and bumpers must be subtracted. Other
commercials, those sold adjacent to the newscast, come out of the total. For example, most
news programs will be followed by a thirty -second or one minute commercial and a ten-second
station break, that can cut the total amount of time available to 29:20 or even 28:50 right off
the top. The typical arithmetic for finding the actual amount of time available for news,
weather, and sports in a thirty-minute time block looks like this:

-30:00 (thirty minute)

-00:40 - adjacent commercial
-00:20 - station break
-07:00 - 7 one-minute commercials
-01:00 6 ten-second bumpers
-00:30 - length of program opening
-00:30 - length of program close
-20:00 time left for news

Without doing anything more than that, the producer has learned that there are only twenty
minutes left for news, not thirty. Then you still have to take out the time for weather and
sports, let's say 3:30 for each. That would total seven minutes, so now there are only thirteen
minutes left for the news of the day.

Now the problem is how to fit the news into the thirteen minutes available. Doing that is a
major and precise job, the components of which are as follows:

1) Each story is given a tentative length when it is assigned. Reporters, writers, and tape editors
are given a time frame within which to work. They are told, for example: "Your story will be a
major one; you can have two minutes, or two minutes fifteen." This time, of course, is tentative
because it can change later in the day.

2) This tentative time is written in with the story slug on the first rundown (list of stories) early
in the day. It will be transferred to a new rundown as new stories will develop.

3) All the times in the first rundown are added up to see whether the total comes anywhere
close to reality. If it doesn't, some preliminary but drastic changes will be made. New rundowns
are made, adjusting story order and length, as the news gathering and processing continues.

4) The newsroom haggling begins. Reporters and writers would insist that their stories could
not fit in to the smaller time-frame given them. Usually everyone wants more time, in the same
way that reporters in the print media would want more newspaper space for their stories.

5) The final program rundown is completed. The script is ready. Very precise timing is required
at this stage. All the completed stories and those being finished by now have actual running
times. These actual running times go into the final rundown and are totaled up.

There are three things that a producer can do to help him keep an accurate account of the
time:

1) Add up the tentative time allocations as soon as a first rundown is made.

2) As the story times change from estimates to actual, adjust the total program time by adding
or subtracting the difference between the two from the total program time.

3) As early as possible, learn to add or subtract minutes and seconds in your head.

Bumpers and teases

Many television stations use what are called bumpers between the news segments and the
commercial breaks. Their main function is to tell the audience that there is a break but that
there twill be more news coming up.

Example:
"We'll be back with more news after these messages..."

"and now, here's a word from our sponsor..."

There is not much difference between a bumper and a tease. A tease is written and produced
to stimulate curiosity so that the audience will stay tuned in to see what the tease was about.

Example:

"Next, prices going up."

"Coming up: Mount Pinatubo update."

Equipment for a Radio Station (With pictures during presentation)

Radio Station equipment are broadly classified into two categories:

1. Transmission Equipment

2. Studio Equipment

1. Transmission Equipment

Name of the equipment Brief function

Takes your broadcast message from
Transmitter your studio room, encodes it as sine
waves and transmits it as radio waves.
The receiver receives the broadcast
Receiver message and decodes the radio sine
waves (simply put, a radio set).
For sending radio signals. Required one
Antenna each for transmission and receiving of
radio waves.
Used to transfer radio signals from one
Transmission lines location to another. (say from the
studio to the location of transmitter)
Used to improve and optimize the
quality of sound to be broadcast. These
Audio Processor
days this function is undertaken by
inexpensive software programs.
For connecting various equipments to
Connectors
each other.
Interface panel remote Interface panel is used to input
control broadcast data into transmitter
 (Basically an interface between studio
and transmission site). Remote control
is required to be able to feed those
data from far off (say from your studio)
For connecting equipments located at a
Cable
distance from each other.
For holding all equipments in a stable,
Equipment Rack
secure and logical manner.
To supply power and protect the
Power Protection
equipments from unwanted power
equipments
fluctuations.
UPS For uninterrupted power supply.

2. Production & Studio Equipment

Name of the
Brief function
equipment
For converting the sound waves into
Microphone.
electrical energy.
Silent Microphone For holding and moving the microphone
boom arms. across.
CD players Playing the music
Allows the jockey to control various aspects
Mixer
of radio broadcast
Amplifiers Low power signals to high power signals
Monitor Speakers. To monitor the quality of broadcast
Speaker Mounts To hold speakers
They are used for wide variety of purposes
Computer automation
and have replaced several functions
software.
previously managed by costly equipments
Rack Mount Holds all the equipments
Power Protection To supply power and protect the equipments
Units from unwanted power fluctuations.

References:

Malinao, A.L., 2003, Journalism for Filipinos, National Bookstore

http://familypsalms.com/equipment/

http://radioactive.com/