The Greatest Reward Cultural Etc

THE GREATEST REWARD
So suddenly, so strange Life wakes you up, things change I've done my best, I've served my call I thought I had it all So suddenly, so strong My prejudice was gone You needed me, I found my place I'm different now, these days
Now the greatest reward Is the light in your eyes The sound of your voice And the touch of your hand You made me who I am You trusted me to grow I gave my heart to show There's nothing else I cherish more I stand by you for sure Now the greatest reward Is the love that I can give I'm here for you now For as long as I live You made me who I am

So suddenly, it's clear to me Things change Our future lies in here and now We made it through somehow Now the greatest reward Is the love that I can give I'm here for you now For as long as I live You made me who I am You made me who I am

WHERE WE ARE?
DANCES Watched the video Learn the basic steps Done choreogra phy Mastery – 50% Nearly mastered the steps 100% ready Done dress rehearsal Done pictoria l

Bulig Ragragsak an Aray Blit P. Oasioas Kiriwkiw Tinikling Malong Singkil

PANDANGGO SA BULIG Get it from the Sayaw book

RAGRAGSAKAN This is classified under Mountain-Igorot Dances. It is an adaptation of a tradition in which Kalinga women gather and prepare for a budong, or peace pact. The Kalingga borrowed the beautiful word ragragsakan from the Ilocano, which means "merriment." The two biggest occassions for a ragragsakan in a Kalinga village are for the homecoming of successful head takers and the culmination of peace-pact between warring tribes. In this dance, Kalinga maidens balance labba baskets on thier heads, wave colorful tribal blankets, and sing short salidumay songs as they snake through the terrace dikes and skip through breaks in the path.

Ragsaksakan Tribe: Kalinga
This dance portrays the walk of the industrious Kalingga women, carrying water pots on their heads and wearing the colorful hand-woven "blankets of life" around their necks. Their walk imitates the climb up the Rice Terraces in the Mountain Provinces of the Philippines.

Aray is classified under Maria Clara dances. A dance whose words are sung in "Chabacano-ermitense," a hybrid of Spanish that was only spoken in the Ermita district before the turn of the century and today is extinct. The dance itself is a flirtatious one that involves graceful use of the pañuelo, or shawl, and tambourines. Aray means "ouch" in Tagalog.
Blit B'laan is a courtship dance of the B'laan people of Davao del Sur in which the dancers mimic the behavior of forest birds in the mating season. Two male dancers that represent richly-plumed male birds eye three females. The females try to hide from the males, burying their heads under their wings, which are represented by their malongs. Still, the aggressive males pursue them. PANDANGGO OASIOAS

The late Ms. Lucretia Urtula combined two popular dances, pandanggo sa ilaw and oasioas. Pandanggo Sa Ilaw: From the province of Mindoro, dancers reveal their virtuosity and grace by balancing three lighted oil lamps on their heads and on the backs of their hands as they execute waltz-like steps. Oasioas: Oasioas means 'to swing' in the Pangasinan dialect, it carries the same tempo and musical theme as pandanggo sa ilaw.

KIRIWKIW
Literally it means "shaking"...The dance comes from Ibajay, Aklan (researched by Edwin Masangkay)...This used to be performed by a coouple named Tay Ingoy and Nay Coro Maquirang...due to its lively shaking of the arms, legs and the whole body in time with the music, it became a hit during festive occasions..The dance is a variation of the Escotis, very popular in the province. Ethnic group - Aklanon
TINIKLING

Tinikling is another Philippine folk dance that is inspired by an endemic bird called “tikling.” The steps of this dance are an imitation of the movements of a “tikling” bird that hops and escapes the traps set by hunters. Moving with poise and grace, the dancers skip in-between two bamboo poles that are held to pound rhythmically against each other. This dance is a specialty of Leyte.

Kapa Malong Malong
Also called Sambi sa Malong, this Maranao dance shows the many ways of wearing a malong, a simple tubular yet highly functional piece of cloth. The traditional women’s version shows this cloth of countless colorful designs; used mostly as a skirt, woven in many different ways, depending on the purpose of the wearer. Other ways the women wear malong is as a shawl, a mantle, or a head-piece. During more recent dance documentation, a men’s version was derived. This version shows in masculine rendition, how men don the malong—displaying its use as a sash or waist-band, shorts or bahag, and a headgear that can be either functional while working in the fields, or decorative as a turban.

SINGKIL

The dance from the Lanao province uses twelve bamboo poles arranged in a double criss-cross fashion. While dancing, the Princess carries two jeweled fans called, "apir" which she moves in a stylized fashion.

How to Write a Radio Script
By an eHow Contributor

Learning how to write a radio script is critical for proper execution of a radio performance. The script must include various cues for dialogue, music, and sound effects and be able to quickly and clearly communicate the writer's objectives to the cast and crew. Here is a guide on how to write a radio script.
Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions
Things You'll Need: • Computer 1. 1 Formulate a story idea. Outline your characters, plot, setting, conflict and resolution. 2. 2 Write a narrative of the story. Put the "meat" of the story on the bones of your outline. Always keep the limitations of radio in mind. You are writing for listeners, not viewers. 3. 3 Divide the narrative into scenes, with good descriptions of setting, character, and sound effects. 4. 4 Write the dialogue based on your narrative. Let your characters and sound effects give the listener a clear picture of the action in their mind. 5. 5 Put the story into radio script format. This includes: a. Write a page heading. This is used to specify what program or episode you're working on and what page you are on in the script. It should be placed across the top of the page. b. Write a scene heading. This specifies the scene number, description of the scene's location, and time of day. c. Include script cues. There are three things a listener mainly retains from a radio drama: dialogue, music, and sound effects. Each of these audio components is identified as a "cue"-because they happen at a given time in the script and the director may have to instruct someone ("cue them") to produce it. d. Insert music cues. Varying emotions can be achieved through the choice of music. Clearly written instructions regarding music cues will greatly assist the cast and crew in influencing the mood of a given scene. e. Include the dialogue cues. This helps the director and the actors prepare themselves for proper timing and execution. f. Insert the sound effect cues. Sound effects help to establish the scene or depict action. Sound effect cues are always underlined. g. Compose your production notes. Engineers, cast or crew require specific instructions that are handled as production notes--comments from the writer on how to coordinate cues or achieve particular effects. These need to be clear and precise. 6. 6

Edit your radio script after letting it sit for a few hours or days. A fresh set of eyes will help you catch any mistakes in grammar or plot. Consider having a third-party scrutinize the script for you. 7. 7 Present the script to your producer or editor and make revisions as necessary.

Read more: How to Write a Radio Script | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2002078_write-radioscript.html#ixzz16rbl62pT

Newswriting for Radio
Welcome to newscript.com, the Newswriting for Radio website. The Newswriting for Radio website is an online tutorial on the craft of radio journalism, with particular attention to the writing of news scripts. Since 1996, newscript.com has been providing creative suggestions and ideas to radio news reporters, writers and anchors, as well as to broadcast journalism students around the world.
Improving your newscasts

The purpose of this website is to help radio journalists improve their skills as writers and anchors. Journalism education has greatly declined over the past two decades as colleges and universities have either closed journalism programs or transformed them into "Communications Departments." Radio journalism has been especially hard hit, with diminished teaching resources given over to television instruction because TV is the more attractive broadcast medium. Consequently, many journalists starting out in radio lack basic knowledge on how to communicate effectively though the medium. In the past, much of that knowledge was learned on the job, but consolidations, cutbacks and downsizing in radio have reduced news staffs to the point where news directors can afford little time to training those new in the profession. In this sink-or-swim environment, far too many radio journalists have figured out only how to float. They haven't been introduced to the wide range of possibilities in preparing radio news and are often frustrated either by not being able to move up to a larger market or by not having the satisfaction of becoming respected journalists within their communities.
Features

This website is intended for those who are early in their radio careers, whether in a first or second job or still in college or an internship. The pages assume some experience in radio, but visitors unfamiliar with some of the terminology may consult a small glossary. Although the Newswriting for Radio website has been extensively used in college journalism courses, the website is not meant to replace a broadcast newswriting textbook. The Newswriting for Radio website is a supplement to coursework, and especially to on-the-job experience.

The site is organized into four major sections. In The Basics, you learn fundamental lessons and characteristics of broadcast newswriting. Three different newscast formats are examined in The Styles. You'll examine some of the questions surrounding what deserves coverage in the section on News Judgment. Finally, The Newsroom teaches you about creating an organized environment that allows you to be better prepared for stories. There's also a collection of links to other radio journalism websites. On several of the pages, sample news scripts are accompanied on the right side of the page by the speaker symbol (shown on the right side of this paragraph). The appearance of the symbol next to a script indicates that you can listen to a sound file (in the WAV format) containing the words of the script. Listening to these files will allow you to hear and practice the patterns of voice modulation regularly used in radio newscasts. Just click on the symbol to hear the script.
Here are some common terms in radio journalism used throughout the Newswriting for Radio website and their definitions: actuality
recorded segment of a newsmaker speaking, generally lasting from 10 to 20 seconds; this is what people outside of radio journalism often call a "sound bite"

clock
schedule of a broadcast hour, with precise time in minutes and seconds allotted for the various programming segments; for example, a clock might begin "00:00-01:30 -news," "01:30-02:30 -- spots," and so forth; often represented as a pie chart resembling an analog clock

cut
tape containing the recording of a voicer, wrap, actuality or nat sound; networks feed cuts to affiliates via satellite

hourly
network newscast beginning at the top of the hour; the cast generally contains a commercial break at two and a half or three minutes past the hour and resumes a minute or a minute and a half later; most hourlies conclude at five minutes past the hour

IQ
"in cue" -- the first words recorded on a cut

lead
first sentence of a news story, which should concisely reveal the story's basic events and provide an introduction to the details given in the rest of the story

live shot
report introduced by an anchor that has not been recorded but is read live by another journalist, often at a news scene

lockout
final words of a report spoken by a journalist in which the journalist's name and station call letters or frequency are given, such as "Corrie Carpenter, 990 News"; often a location is given as well: "In Middleville, Corrie Carpenter, 990 News"

MOS
abbreviation for "Man On the Street" interviews; that is, interviews of passers-by chosen at random in a public place and asked their opinions of events or people in the news

nat or natural or raw sound
"raw sound" is recorded sound that is not of a newsmaker speaking, such as the sound of an airplane landing or a marching band playing or a crowd cheering; sometimes known as "natural sound" or "nat sound," especially when the source of the sound is from nature, such as frogs croaking or geese honking

OQ
"out cue" -- the last words recorded on a cut

reader
script of a news story in which no actualities are to be played; this script is read live on the air by the anchor; the recording of a reader by a reporter is called a "voicer"

script
written-out version of a news story, the text of which is read on the air; a newscast is made up of a collection of scripts read by an anchor

slug
title of a script; used for reference purposes; wire-service stories are each given one

sounder
recorded tune used to introduce segments of the broadcast, such as at the beginning of a traffic report or sports; the networks use sounders at the beginning of the hourlies

spot
recorded commercial advertisement

tease
brief phrase spoken by the anchor immediately before playing a spot or going to traffic (or some other interruption of the newscast) to tell the listener about a story coming up later; the tease should intrigue the listener without either misrepresenting the story or revealing it entirely

voicer
recorded report containing only the journalist's voice -- there is no actuality; can be understood as a recorded reader

wrap
recorded report in which a journalist's voice occurs at the beginning and end, and an actuality is played in between; the report is "wrapped around" the actuality

zinger
unusual and generally humorous feature story often placed at the end of a newscast

Avoiding "Cop Talk"
other topics under BASICS: Broadcast Sentence-Structure, Charges & Allegations, Leads & Teases, Rewriting

Copy, Using Numbers

Many of the stories we report involve crimes and police attempts to apprehend those responsible. The importance of these stories to our listeners, as well as the often complex and uncertain nature of police investigations, can be quite intimidating for young reporters, with the result that they frequently repeat verbatim the description of a crime given to them by a police official.

Don't "do the police in different voices"
Police officers are taught to describe their investigations in a way that provides specific details of events with the vaguest possible discussions about those whom police believe responsible. This "cop talk" developed from the legal requirements that enforcement officials need to meet in order to make arrests and gain convictions. But "cop talk" is inadequate for reporting on radio. Here's an example of "cop talk," a story only slightly modified from what was broadcast on a small-market station:
•

TWO MEN ARE UNDER ARREST FOR ROBBING A JEWELRY STORE. POLICE SAY THE MEN ENTERED THE VILLAGE PAWN SHOP AT 1407 MAIN STREET AT APPROXIMATELY 10:15 YESTERDAY MORNING. AFTER WAITING INSIDE THE STORE FOR A FEW MINUTES, ONE OF THE MEN DISPLAYED A GUN AND ORDERED TWO EMPLOYEES TO PLACE INTO A DUFFEL BAG ALL THE CASH FROM THE REGISTER AS WELL AS SEVERAL ITEMS OF JEWELRY. THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE IN THE STORE AT THE TIME. THE MEN LEFT THE STORE, AND ONE EMPLOYEE WAS ABLE TO SEE THE MEN DRIVE OFF IN A BLUE DODGE ARIES. THE EMPLOYEES NOTIFIED POLICE, AND AT APPROXIMATELY 11 O'CLOCK A VEHICLE MATCHING THE DESCRIPTION OF THE GETAWAY CAR WAS SPOTTED PARKED IN AN ALLEY IN BACK OF A HOUSE AT 684 WILLOW STREET. POLICE

ENTERED THE HOUSE WHERE THEY FOUND TWO MEN, AN AMOUNT OF MONEY, AND ITEMS OF JEWELRY LATER IDENTIFIED AS HAVING BEEN TAKEN FROM THE STORE. A COMPUTER CHECK OF THE VEHICLE DETERMINED THAT IT WAS STOLEN. THE MEN WERE IDENTIFIED AS 34-YEAR-OLD MILES STANDISH OF MIDDLEVILLE AND 28-YEAR-OLD JOHN ALDEN OF SMALLTOWN. THE MEN WILL FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES.

Cut irrelevant details
This script (which runs about 54 seconds) is far too long, with irrelevant details such as the make and model of the getaway car, while the identification of the suspects isn't revealed until the very end. It is obvious that the reporter merely repeated the words of a police officer or of a police press release. Here's a brief rewrite of the script (which now runs 31 seconds):

•

TWO MEN ARE BEHIND BARS THIS MORNING AFTER AN ARMED ROBBERY OF A MIDDLEVILLE PAWN SHOP. POLICE SAY 34-YEAR-OLD MILES STANDISH OF MIDDLEVILLE AND 28-YEAR-OLD JOHN ALDEN OF SMALLTOWN ROBBED THE VILLAGE PAWN SHOP ON MAIN STREET YESTERDAY, FORCING TWO WORKERS AT GUNPOINT TO STUFF A DUFFEL BAG WITH MONEY AND JEWELRY. THE SUSPECTS WERE LATER ARRESTED IN A HOUSE ON WILLOW STREET AFTER POLICE SAY THEY SPOTTED THE GETAWAY CAR BEHIND THE HOME AND ITEMS TAKEN IN THE HEIST WERE FOUND INSIDE THE HOUSE. STANDISH AND ALDEN ARE EXPECTED TO FACE A VARIETY OF CHARGES.

The new version has the police making the allegations against the two suspects (as is legal and proper), but many details unnecessary to the main point of the story have been removed.

But don't make the opposite mistake of being too informal
"Cop talk" is predominantly a problem in small-market stations in stories by inexperienced reporters, but the opposite extreme seems to be taking hold in larger markets. Big-city reporters are becoming exceedingly colloquial in their language when covering police stories. Here's an example that aired on a major-market station in New England. The story concerned a stolen minivan in which a mother had left two babies inside. In telling the story the reporter said:
•

...A WOMAN LEFT TWO INFANTS IN THE VAN WHILE SHE DROPPED OFF AN OLDER CHILD AT DAYCARE. THE VAN WAS STILL RUNNING, AND MEANWHILE SOME GUY MUST HAVE JUMPED IN AND DROVE OFF. WHEN HE REALIZED THERE WERE TWO INFANTS IN BACK, HE DITCHED THE VAN, AND POLICE ARE NOW SEARCHING FOR THE GUY IN SOME NEARBY WOODS.... BUT THANKFULLY THE KIDS ARE OKAY.

This script does not clearly report what police believe to have happened. In fact, the script seems to indicate that this version of events is merely speculation on the part of the reporter. There was no indication of any witness seeing who drove the minivan away. Perhaps the driver was a woman. Moreover, there is no evidence for the alleged motivation of this mystery driver to have abandoned the minivan. Maybe the driver saw the babies, maybe the driver didn't. Just as troubling as the sloppiness with which this script was put together was the overly conversational tone. A suspect of unknown sex should be called a "suspect." If an unidentified suspect is a man, he should be called a "man" -- not "some guy." Being too chatty damages the credibility of the reporter to be an authoritative source of information. Radio reporters need to strike a balance in the language they use. Scripts cannot be ploddingly detailed and dull, yet being too colloquial may lead to sloppiness and lack of credibility.

Broadcast Sentence-Structure
other topics under BASICS: Avoiding "Cop Talk", Charges & Allegations, Leads & Teases, Rewriting Copy, Using

Numbers

Journalism instructors often state that broadcast newswriting is supposed to sound just like everyday speech. In essence, however, writing broadcast news is more akin to writing song lyrics. Both tasks involve constructing language in a visual form (writing) for communication in an oral form (speaking or singing). Like song lyrics, broadcast newswriting adheres to patterns of language use (such as appropriate vocabulary and formulaic sentence-structure) that the audience expects to hear and will use in interpreting the communication. Even though commercial broadcasting has been around for less than a century, radio listeners have come to expect their newscasts to be written in a particular way. Learning about broadcast sentence-structure is one of the foundations for developing effective skills at radio newswriting.

Keep it simple
Grammarians distinguish between three types of sentences: simple, compound and complex. A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb. A compound sentence is composed of two simple sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction ("and," "but," "or," "nor"). A complex sentence is composed of two simple sentences joined by a subordinating conjunction (which may be temporal, such as "when"; causal, such as "because"; or concessive, such as "although"). You probably remember this lesson from elementary school, but the distinctions remain quite relevant to broadcast newswriting. In your scripts, simple sentences are best. You will, of course, regularly use compound and complex sentences, but the clarity achieved through the use of simple sentences can rarely be surpassed. Linguists describe English as a highly asyndetic language -- which means that clauses in the same train of thought do not always need to be connected by conjunctions or connecting particles. Such particles in English include the words "moreover," "furthermore," and "however," words that should be avoided in broadcast newswriting. Listeners are themselves capable of connecting the elements of a story if the story is presented clearly and concisely, and these listeners expect important news to be reported in simple sentences. This expectation is especially true of leads, which generally should be written as simple sentences. When a lead begins with a subordinating conjunction, listeners discount the story's urgency. This is why such leads almost always appear in feature stories or zingers.

Avoid your relatives
Relative clauses, which begin with a relative pronoun or adverb such as "who," "which" or "where," provide additional information about a noun in a sentence. Those relative clauses which interrupt the flow of the sentence should not be used in broadcast newswriting. In a text communicated visually, a reader has the words on a page or screen to help guide him back to the story after the detour of a relative clause. Listeners do not have such a guide and must rely on the speaker to provide information in readily understood clauses that are concise and uninterrupted. A sentence with an interrupting relative clause should be rewritten into two simple sentences. Take the following example:

•

FRED GRANDY...WHO PLAYED "GOPHER" ON THE ORIGINAL "LOVEBOAT" T-V SERIES...LATER SPENT 8 YEARS AS A CONGRESSMAN FROM IOWA.

A clearer means of expressing the same information is through two simple sentences:
•

FRED GRANDY PLAYED "GOPHER" ON THE ORIGINAL "LOVE BOAT" T-V SERIES. HE LATER SPENT 8 YEARS AS A CONGRESSMAN FROM IOWA.

Recognize that apposition -- the placing of a noun or phrase after another noun and marked off only by commas or, in this very example, dashes -- is like a relative clause without the relative pronoun. Long, interrupting appositions, like interrupting relative clauses, should be avoided in broadcast newswriting.

Relative clauses and appositions can be used at the end of a sentence. This placement is especially useful for clauses beginning with the adverb "where," as in
•

FIRE DESTROYED THE HISTORIC HOME, WHERE GEORGE WASHINGTON ONCE SLEPT.

Clauses beginning with "who" or "which" are acceptable when placed at the end of a sentence, but sometimes it may be preferable to write two simple sentences instead. For example,
•

SIMMONS IS SUING FOR RETURN OF THE "BARBIE"-DOLL COLLECTION, WHICH HE SAYS IS WORTH A QUARTER-OF-A-MILLION DOLLARS.

could also be written
•

SIMMONS IS SUING FOR RETURN OF THE "BARBIE"-DOLL COLLECTION. HE SAYS THE COLLECTION'S WORTH A QUARTER-OF-A-MILLION DOLLARS.

Be active
Finally, two very common writing faults made by beginning reporters also appear nowadays in all other types of English writing, namely the overuse both of the passive voice and of the existential "there is," "there are" construction. Use the active voice. Write sentences with subjects that are doing things and not subjects that are merely receiving actions upon them. Do not waste time stating an object's existence (this is what the "there is" construction shows). Describe that object doing something. Simple sentences with active verbs form the basis of effective writing for radio. All other broadcast newswriting techniques are built upon the foundation laid by this type of sentence structure.

Charges & Allegations
other topics under BASICS: Avoiding "Cop Talk", Broadcast Sentence-Structure, Leads & Teases, Rewriting

Copy, Using Numbers

During the initial flurry of stories concerning President Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, the late ABC-TV news anchor Peter Jennings interviewed humorist and social commentator P. J. O'Rourke. Jennings asked O'Rourke to discuss "the alleged age difference between the President and Ms. Lewinsky," to which O'Rourke wittily replied, "Yes, Peter, we haven't yet determined whether there actually is an age difference between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. There is only an alleged age difference."

Jennings smiled at the reply, realizing that he had misused the word "alleged." The word allows journalists to discuss claims that have not been proved, but it is a word easily open to abuse.

Say, say, say
The best way to use the words "allege," "alleged" and "allegedly" is not to use them at all. Instead, have your scripts reveal who is making the claim by using phrases such as "police say" or "prosecutors say" followed by the substance of the allegation. For example, a story about a bank-robbery suspect that contains the sentence
•

...34-YEAR-OLD MILLARD FILLMORE ALLEGEDLY ROBBED THE "BANK NOW" BRANCH ON CHURCH STREET....

should be rewritten so that the sentence reads
•

...POLICE SAY 34-YEAR-OLD MILLARD FILLMORE ROBBED THE "BANK NOW" BRANCH ON CHURCH STREET....

As another example, if a sentence in a story about a local government official facing trial for corruption reads
•

...ZONING BOARD PRESIDENT DOLLY MADISON IS ALLEGED TO HAVE TAKEN BRIBES FROM DEVELOPERS....

rewrite the script into something like
•

...PROSECUTORS SAY ZONING BOARD PRESIDENT DOLLY MADISON TOOK BRIBES FROM DEVELOPERS....

Always use the verb "say" in such scripts. Avoid the temptation to employ other verbs (such as "claim," "state" or "charge") when reporting allegations. Other verbs bring connotations that will color your reporting. For example, if your script has police claiming that an individual committed a crime, your listeners may well interpret the script as indicating that you the reporter do not believe the police. To speak of someone charging an allegation implies legal actions -- charges -- have been filed. To maintain as unbiased and accurate a report as possible, stay with the neutral verb "say."

J'accuse
Learn the distinction between "accused" and "alleged." When legal charges have been filed against an individual, that individual becomes accused of the behavior detailed in those charges. The individual can then be described as an "accused rapist," "accused murderer," "accused embezzler," and so forth. In scripts, the use of the adjective accused should be limited to one occurrence at or near the beginning of the script in order to describe a suspect quickly and efficiently. Notice the use of the word in this story about a homicide trial:

•

ACCUSED MURDERER AARON BURR HAS BROKEN DOWN IN TEARS AT HIS TRIAL, TELLING JURORS THAT HE DID NOT KILL HIS FRIEND ALEX HAMILTON LAST JULY. TAKING THE STAND IN HIS OWN DEFENSE, BURR CRIED YESTERDAY AS HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HIS INITIAL INTERROGATION BY SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES. BURR SAID INTIMIDATING QUESTIONING CAUSED HIM TO GIVE CONFLICTING STORIES TO INVESTIGATORS. PROSECUTORS HAVE SAID THAT BURR KILLED HAMILTON AFTER AN ARGUMENT OVER MONEY IN HAMILTON'S MOHICAN SPRINGS

APARTMENT. BURR IS EXPECTED TO FACE CROSS-EXAMINATION WHEN THE TRIAL RESUMES AT THE HANOVER COUNTY COURTHOUSE LATER TODAY.

In the above script, the adjective "accused" appears once and only once. Multiple use may lead listeners to believe that you the reporter want them to think a suspect is guilty because the adjective "accused" is weaker than the powerful nouns it regularly accompanies (such as "murderer" or "rapist").

Charged up
As has already been mentioned, the verb "charge" implies that legal actions have been filed against an individual or company. The verb should be used only to describe the process of filing the action:
•

POLICE HAVE CHARGED 32-YEAR-OLD LIZZIE BORDEN WITH TWO COUNTS OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER FOR THE PICK-AXE SLAYINGS OF HER FATHER AND STEP-MOTHER....

The specific legal charge should also be named, such as the "two counts of first-degree murder" of the previous example. Pay careful attention to the specific charge. Prosecutors may say that an individual is a murderer and organized-crime boss but charge him with only tax evasion. The defendant could then be described as being "accused of tax evasion" but not as an "accused murderer and crime boss" -- the murders and organized-crime connections are allegations, not charges.

Proper allegations
Occasions do exist for the use of "allege," "alleged" or "allegedly." When claims are made concerning an individual but no legal charges have been publicly filed, and the source of the claims is complicated to identify, then "alleged" becomes an acceptable option for describing the individual and the claims. For example, a community group holds a press conference calling for the firing of the deputy chief of police. Earlier that week, three former civilian employees of the police department told a newspaper reporter that they have heard the deputy chief use racial slurs. The reporter was investigating a tip that the deputy chief had recently faced a closed-door, disciplinary hearing with the public safety director and the civil service commission. The complex nature of the story can lead to extremely tortured syntax in your script. In this situation, a sentence such as
•

...THE "TOGETHER COALITION" IS ANGRY OVER RACIST COMMENTS ALLEGEDLY MADE BY DEPUTY CHIEF FRANKLIN PIERCE....

might be the most efficient way of succinctly explaining the story. As with "accused," forms of "alleged" should be used only once in a given script. Finally, remember the mistake of Peter Jennings and ensure that you place the word "alleged" in front of what is actually being alleged. Rewriting the previous script example to read
•

...THE "TOGETHER COALITION" IS ANGRY OVER ALLEGEDLY RACIST COMMENTS MADE BY DEPUTY CHIEF FRANKLIN PIERCE....

significantly changes the meaning of the sentence. Now the question is not whether the deputy chief made comments, but rather whether the particular words he used were racist. If, however, it has not yet been determined what, if anything, the deputy chief may have said, the allegations concern the making of the comment and not the sense of the comments themselves. The earlier version of the sentence is then the correct one.

Finally, until a judicial authority has rendered a decision, a suspect or defendant has not been proved guilty of the charges or allegations against him. Not only is it unethical to describe this individual as, say, a "murderer" or "embezzler" without the qualification of words like "accused" and "alleged," but such descriptions could turn you into a defendant yourself -- for libel.

Leads & Teases
other topics under BASICS: Avoiding "Cop Talk", Broadcast Sentence-Structure, Charges & Allegations, Rewriting

Copy, Using Numbers

Getting listeners to keep their radios tuned to your entire newscast...that's the function of leads and teases. (Incidentally, the first phrase of the previous sentence is itself a tease.) Despite the importance of leads and teases, many radio journalists do not understand how to fashion effective "hooks" to keep listeners listening.

Repetition is the most common mistake
Repetition is the most common mistake made in leads and teases. As you may have experienced when recognizing the identity of the first six words of the subhead with those at the beginning of this paragraph, repetition of words or ideas is tedious. Listeners understandably come to believe that there is far less news than meets the ear. Yet repetition is a far-too-frequent feature of news writing, especially between the lead-in to tape (be it voicer, wrap or actuality) and the first sentence on that tape. Here's one such example:
• •

EMBATTLED STATE LOTTERY DIRECTOR SAMANTHA WU HANDED IN HER RESIGNATION TO GOVERNOR FREDERICK DOUGLASS. REPORTER SUSAN STARR SAYS WU TOLD THE GOVERNOR THAT SHE HAD BECOME A POLITICAL DISTRACTION. IQ: "IN HER RESIGNATION LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR, WU SAID THAT SHE HAD BECOME A DISTRACTION...

The second sentence of the lead provides information that is immediately given again by the first sentence of the tape. This is not, however, the only problem with this lead.

Keep it fresh
Tenses of the past should be avoided in leads and teases. The preterite, or simple past tense, must almost never be used. Any past action should be described in the perfect tense -- "have/has" + past participle, which often ends in "-ed." The stative quality of the perfect tense can make it seem like the present. Better still is the use of the present progressive tense -- "am/are/is" + present participle ending in "-ing" -- to describe an event that has just taken place. In the story above, it would have been better to write:
• •

EMBATTLED STATE LOTTERY DIRECTOR SAMANTHA WU IS CALLING IT QUITS. REPORTER SUSAN STARR SAYS WU FEARS THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING HER HUSBAND'S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS HARMING GOVERNOR DOUGLASS. IQ: "IN HER RESIGNATION LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR, WU SAID THAT SHE HAD BECOME A DISTRACTION...

Present tenses give immediacy and energy to news writing, allowing listeners to feel that they are hearing about the news as it is taking place. Moreover, in the course of the day leads should be advanced to

freshen the story...even though the same tape is being used. In the example story given above, a later lead for the same tape could be as follows:
• •

GOVERNOR DOUGLASS MUST FIND A NEW LOTTERY DIRECTOR. REPORTER SUSAN STARR SAYS EMBATTLED CURRENT DIRECTOR SAMANTHA WU IS GIVING UP THE JOB. IQ: "IN HER RESIGNATION LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR, WU SAID THAT SHE HAD BECOME A DISTRACTION...

The changing lead shifts the emphasis of the story to a future event, the appointment of a new lottery director. The tape then functions as background information for this future event, and so the package of lead and tape together remain fresh.

Absent antecedent alert!
A frequent error in teases is the use of pronouns without any reference to identify the pronouns. The pronouns' antecedents are absent. This error leads to teases such as:
•

HE WANTED TO DIE BUT THEY SAID NO. THE STORY NEXT ON 990 NEWS.

Who is "he"? Who are "they"? (The story concerns a convicted murderer who asked the jury to sentence him to death, but the jury decided instead on a sentence of life in prison without parole.) Some might claim that this lead has mystery, and this mystery will compel listeners to stay tuned. There certainly is mystery, but confusion seems the only result in the minds of listeners. A better tease gives listeners information, not a guessing game:
•

LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE FOR CHILD-KILLER WALT THOMAS. THE DETAILS NEXT ON 990 NEWS.

Teases should not tell the entire story, but teases are only a sentence long. Even the most informationpacked short sentence can rarely give all the necessary details to satisfy listeners. The tease whets the appetite of listeners, who will want the completeness of hearing the full script if they have an idea of what the story is about. Deliberately confusing or gimmicky teases only frustrate listeners and drive them away.

Rewriting Copy
other topics under BASICS: Avoiding "Cop Talk", Broadcast Sentence-Structure, Charges & Allegations, Leads &

Teases, Using Numbers

Radio reporters spend as much time rewriting scripts as writing them. Stories are rewritten from three types of sources: newspapers, press releases and other radio news scripts. The first two of these sources are not written in broadcast style, and radio reporters need to be aware of the differences between print and broadcast.

Differences in style
One obvious difference involves numbers. In print style, numbers can be written out to exactitude, while on the radio numbers are reduced to two significant digits. Ages in the newspaper are written between commas after an individual's name; in broadcast style, ages are given as adjectival phrases preceding the name.

Newspaper stories also display a greater use of the past tense. Print is a distancing medium, separating events through the filter of the written word from the immediacy of their occurrence. Newspapers are also written hours before they are read, so the events described seem "old news." Radio, on the other hand, has an intimate, "you-are-there" quality that is enhanced by the use of the present tense. Newsmakers spoke to newspaper reporters ("Bush said...."); they speak to a radio audience ("BUSH SAYS....").

The art of condensing
The greatest difference involves story length and detail. Print reporters write hundreds, even thousands of words for a particular story. Few, if any, of your stories as a radio reporter should have even a hundred words. Rewriting newspaper stories becomes an art of condensing. Take the following example of a newspaper story from the imaginary Middleville Times:
•

The crumbling Salt Creek bridge on Old Route 9, considered one of Middle County's most historically significant bridges, will receive a $200,000 grant for repairs from the state Department of Transportation, according to county engineer Squire Whipple.

The funding comes from the state's Transportation Enhancement Fund, Whipple said. Built of sandstone in 1834, the bridge is a 285-foot span made up of three arches over Salt Creek on the old route from Middleville to Greenfield. Deterioration of the bridge in recent years has been a worry to local preservationists. The bridge was closed to traffic in 2005. The $200,000 infusion will cover the estimated cost to stabilize the bridge until money can be found to restore it. Permanent repairs could cost as much as $1,750,000, Whipple said.
The example above is quite short by print standards, but it's far too long for radio. Remember, a radio story without an actuality (a "reader") should generally run about 20 seconds. Get to the heart of your story and leave the additional details out, as in the following 21-second rewrite:

•

A CRUMBLING HISTORIC BRIDGE IS GETTING SOME LONG-NEEDED REPAIRS TO KEEP IT FROM COLLAPSING INTO SALT CREEK. THE MIDDLEVILLE TIMES REPORTS THE STATE WILL PROVIDE TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS TO PRESERVE THE OLD-ROUTE 9 BRIDGE BETWEEN MIDDLEVILLE AND GREENFIELD UNTIL MORE MONEY CAN BE FOUND FOR PERMANENT REPAIRS. THE 170-YEAR-OLD STONE BRIDGE HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR THREE YEARS.

Unless you have spoken to individuals involved in the story yourself, you must attribute your rewritten story to its newspaper source. The attribution generally begins the second sentence of the script ("THE MIDDLEVILLE TIMES REPORTS...."). Not only is it ethical to credit the news organization that discovered the story, but if the newspaper gets it wrong (a not infrequent occurrence), the error and any of its consequences will generally not fall on you or your station.

Please release me
Most of the press releases a newsroom receives concern community groups trying to gain publicity for themselves or their events. Usually these press releases are of minor news value. In smaller communities, however, listeners expect to be informed of such events, and program directors may well inform the newsroom that a story must be aired. Generally, though, if a news or program director believes a press release is worth a story, a reporter will make a phone call or visit an event, with the result that the reporting is original rather than a rewrite.

Businesses and organizations often use press releases...through mail though increasingly through the fax machine or PR Newswire...to tout promotions, reorganizations, mergers, hirings, layoffs and other activities. These press releases are the first, and sometimes the only official contact the business or organization will make with the media. Press releases are an essential aspect of business reporting. Let's say your fax machine spits out the following press release from an out-of-town bank announcing a deal for it to buy a local bank:
•

Heron Bank, Inc., of Lyons, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Middleville Savings Bank, Inc., of Middleville, in a cash transaction for $8,375,000.

Mary Gonzales, President and Chief Executive Officer of Heron Bank, announced, "We are very pleased with opportunities afforded by our prospective acquisition of Middleville Savings Bank. We are looking forward to serving the Middleville community." The closing of the acquisition transaction is subject to the completion by Heron Bank of its due diligence investigation of Middleville Savings Bank, as well as regulatory approval by federal and state banking officials. Middleville Savings Bank has assets of $65,000,000 and operates three branches, two in Middleville and the third in Smalltown. Heron Bank operates in seven markets in two states and has assets of $1,880,000,000. Heron Bank provides a full range of banking services to individuals and small-to-medium businesses.
This press release is full of legalese and large numbers. Bring the story close to home for your listeners by referring to something that will directly affect their lives, as in the lead to this 16-second reader:

•

YOU MAY SOON SEE A NEW SIGN OUTSIDE YOUR BANK. MIDDLEVILLE SAVINGS BANK IS ACCEPTING A BUYOUT OFFER FROM LYONS-BASED HERON BANK. THE EIGHT-POINT-FOUR MILLION DOLLAR DEAL WOULD ADD MIDDLEVILLE TO THE SEVEN OTHER CITIES SERVED BY HERON. THE DEAL STILL NEEDS THE OKAY FROM REGULATORS.

Remember that press releases are primary sources of information, like the tape from an interview. The information in a press release contains the bias of the organization that sent it out. Be aware of that bias and show the same prudence in dealing with press releases as you show with other forms of newsgathering.

Keep stories current
In the course of the day, stories you or other reporters have written need to be rewritten. Rewriting is essential not just because each time you tell a story it should sound different and fresh, but also because situations change. Keep the focus on what is current. An early-morning house fire will bring stories about the blaze, the firefighters and any injuries or fatalities. By midday, the lead concerns the amount of damage to the building. In the evening, the focus shifts to the family that might be homeless that night. The shifts in focus require rewriting the story several times in the course of the day. Rewriting is an important aspect of radio journalism. Knowing how to adapt stories to your medium and to current situations will aid you in informing the public and gaining respect as a timely provider of news.

Using Numbers

other topics under BASICS: Avoiding "Cop Talk", Broadcast Sentence-Structure, Charges & Allegations, Leads &

Teases, Rewriting Copy

One of the catch-phrases in teaching broadcast newswriting is that scripts should be "just like speaking" -in other words, you should write the words and phrases you would use if you were talking to a friend. This is not quite correct, and it is especially not the case when it comes to numbers.

Not exactly like speaking
Take ages, for example. Ages in broadcast scripts are given as adjectival phrases placed in front of the person's name or other identifying feature, such as "45-year-old Michelle Obama," or "the 45-year-old First Lady." This type of construction is not, of course, conversational. The purpose for it is to make the use of numbers in scripts as clear as possible to our listeners. This same desire for clarity should govern other appearances of numbers in our stories, such as in the following script on economic data:

•

THE NATION'S HOMEBUILDERS ARE KEEPING BUSY. THE GOVERNMENT REPORTS HOUSING STARTS CLIMBED ONE-POINT-FOUR PERCENT IN AUGUST AFTER A THREE-POINT-FIVE PERCENT RISE THE PREVIOUS MONTH. ECONOMISTS WELCOME THE NEWS, SAYING IT'S ANOTHER SIGN OF STEADY YET SUSTAINABLE GROWTH.

This story is economic -- so to speak -- in its use of numbers. Only two numbers are given, the percentages of increase for the months of July and August. Listeners aren't faced with statistical overload, and the script ends with expert explanation of these numbers' significance.

Two digits only
This story also follows the "two digits only" rule of newswriting: every number must be reduced to two significant digits. This involves rounding the numbers so that they don't end up taxing the short-term memories of listeners. For example, "six point eight three" becomes "six point eight," and "527" becomes "roughly 530." In addition, the descriptive words "half" and "quarter" are generally preferable to "point five" and "point two five."

Here's a story that fails to follow the "two digits" rule:
•

UNIONS REPRESENTING THE 1284 CLERICAL AND MAINTENANCE WORKERS AT MIDDLE STATE UNIVERSITY HAVE REJECTED PROPOSED CONTRACT CONCESSIONS. UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS WANTED THE UNIONS TO DELAY THEIR SCHEDULED THREE-POINT-SEVEN-FIVE-PERCENT PAY RAISE TO HELP THE SCHOOL DEAL WITH ITS ESTIMATED FOUR-POINT-SIX-ONE-MILLION-DOLLAR DEFICIT. ALTHOUGH LAYOFFS HAVE BEEN THREATENED IF THE CONCESSIONS WERE NOT APPROVED, WORKERS VOTED AGAINST THE PROPOSAL 1090 TO 89, WITH 105 FAILING TO VOTE.

This script is quite bad in its use of numbers, which are too large and appear too often. A better approach is to simplify and follow the "two digits rule":

•

UNIONS REPRESENTING NEARLY 13-HUNDRED CLERICAL AND MAINTENANCE WORKERS AT MIDDLE STATE UNIVERSITY HAVE REJECTED PROPOSED CONTRACT CONCESSIONS. UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS WANTED THE UNIONS TO DELAY A SCHEDULED PAY RAISE TO HELP THE SCHOOL DEAL WITH AN ESTIMATED FOUR-AND-A-HALF-MILLION-DOLLAR DEFICIT. ALTHOUGH LAYOFFS

HAVE BEEN THREATENED IF THE CONCESSIONS WERE NOT APPROVED, WORKERS VOTED OVERWHELMINGLY AGAINST THE PROPOSAL.

Keeping track of numbers is a difficult task even for the most attentive of listeners. If your station broadcasts lottery results, you may already have discovered that the newsroom telephone rings immediately after the numbers have been read on the air, and on the other end of the line is a listener who became confused or was unable to remember the lottery numbers by the time he or she found paper and pencil to write them down. Our purpose as journalists is to impart information in a helpful manner. Being judicious in the use of numbers should allow listeners a clearer understanding of the events affecting their lives.

The In-Depth Style
other topics under STYLES: The Network Style, The Vivid Style

Many stations run local news-talk during drive time, often with a longtime, well-respected, pillar-of-thecommunity talker -- especially in morning drive. The newsroom needs not only to inform listeners of the important events of the day, but also to give them...and the talker...something to talk about. Stories need to have enough detail to allow the talker to make cogent arguments and hold intelligent conversations with listeners. Here the in-depth style can help.

Asking...and answering questions
We all remember the six essential questions a news story should answer: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? An in-depth story needs to pay special attention to the last two: the Why and the How...as in, Why is this politician proposing this plan? How will the plan work?, or Why is this researcher's work important? How will the research help people? When writing your stories, ensure that your script tries to provide some answers.

For example, a press release arrives from State University heralding better chickens. A researcher in the agriculture school says she's discovered that hens fed a special enzyme produce offspring less prone to disease. When you do your phone interview, ask about the implications for the person in the street in order to get tape that will be comprehensible to those listeners who are not poultry scientists. In your script, emphasize the general value of having healthier chickens while including a few details of the research with, say, a sentence like this:
•

...HENS GIVEN THE ENZYME TOBLERONE IN THEIR FEED PRODUCED LARGER CHICKENS LESS LIKELY TO PICK UP DISEASES THAT COULD BE PASSED ON TO HUMAN CONSUMERS IF THOSE CHICKENS AREN'T PROPERLY COOKED....

The story also gives your talker an issue, food safety. The talker can even extend the issue to question whether there's been too much manipulation of nature through all these research studies.

Thorough doesn't mean long
Story length in the in-depth style will be longer than in other styles, but not by that much. Stories without tape should run 25-30 seconds....stories with tape, 40-45. Shorter, 20-second stories should also be used both to increase story count (giving a wider sense of news coverage) and to provide listeners with some variety.

Since story count is relatively low, the in-depth style is not suitable for 90-second casts. This style is best suited for stations with a 5-minute news hole at the top of the hour and 3:30 at the bottom.

Story placement
Hierarchy is especially significant for the in-depth style. Length is often used by listeners to judge the importance of a story, but when many of the stories run at least half a minute, length no longer helps listeners figure out what's important. Story placement becomes the only means. The most important stories should come at the beginning of the cast....the less important stories towards the end.

You may want to end the cast with a zinger -- a humorous or unusual piece that gives the talker something immediately to play with and helps the talker's phone lines light up. Use common sense, however, in choosing a zinger. A longtime, well-respected, pillar-of-the-community talker is not going to want to offend listeners. Also keep in mind that you're supposed to be a journalist, not a comedian.

The Network Style
other topics under STYLES: The In-Depth Style, The Vivid Style

Credibility can often be a problem in medium-sized markets, where communities are too large for listeners to be personally familiar with most of the people or places making news, yet the resources of the station rarely allow for a newsroom staff of more than half a dozen reporter/anchors (if that) -- and this small staff often means few stories are produced and listeners perceive a "reporting gap." One way to restore station credibility is to make the cast resemble the network hourlies, regardless of whether your station replaces the hourly with a local cast or does a 90-second local after the hourly.

High story count
The hallmark of the network style is high story count. Listen to a network hourly and notice how many different events are related. This variety gives listeners a sense of completeness....they feel they know all the major stories. This feeling helps build trust between your listeners and the station, and it gives your newsroom credibility.

A 90-second cast should aim for seven stories. You might be wondering, "My staff is so small to begin with, how am I to get seven different stories?" Odds are you're already taking some of your stories from press releases and the local newspaper. The two or three stories you've taken haven't exausted their source....there are still plenty of press releases on your desk and dozens of pages left in the newspaper. Certainly there are stories your listeners want to know about.

Short story length
Of course high story count means short story length. A 90-second cast with seven stories works out to an average of 13 seconds per story. This doesn't mean every story should be 13 seconds....rather, important stories should be given adequate time (20-25 seconds, though certainly no more), but less important stories need only a sentence or two. For example, let's say city council has been in a dispute with the mayor over cuts in the police budget. This story has been in the news on and off for a couple of weeks, and today at City Hall council members are holding a special meeting with the mayor to reach some sort of compromise. Here's all you need (and it runs roughly 7 seconds):
•

MIDDLEVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ARE HUDDLING WITH MAYOR JANE SMITH TODAY, WITH BOTH SIDES HOPING TO RESOLVE THEIR DISPUTE OVER POLICE CUTS.

There should be some variation in story length throughout the cast...don't give listeners five 7-second stories followed by three 20-second ones. But there should be some progression, with the more important, longer stories at

the beginning of the cast and the shorter, less important stories towards the end. One way of producing variation is to stick a 20-second-long humorous or feature story near or at the end of the cast.

Tape and the network style
You might think it impossible to incorporate much tape into a cast with such a high story count, but listen to the hourlies, which often have half a dozen or more tape pieces (both actualities and voicers/wraps). There's little difference in editing actualities for the network style. Keep them under 15 seconds or so, as you probably would for a more discursive style. The difference is in the copy surrounding the act. Two sentences in front, one sentence at the most (and quite often none at all) after.

For example, let's say the governor is proposing eliminating parole for those convicted of using a firearm when committing a crime. Your State News Network has fed you a 9-second cut, which runs as follows:
•

IF YOU USE A GUN WHEN COMMITTING A CRIME, YOU SHOULD DO THE TIME...AND THAT MEANS ALL THE TIME...BEFORE YOU ARE ALLOWED BACK IN SOCIETY.

Here's a script to make the cut fit within your time constraints:
• • •

PAROLE COULD BE A THING OF THE PAST FOR CONVICTS WHO USED A GUN IN THEIR CRIMES....THAT'S IF GOVERNOR DOUGLASS GETS HIS WAY. Douglass act...OQ: "IN SOCIETY." LEGISLATORS WOULD HAVE TO APPROVE DOUGLASS'S PLAN.

This entire story runs 18 seconds. In summary fashion it includes the important facts: the concept behind the governor's proposal, an actuality, and that the legislature would have to pass a bill for the proposal to become reality.

For voicers and wraps, station reporters should be instructed to keep stories short (though reporters often have difficulty with the concept of limiting the time their voices are on the air). For voicers in general...and network tape in particular...edit the cut down to 20-25 seconds. Start either from the beginning or, even better so long as the story remains coherent, with the second sentence of the piece, and continue for 20 seconds or so until there's a natural break (which there usually is). Leave off the lockout. In other words, transform the tape into what's often called a "correspondent's" cut. If you leave out the first sentence of the original report, the information should be incorporated into your lead-in. You do not need to identify the reporter at the front....the differences in the sound of the voice will tell listeners there's a new reporter. When the cut ends, get out of the story only through identifying the reporter, such as:
•

ABC'S SUSAN STARR.

Cutting down wraps is far more difficult, and often wraps can't be coherently reduced under 30 seconds (especially if they contain a 20-second-long actuality). Nonetheless by editing voicers and wraps down to 20-25 seconds, you'll be able to include several pieces of tape into your network style cast.

The Network Style
other topics under STYLES: The In-Depth Style, The Network Style

Two popular radio formats are political talk and the FM Zoo. In political talk, the talker spends time generally warning listeners that Armageddon is upon us. Many political talkers are syndicated, but there are plenty of local versions as well. The FM Zoo is a morning drive format on FM stations that during other dayparts play various shades of popular music (contemporary hit radio, adult contemporary, hot country, oldies, and so forth). In morning drive there is some music played, but much of the time is spent in sophomoric banter (often of a sexual nature) among the hosts, a traffic reporter, a sports reporter and a news anchor. You may recognize that the so-called "shock jocks" are merely the Zoo without music. Tedium is fatal to these formats, and news anchors must employ a vivid writing style to keep listeners engaged.

Choosing stories
Story selection differs wildly between political talk and the FM Zoo. Violent crime, natural disasters and, of course, politics are the mainstay of the political talk newscast. The FM Zoo prefers stories about celebrities (which often include politicians) and about the humorous or unusual. Generally the news in the FM Zoo format should give listeners an excuse to be happy. The news in political talk gives listeners an excuse to be unhappy. In both formats, however, the same vivid style of newswriting applies.

Content, sentence structure, word choice
Vivid writing brings out unusual elements in everyday stories. For example, contract negotiations between the city and its workers have made little progress. A strike is possible, though the current contract still has a few weeks to run and no strike vote has been taken. The mayor has repeatedly said that any pay increase would lead to layoffs. The unions say the pay raise can be met by cutting fat in the city administration.

At the biweekly city council meeting, union leaders make a presentation. One councilmember tells the leaders in a matter-of-fact style, "I think it's a shame the way you've been treated. I want you to know that I support your efforts to improve your standard to living, and I support your right to strike. I hope it doesn't come to this, but shut down the city if you must. It's the mayor who's the only city worker who ought to be losing her job." A standard reader on the story, lasting 18 seconds, might run like this:

•

CITY WORKERS IN MIDDLEVILLE HAVE TAKEN THEIR CONTRACT DISPUTE TO CITY COUNCIL. UNION LEADERS GOT A SYMPATHETIC HEARING AT LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL MEETING IN THEIR ATTEMPTS FOR A PAY RAISE AND JOB GUARANTEES. MAYOR JANE SMITH HAS SAID THERE'S NO MONEY IN THE BUDGET FOR A PAY INCREASE, AND CONTRACT TALKS SO FAR HAVE MADE LITTLE PROGRESS.

The vivid writer notices that a city councilmember has told the unions, albeit conditionally, to "shut down the city." This becomes the lead of a more vivid reader lasting 21 seconds:

•

"SHUT DOWN THE CITY" -- THAT'S WHAT ONE MIDDLEVILLE CITY COUNCILMAN IS ADVISING CITY WORKERS IN THEIR SIMMERING CONTRACT DISPUTE WITH MAYOR JANE SMITH. DON JONES TOLD UNION LEADERS AT LAST NIGHT'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING THAT HE SUPPORTS THEIR RIGHT TO STRIKE FOR BETTER PAY AND JOB SECURITY, ADDING THAT IF ANY CITY WORKER'S TO LOSE A JOB, IT OUGHT TO BE THE MAYOR.

Content isn't the only difference between these two readers. The vivid reader is more conversational in sentence structure, beginning with a quotation that is back-referenced and ending with a conditional ("if...then") clause. The standard reader is prosaic, with simple sentence followed by simple sentence. There are also differences in word choice. The standard reader contains the bland adjective "sympathetic," in contrast to the vigorous "simmering" of the vivid reader. Notice also that "better pay" has a stronger sound than "pay increase."

Short and spare
Don't confuse vividness with verbosity. The vivid style is generally spare, with few adjectives ever used. Readers should run about 20 seconds. Wraps should last about 30 seconds. Far too often reporters fall in love with their own cleverness and give newscasts that sound like second-rate Victorian novels. The fault is especially evident in reporting violent crime, when we hear of "city sidewalks drenched with crimson stains from tepid pools of blood," or of "the languid evening interrupted by the sudden patter of semi-automatic weapons."

Violent crime is usually dramatic enough as it is. A simple telling of the event will be far more powerful than any re-creation compiled with the assistance of Roget's Thesaurus.

Improving On-Air Delivery
other topics under NEWSROOM: R.I.P. "Rip 'N' Read", School and Weather Stories, Technical Difficulties

Although the Newswriting for Radio website is devoted, as the name suggests, to improving the writing of radio news, many visitors have requested tips on speaking and vocalization. This page will address two of the most common faults in newsreading: monotonous delivery and slow reading.

Follow the pattern
The reading of news on the radio is expected to conform to a pattern of musical pitches or notes. If you were to speak to your friends using this exaggerated pitch pattern, your conversation would seem a bit too much like "sing-song." The pitch pattern -- which is present in all speech -- does not need to be as noticeable in direct conversation because the listener can pick up visual cues (such as facial expressions or hand gestures) that aid in interpreting the words spoken. Radio -- unlike television -- must rely solely on vocal quality to convey this additional information, information that may include the length of a story, the story's seriousness and the credibility of sources. The pitch pattern is especially helpful in informing listeners when stories begin and when they end. Pitch should be considered in relative terms as "high" or "low" based on the range used in normal conversation. Listeners hear the modulation between "high" and "low" pitch and interpret those changes, even though most listeners are unaware of the pattern. They become aware only when the pattern is not properly followed, at which point they become confused or bored by the story.

Change pitches
Stories begin on a "high" pitch and end on a "low" pitch. In between the pitch modulates from one clause or sentence to the next. Within a clause or sentence, the pitch falls slightly from beginning to end, except in questions, where the pitch rises at the end. For example, in a standard, four-sentence script, the pitch begins "high," falling slightly at the end of the first sentence. The second sentence begins at a lower pitch than the end of the first sentence. The third

sentence begins at a higher pitch than the beginning of the second sentence. The final sentence, like the second sentence, begins at a "low" pitch and gently falls towards the end of the script. When news directors, program directors or general managers complain about monotonous delivery, they are referring to readers who remain on the same pitch throughout the script. The easiest way to gain an understanding of pitch is to listen to the pitch patterns of other anchors and reporters, and to practice, practice, practice. With time, the pattern will become automatic when you're on the air.

Speed it up
The other common fault in newsreading concerns speed. Most beginning radio journalists read and speak too slowly. Perhaps we remember all too well when, in speech and debate class in junior high school, the teacher chastised us for being nervous and speaking too quickly. Radio, however, cannot provide the additional, visual information that exists when speaking in public or on television. With only one mode of information-retrieval available, the radio listener prefers to process speech at a faster rate. Normal conversational speed is generally too slow for reading radio news. Some reporters and anchors -- notably those on public radio -- seem to want to make an art form out of speaking VERY SLOWLY. Colleagues in public radio claim that their listeners prefer the news to be read slowly. I suspect this preference has more to do with aesthetics than with cognition, but in any case, choosing to read slowly because of the wishes of a public-radio news director may limit a reporter's subsequent career. Many young journalists find their first jobs with public radio stations. Higher pay and greater opportunities may be found at commercial stations, but commercial-radio news directors often balk at hiring a reporter whose demo tape reveals slow reading. Even if your news director demands slow reading, use examples from the commercial network hourlies (e.g., ABC, AP, CBS, CNN) to set the speed for reading the news on your demo tape. Monotonous delivery and slow reading are very common among beginning radio journalists. Understanding the causes of these faults can lead to their correction.

R.I.P. "Rip 'N' Read"
other topics under NEWSROOM: Improving On-Air Delivery, School and Weather Stories, Technical Difficulties

A news director at a radio station in New England once complained to me that whenever he chats with folks at an area store or bank, he finds that these listeners often confuse his station's newscasts with those of his AM rival. Much of his audience cannot seem to tell one station's news from another. While there are plenty of cosmetic changes that will make a newscast distinct -- such as expensive sounders, employing announcers with unusual voices, or rearranging the clock to, say, stick traffic in the middle of the cast -often the most neglected aspect of the cast is the easiest and least expensive to correct: the actual words spoken by the anchor. The primary reason the newscasts of so many stations sound the same is that these casts are using identical scripts, scripts written by wire news services. This is the practice known as "rip 'n' read." The name comes from the days when wire-service stories came into the newsroom on a bulky, teletype machine that spat out the stories onto a large roll of paper. An anchor would rip the story off the roll and read it on the air.

"Rip 'n' read" was a necessary evil in those days due to the lack of time that often existed between when the story finished printing and when the anchor had to go on the air. Even then, however, it was expected that anchors would rewrite wire copy if time was available. The reasons for rewriting are manifold: to emphasize elements of the story that are particularly relevant to the station's audience; to create a newscast in which stories flow seamlessly one into another; to avoid repetition of the same wording in subsequent newscasts; and even to correct errors and faults of style in the wire copy itself. These reasons are just as important today, when many newsrooms have the wires fed directly into personal computers on which stories can be edited before being sent to a printer.

How to destroy your credibility
News directors should demand that wire copy be rewritten whenever time allows. This would, however, require leadership by example, and far too many news directors themselves partake of "rip 'n' read." I was reminded of this fact through a recent scan of the airwaves while I was in my car during morning drive, when many news directors have their anchor shifts. I turned the dial to an AM news-talk station tohear the lead story, which concerned the decision of an area school district to require students at certain schools to wear uniforms. I knew the story quite well, for I had already heard the identical script read five minutes earlier during the news segment of an FM morning-zoo show. I heard the script again that morning on another AM station and another FM station. The credibility of news operations in music-heavy formats is not particularly high to begin with, but credibility is fundamental to all-news and news-talk formats. Listeners quickly perceive when stories sound the same, not only between newscasts on one particular station, but also between the news reports on different stations as these listeners punch the buttons on their car radios. When listeners face the same words telling the same story over and over again, they come to believe that there's no news on the radio, and so there's no need to listen to news-based formats. "Rip 'n' read" can be deadly to a radio news operation. Kill "rip 'n' read" at your station before "rip 'n' read" kills you.

School and Weather Stories
other topics under NEWSROOM: Improving On-Air Delivery, R.I.P. "Rip 'N' Read", Technical Difficulties

Education and the weather may be the most important issues to your audience. This is especially true of AM stations with news-heavy formats, which regularly gain listeners in the fall and winter with the beginning of the school year and the arrival of unsettled weather. Reporters and news directors need to be prepared to cover school stories and weather emergencies that inevitably appear every year.

Be prepared for the start of school
Keep a timetable in the newsroom of when school districts in your area come back into session. As schools open, you should have at least brief readers in your morning casts informing listeners that "It's the first day of classes in Middleville," or "Kids are heading back to school in Smalltown." If you have a separate traffic reporter, that person should also have a copy of the list of school openings and should remind drivers to watch out for children going to and from school. If you don't have a traffic reporter, make the reminder yourself in the final sentence of your readers on the start of school. Kids and traffic safety is an obvious story idea, and usually a state Triple-A official (who has probably sent you a press release) is available for interview.

Keep stories interesting and current
Other obvious story ideas may need careful attention to make sure they remain interesting. Back-to-school shopping is an example. Doing MOS of mothers buying notebook paper is dull, dull, dull. Examine store ads and look for the unusual. If you have school-age kids, you may already have been badgered to buy all sorts of nonsense -- and if one of those requests strikes you as particularly wacky, it may strike your listeners as interesting, too! (If you don't have school-age kids, there's bound to be someone at the station who does.) While there is a certain timelessness about the annual return of children to school, your stories should be firmly rooted in the present. For example, instead of a generic story about buying clothes for the kids, look at the more current topic of school uniforms (would uniforms end up being less expensive for parents? what do children think about having to wear the same clothes to school every day?). Another recent controversy involves "low-riding" pants, which some school districts have banned.

Prep for school closings
Your station probably already has a procedure for receiving and announcing school closings. All reporters should be familiar with this procedure, regardless of whether or not the newsroom actually takes the phone calls from nervous superintendents cancelling school. Knowing how the lists of school closings are prepared and then make their way into the studio allows everyone to assist in ensuring that school closings are announced in a timely fashion. In addition, when listeners call the newsroom asking whether a particular school is closed, the reporter on the other end of the line will be able either to find the answer for the caller or to tell the caller when the school-closing list will next be aired. The list of closed schools should be organized in logical fashion so that listeners may easily discover when their school should be announced. In small markets, alphabetical listings may be adequate. In mediumsized and larger markets, a combination of alphabetical and geographic organization (such as alphabetical listings within a list of counties) might be preferable.

On the road
Bad weather is often the cause of school closings, but when the schools are closed many worksites remain open. Listeners who have to make their way to work want to know about road conditions. Even if your station relies upon a commercial traffic-reporting service, there may well be several occasions during the year (such as the sudden arrival of storms) when you want to have a reporter on the roads. Reporters need little more than a celular telephone, a tape recorder and a good timepiece. The reporter might drive along the major roads in the listening area, pulling onto exit ramps or into parking lots at set intervals to provide live reports. Reporters can also interview stranded motorists, or try to interview busy automobile towing and repair shop employees. It goes without saying that reporters should not become stories themselves by being stranded or involved in accidents, so use common sense when reporting from the road.

Don't shovel tired features
Weather-related stories can enlighten listeners, though care must be given to avoid the tired and trite. A few years ago we heard far too many stories about "El Niño" -- the unusually strong warming of the waters of the Pacific off the coast of South America -- that were sensational rather than informational. (I fear we are in for a similar barrage of bad journalism with the newly emerging El Niño.) Stories typically overdone during the winter include sales reports on shovels and snowblowers, features on the workday of a roadsalting crew, and travel agents discussing where locals are heading to escape the weather. A better approach for generating stories takes issues already of community concern and adds a seasonal aspect. For example, many communities have school buildings that are in poor condition. How are those

buildings affected by winter weather? As another example, use of road salt is declining in some areas out of concern for the environment. What has been the effect on driver safety, and if safety has diminished, is the trade-off for a cleaner environment worth it?

Coordinate your efforts
In the news-talk format, cooperation with your talker can generate deeper discussion of the issues and help both of you in your separate tasks. For example, let's say your station has some midmorning or midday local talk, and the talker has scheduled a psychologist to discuss a child's first day at school. You can assume that the psychologist will talk about separation anxiety, so don't do that story in the morning. Instead, pick a different topic, such as school violence. Your talker now has a different subject to bounce off her guest, who will discuss separation anxiety and the psychological trauma violence inflicts on a young child. Take a few cuts from the talk-show interview, and you now have a different story for afternoon drive. You will, of course, credit your talker ("...as psychologist Elizabeth Linden-Rahway told News-Talk 990 midday host Sarah Barnes..."), giving the sort of cross-promotion that warms the heart of any program director or general manager.

Technical Difficulties
other topics under NEWSROOM: Improving On-Air Delivery, R.I.P. Rip 'N' Read, School and Weather Stories

Two of the most dreaded words in broadcast news are "technical difficulties." Equipment problems can never be entirely eliminated. There will always be carts that malfunction, phone lines that go dead, and computer terminals that freeze up. With a little preparation and organization, you'll be able to handle those "technical difficulties" and get through your cast with minimal disruption.

Prevention is the best medicine
Many on-air snafus are due to the carelessness that accompanies haste. Perhaps the most prevalent mistake involves playing the wrong cut. At stations that still use tape, this problem is easily prevented by properly labeling and stacking your carts. I was always amazed when visiting newsrooms at how often I saw carts lying around with only the tiniest of illegible scrawls to identify them. Carts should be marked with the name of the speaker (the newsmaker for an actuality, the reporter for a voicer or wrap), the number of seconds the cut runs, a slug (story title) that matches a story title on the script, and perhaps even the outcue and a further identifying number that matches a number written at the top of the script. For example, you have a 10-second actuality of Middleville Mayor Jane Smith discussing plans for the city to build a downtown parking garage. The cut runs as follows:
•

IT'S NOT WASTING TAX MONEY. IT'S SAVING DOWNTOWN. IT'S EXPENSIVE BUT IT'S MONEY WELL SPENT. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN.

The label you put on the cart might read like this: #4 PARKING 0:10

SMIT OQ:"...DOWNTO H WN."

Similar information should also appear on the hardcopy of the script. The script should have a line break to indicate when a cart is to be played, and information on the speaker, the outcue and the duration should be given. Here's an example of what the script accompanying the previous cut might look like:
•

.... CRITICS SAY THE PROPOSAL IS A WASTE OF TAX MONEY, BUT SMITH DISAGREES. #4 PARKING OQ: "...DOWNTOWN." CART RUNS 0:10 CITY COUNCIL WILL DISCUSS THE MAYOR'S PLAN AT TONIGHT'S MEETING.

Having this information on the cart label and in your script will help ensure you play the right cart at the right time.

Sound ideas for the digital newsroom
Many newsrooms are now tapeless, using digital sound files for actualities, voicers and wraps. Most computer audio-editing programs automatically assign a file number to each sound file, but the file still requires a slug for further identification. The slug should contain a word immediately followed by a number indicating which particular story uses that file. For the story about the proposed parking garage, let's say this actuality is the second of three actualities taken from the interview with the mayor. One of the actualities will be used by the reporter in a wrap, the other two in scripts to be read by an anchor. So there are three scripts to be created from this story, and this particular script and its accompanying actuality should be slugged parking02 to distinguish it from the other scripts and sound files (which would be slugged parking01 and parking03). Computer programs may allow further identifying information, such as outcue and length of cut, to mark each sound file. The more information in your script, the better. This will help ensure that the sound file you select to accompany the story is the correct one.

Cart-astrophies and other glitches
Another common snafu in newsrooms that still use tape involves not having the cart properly cued. This often happens during the second airing of a cut. The anchor during the first airing may have had to stop the cart immediately after the actuality or wrap finished (and before the cart could recue) because the cart machine was needed to play another cart during that cast. It is the responsibility of the anchor about to go on the air, or the anchor's producer, that carts be properly cued prior to broadcast. Carts should be played in the newsroom before the next airing to ensure the carts are cued. (Anchors between broadcasts should be playing and listening to these carts anyway to aid in the rewriting of the accompanying scripts.) If a cart is not properly cued, or if the cart machine malfunctions (such as playing the actuality very s l o w l y), stop the cart and say a sentence that summarizes to listeners what they would have heard without the "technical difficulties." Then return to your script and finish the story. When I worked as a writer in Detroit, I was expected to type a few bare phrases summarizing a cart's contents, and that summary appeared at the bottom of the script, separated from the on-air story by a double line. This summary was provided in case problems arose playing the cart. The anchors (who, in an

all-news format, had 5-hour air shifts and may not have heard the tape before it was brought into the studio) needed that summary to ad lib when the cart failed. In the tapeless newsroom, anchors often read their stories off computer screens. If the computers fail, neither the scripts nor the sound files will be available. It is crucial that a printout of all the scripts for the cast be taken into the studio. A frozen computer screen won't then lead to a frozen newscast.

Snap, crackle, pop
Telephone connections also fail, or the quality of the connection may be too poor for broadcast. Poor quality connections are becoming more prevalent as more and more stations send reporters out with cellular telephones, whose quirks can at times be maddening. If you in the studio have a hard time understanding the words of the speaker on the other end of the line (be it a newsmaker or a reporter in a live shot), your listeners...many of whom are in automobiles...won't fare any better. End the telephone interview or report immediately with a graceful apology to the listeners about sound quality and "technical difficulties," and move on to the next story. No matter how important the story may be, if the sound is incomprehensible, the value for radio news is worthless. The possibility of "technical difficulties" in a cast should remind anchors always to bring into the studio more stories than they would normally need. If you're giving a cast that runs 3:30, bring in 5 minutes of copy and sound. If you have a 5-minute cast, bring in 8. A problem with a computer screen, cart machine or telephone line could easily cut a full minute or two from your cast. You need to be prepared to get through the cast in a professional manner, and it is far more professional to complete with confidence a variety of different news stories than to try to return to a tape or a phone report that failed the first time around.

Writing a Radio Script

By Dave Gilson Writing for radio is different than writing for print. You’re writing for the ear, not the eye. Listeners have to get it the first time around- they can’t go back and hear it again (unlike re-reading a sentence in a magazine). And while a reader may get up and come back to an article, a radio listener who gets up may not come back. So you want to grab their attention and hold onto it for as long as possible. Writing feature stories like the ones aired on B-Side is also different than writing news copy. You can loosen up a little. You can be more literary, more creative, more personal. This handout is a quick guide to writing a script for a feature radio story. Getting Started: Logging Tape After you’ve finished your reporting, it’s time to log your tape. This means listening to everything you’ve recorded and writing it up. You should transcribe quotes, note who’s saying what, time how long the tracks are, and (if you’re using a minidisc) note the track numbers. Highlight or mark tracks you know you want to come back to. You don’t have to log the tracks you know you won’t use. Example Choosing Your Acts After you’ve logged your tape, you should select the tracks you want to use (tracks are also called cuts, soundbites, or actualities). Cuts generally shouldn’t be longer than 30 seconds- you only have a few minutes and besides, most radio listeners have short attention spans. (If you have a great long cut, you can break it up with your narration or edit it down). Don’t just choose cuts purely based on what’s saidalso consider how it’s said. Think about how your cuts will fit into your story structure- do they describe something, tell a story, make you laugh, make you scratch your head? Your actualities should advance the story and make it interesting. Starting to Write As you start writing your script, you probably already have a good idea what your story’s going to sound like. You’ve listened to all the clips and ambiance, maybe selected some music. You may have talked

about the story with a friend or editor. Basically, you already have all the elements floating around in your head. Start writing your script by laying out all your cuts in the order you think you’re going to use them. Then start writing your narration around them. Anchor Intros The place to start is usually the “anchor intro”- this is what the announcer/host will say to introduce your story. An anchor intro quickly sets up your story and puts it in context, without giving away too much. It should also introduce you, the reporter/producer. Telling a Story As you write your narration, try to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Draw listeners into the story by setting a scene, raising a question, playing a weird noise, or introducing a character. Use narrative elements like foreshadowing, suspense, and scene changes to move the story along. Mix Things Up Use tracks of varying length. A series of 20-second acts interspersed with 10-second tracks will get pretty monotonous. And when you wrap up your story, don’t end with an actuality or just a sign off. You should get the last word, even if it’s just a short sentence. A few aesthetic considerations to keep in mind as you write your script: Be conversational. Your narration should sound as natural as possible, like you’re telling a story to a friend. This is not the same as trying to imitate spontaneous speech. Instead, this means writing in a style that sounds as relaxed as possible. Use phrases and words you normally use. When you read your narration aloud, do you sound like yourself? Be visual. Give your listeners a chance to imagine the people, places and things in your story. Create a sense of scene; describe people; include interesting sounds. Avoid a story that’s just a series of talking heads or facts. Be concise. Long sentences loaded with ten-cent words and relative clauses usually don’t work too well in radio (but there are exceptions). Mix up your sentence structure. It’s surprisingly easy to fill 3 or 4 minutes of airtime- so don’t overwrite. Be energetic. Use the active voice. Use punchy verbs and contractions. Mind your tenses – don’t switch back and forth between past and present. Most radio stories are done in present tense. Some exceptions include commentaries, and news stories about past events. Be experimental. For variety, stick in a tape-to-tape cut (one actuality leading straight into another without narration in between). Mix acts and tracks. For example, if someone is droning on and on, you can play them under your narration- this will convey a sense of them rambling. Even the most straightforward story can have an unusual or memorable element in it. Be thoughtful. Try to go beyond just presenting the facts. Let your listeners know why your story matters. Is there a lesson to be learned, something to be taken away? You don’t have to get too heavy or cerebral- just take it a step or two beyond pure description. Writing for the Ear The way you listen to speech is different than the way you read. A few tricks to make sure your listeners stay tuned in: Keep ideas intact. Don’t break up subjects and verbs. Compare these three sentences: - Nancy Smith, who is the founder and CEO of the Acme Corporation, says the widget market is booming. - Acme Corporation founder and CEO Nancy Smith says the widget market is booming. - Nancy Smith is the founder and CEO of the Acme Corporation. She says the widget market is booming. Nancy Smith gets lost in the first one. The next two sentences express the same idea without losing track of who’s being talked about or who she is. Write transitions in and out of your actualities. You don’t have to be obvious, but acts shouldn’t seem abrupt or forced. If you give someone’s name three sentences before you play their clip, you should mention their name again before they start talking. This will remind listeners who’s about to talk. Likewise, don’t follow an actuality from one person by naming another person. This can make it sound like Person #2 just said Person #1′s actuality. o You don’t have to write in complete sentences. You can also break up sentences for emphasis. Acts and Tracks Radio scripts generally follow a common format. Here are a few guidelines: Label each actuality “ACT”. Note who’s talking and how long it is. Actualities are usually distinguished from narration with boldface, italics, capitalization, indentation, or some combination of these. Label each track of your narration “TRX” or “TRK”. Note how long it takes for you to read it. o Use parentheses or brackets to note when ambience (labeled “AMB” or “AMBI”) or music is playing. The more

specifics about how this sound will be used, the better. This will help your editor and will remind you what to do when you’re mixing the final version. Give the phonetic spelling of hard-to-pronounce words and names in parentheses after the name. Write out numbers and abbreviations – it will slow your read down if you have to figure out how to say 1,459 when you could read “one thousand, four hundred and fifty nine” Not that you should use such a specific number in your story-use approximate numbers. Note the estimated length of the entire story (without the anchor intro) at the top of the script. A rough rule of thumb to use: one page of single-spaced script usually corresponds to a minute and a half to two minutes of produced tape.

SAMPLE SCRIPT Wal-Mart Campers

Dave Gilson
Anchor Nearly 30 million Americans travel the country in those self-contained suburban homes on wheels known as recreational vehicles, or RVs. It’s not always easy to find a place to park your Winnebago for the night. But sleepy RVers need look no further than the nearest Wal-Mart. For years, the mega-chain has let weary travelers camp in its parking lots for free. Dave Gilson recently met some of the people who have taken it up on the offer.

TAPE – Estimated time: 4:31

[Bring up store ambiance]

It’s Friday evening at the Wal-Mart in Livermore, California. Inside the store, a nice old lady greets customers at the door and suburban families push shopping carts through the mazelike aisles of clothes, tools, DVD players and toys. [bring up parking lot/generator ambiance] Outside, beyond the rows of minivans and SUVs, a scraggly-looking 29-year old named Rufus Luker [ROO-fus LOO-kur] has just cranked up a portable generator, getting ready for another night in the parking lot of America’s biggest retail chain. For the past three weeks, he and his wife and two young kids had been camping out here in a 35-foot RV. To hear Rufus talk about it, crashing at Wal-Mart is almost like a religious experience. (0:16) ACT (0:30) Rufus: My aunt used to drive trucking for Wal-Mart and she was the one who enlightened me that before Wal-Mart died, Wal-Mart said, “As long as a driver needs a place to stay, he’s got my parking lot to use.”
Dave: You’re talking about Sam Walton, the guy who founded the place?

Rufus: Yes, yes! Mr. Sam.
Thanks to Mr. Sam’s generosity, Rufus and his family will always have a free place to park as they make the grand tour from Florida to California and back again. And in return, Rufus makes sure he puts a little something back to Mr. Sam’s multi-billion dollar empire. (0:10)

ACT (0:32) Rufus: Most of our money is spent at Wal-Mart on their food products, household products, cleaning, toilet pa— whatever necessity we need, we usually find it at Wal-Mart. Although this isn’t a Super Wal-Mart. The Super Wal-Marts are the best.

Radio Script Writing
Tips on How to Write for Radio
Jan 10, 2010 Ann Burnett

Writing for Radio - Ann Burnett

The radio listener has only the sense of hearing as he listens. The radio writer must help him 'see' what is happening as well as what he is hearing.

Rosemary Horstmann, in her book, Writing for Radio, says: The ordinary writer starts wth a blank sheet of paper: the radio writer starts with silence. Every sound that is added to that silence will carry some clue which the audience will be waiting 'all ears' to interpret. So how to fill that silence?
Ads by Google

Public Relations Writers Compare and Hire the Best. Available now. Find Someone Today! www.Elance.com MD (Singapore) Document Preservation & Archival Supplies www.md.sg
Number of Characters in a Radio Script
One of the most common mistakes beginner writers make is to have far too many characters. The only way the listener can identify each one is by the sound of their voice; if there are, for example, four different male characters, it becomes very difficult to know who is talking without mentioning the characters' names every time they speak. Stick to two or three characters with a mix of the sexes; this makes it easier to follow. In a long running serial like The Archers, it takes an experienced scriptwriter to handle the numerous characters and scene changes. Listen to it and see how the experts handle it.

Awareness of Audience
People usually listen to the radio on their own so gear your writing to your audience of one. Are they able to follow your storyline? Unlike book readers, listeners can't turn back the page to check on something they've missed. Is the storyline interesting enough to hold their attention? Don't spend a lot of time setting up the scene; the audience will literally switch off. Start where the action starts and hit the ground running,

Use of Dialogue in Radio Writing
All radio is dialogue; dialogue between the characters in a radio play, dialogue between a speaker and the audience. So getting the dialogue right is crucial. The only way to do it is to read your script aloud or tape it and listen to it yourself. Does it sound natural? Is it appropriate to the genre you're writing in? Would the audience be keen to carry on listening? Can the actors speak the lines easily or are there tongue-twisters of phrasing that would trip them up?

Read on • Writing for Radio • How to Write a Radio Advertising Campaign • How to Start Writing a Radio Script Use of Sound Effects in Radio
Sound Effects are the magic ingredient of radio. With them, the writer can create different worlds, different emotions, anything he wants, courtesy of the Sound Effects department. The opening bars of the music to Jaws create a very different atmosphere to the sound of birdsong; an owl hooting suggests a different genre to the jingle of a nursery rhyme. Most Sound departments have a wonderful supply of stored sound effects which can be added to a script but some are not all that high tech. A bag of old cassette tape can represent the sound of someone walking through dry grass, a sink with a hole in the wastepipe gives glorious gurgling noises. Sound effects can carry the story on. A door slamming tells the listener the last speaker had left in an angry mood, a character shouting, 'Don't shoot!' tells the listener that someone is pointing a gun at him without the writer having to spell it out.

Use of Silence in Radio
Silence has a part to play too. A slight pause before an actor answers a question suggests hesitancy, lying, diplomacy and tact, even, depending on the situation.

Silence can also mean a change of scene. A few moments pause before the action continues and the listener is cued up to expect something different. Silence can ratchet up the tension. Eerie footsteps, a cry, then silence. Leave time for the listener's imagination to take over and heighten the tension in the listener's mind.

Read more at Suite101: Radio Script Writing: Tips on How to Write for Radio http://www.suite101.com/content/radio-script-writinga187211#ixzz16rhq8887

How to Start Writing a Radio Script
Where to Find Inspiration to Write for the Ear
May 16, 2009 Dan McCurdy

Retro Digital Radio - Dan McCurdy

There are no visual pictures on radio, but the pictures available to the imagination are limitless. Finding them is not as difficult as it might first appear.

The scariest part of any writer’s day is surely the white blank page. This is equally true for the radio writer or perhaps worse, because the words this writer writes will never appear in the written form. The radio writer is writing words and describing sounds and giving sound directions initially that only the writer can hear.

The Beginnings of the Inspiration Process.
In time the radio scribe’s writing will become sound and spoken words, produced, engineered and finally mixed together. Radio writers by and large are that rare breed that should genuinely always listen to the voices in their own heads. So what can start this process and how can a writer begin the process? Radio has by the nature of the medium itself some fundamental building blocks.
Ads by Google

Free Accurate Psychic Offers you a complete Reading for 2011, find out everything now AboutAstro.com/psychic Freelance Writing Job Make a full time income writing Up to $20/page. Start Earning Now! kpwriting.com
• • • •
Voices - male, female, and child. Sound Effects - sounds individually collected or from commercial libraries. Music – both originally produced music, and commercially available tracks. Silence – the use, availability and types of silence should never be underestimated.

Let’s look at voices and voice work in more detail. After all, apart from a very few instances most radio work is a ‘Play for Voices’, or features the spoken word as the main element. The first step therefore is often to put together a group or a bank of voices to listen to.

Voice Overs, Voice Talent and Voice Casting.
There are a constantly growing number of actors and presenters looking for voice work, and a multitude of voice agents who represent some of them. The agents will tell you of course they represent the best of them. Before writing any radio script whether for radio drama or commercial work, it’s very easy to get a feeling for the voices available.

Read on • Where to Find Inspiration for a Radio Script • How to Write a Radio Advertising Campaign • Scriptwriting for the Spoken Word
Each voice will or should have their own speciality and their own voice and once the writer has an idea in their own head of the talent able to voice what they write, in the way they write it and is able to hear that voice speaking the written word, writing spoken words becomes so much easier. To hear these voices, just go to any of the actors’ or agents’ websites and download the voice over demos. That’s what they are there for.

The Range of Voice Overs Available for Casting.
A listener to another voice on the other end of a phone of a person they’ve never met, generally involuntarily builds their own picture of how that person looks. Just from the sound of that voice. How often does the reality not fit the picture when the two meet? This is one of the real strengths of radio. Just think of the types and huge variations of voices available, either natural voices or learned and trained disguises from an actor. These can be divided by some of the following descriptions:

• • • •

Age and Sex Nationality and Region Depth or Pitch Defining Characteristics

Once a radio writer has created this bank of voices to work with, they are able to tap into these voices in their own head and the scenario they build up will become more real to them and their listener. To do this only in sound is easier when the writer can genuinely hear the voices and the sounds they are writing with.

Read more at Suite101: How to Start Writing a Radio Script: Where to Find Inspiration to Write for the Ear http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-start-writing-a-radio-script-a118012#ixzz16riCindw

How to Write a Presenter's Script for Radio

The Essential Elements for an Effective Presentation Script
Apr 8, 2009 Dan McCurdy

Typical Radio Studio - Dan McCurdy

Anyone who thinks that most radio shows are ad-libbed is in for a big shock as a radio presenter when the mic opens in front of them and they don't have a script.

Think of the Radio Script as a safety net, there to catch the unwary radio presenter who thinks the power of their personality is enough to get them through three or sometimes four hours of broadcasting. Very few people are naturally funny or inherently entertaining, or at least not funny or entertaining spontaneously for the length of a radio show without some sort of planning.

Target the Script to the Audience
A radio script therefore is more a plan of what the broadcaster intends to do and say rather than a complete set of words to be read and followed religiously. A good public speaker will use a set of notes, or a well written script that allows for some improvisation, or a script so well written it can only be read out loud, to bring it to life. A good script depends on a number of factors:
Ads by Google

Free Downloadable Movies Download The Most Viewed End Time Free Bible Prophecy Videos Online! www.WorldsLastChance.com/Videos Screenplay Writing Course Learn how to write a screenplay that will sell! ScreenwritingMegaCourse.com
• • • •
The Intended Audience. The broadcaster needs to talk the language of the listener. The Type of Radio Station. Talk radio programming needs much more scripting than music based programmes The Genre of Music being played. Specialist music programming scripts will contain much more information especially about the songs, than those used for Current Hits Radio (CHR) Or the Style of the Talk Station. Political talk radio programmes may rely more on linking interviews with politicians, while a current affairs programme may have more live features, which are heavily scripted.

Script Layout
By tradition the layout of a radio script is much like most media scripts, with a space for directions, inserts and instructions on the left, and three quarters of the rest of the page being the script itself. This allows any engineer, producer, or anyone else involved to follow their part while the presenter(s) or actor(s) can easily follow theirs, so both can follow each other’s parts.

Read on • How to Write a Radio Commercials Script • Understanding the Basics of Radio Journalism • How to Voice Radio Scripts More Effectively The Script as a Running Order
Let’s assume for a moment that a radio presenter is writing his or her own script for a music based programme. This might only need to be a simple running order for events to be mentioned, inserts (pre-recorded or live,) or features, and the sequence of the music tracks to be played. It may not contain the words the presenter will actually say, but it will provide the safety net every presenter needs. It should also have the following information.

• • • • • •

The Opening Sequence and a Rundown of the Programme Content. In Cues and Out cues, the first and last words of any pre-recorded features. The Running Time for each music track, and its place in the show. Commercial Breaks Information (on commercial stations only obviously) The sources and intended timing of any inserts. The Closing Sequence, for example details of programmes following and any necessary timing information.

Such a simple script can provide information to help the presenter make the programme more cohesive and interesting for the listener. It avoids the programme coming to an unscheduled stop while the presenter thinks what to do next, and stops it sounding like it’s all made up on the spot. The listener can always tell the difference.

Read more at Suite101: How to Write a Presenter's Script for Radio: The Essential Elements for an Effective Presentation Script http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-write-a-presenters-script-for-radio-a108171#ixzz16riyi3qr

How to Write a Radio Commercials Script
The Layout and Conventions Generally Used in the Radio Industry
Apr 15, 2009 Dan McCurdy

Studio Microphone - Morgue File

In most industries there are templates and general formats those working in the industry all recognise. Here is the most common script layout in the radio industry.

Much has been written through the various radio industry bodies, like the UK’s and the USA’s Radio Advertising Bureau(s) and Canada’s Radio Marketing Bureau, examining the best ways to make radio a more effective advertising medium. Creatively this often takes the form of discussions on:

• • • •

How to take a workable creative brief from a client, How to deliver that brief back to the client for agreement and approval, How best to write and record effective radio commercials from that brief, And how to achieve the client’s advertising aims and objectives.

This for most practitioners in the creative part of industry is the “Who, What, Why,” template. Any creative work can be developed from this and put simply, most in the industry will recognise The Creative Brief Template as:
Ads by Google

Free Powerpoint Templates Best collection of professional Powerpoint templates for Windows. Thepowerpointtemplates.com Write an inspired brief Veteran copywriter shows you how. Industry pros rave. www.inspiredcreativebrief.com
• • •
Who is the audience being addressed or talked to (age, sex, demographic profile, interest) What is this audience being asked to do (advertiser contact: call, store or web visit, or increased brand awareness.) Why should this audience do it. (the audience reward.)

Once the creative brief is agreed the process of writing radio scripts can begin. As well as providing an agreed focus for the campaign, the brief is also the starting point for the creative use of radio, an area also much in on-going discussion and debate within the industry. Setting down audio creative ideas on paper is not as difficult as it first might appear. An industry- wide recognised template helps not only the writer but also in the presentation of those ideas both to the industry and to the client. Unlike the written word which convention dictates should fall normally into sentences and headings, or paragraphs and chapters across the page and remains the written word, the spoken word and indeed the spoken and visual medium works on a split page.

Read on • Understanding Radio Programming Terminology • What's Important in a Radio Script? • How to Write a Presenter's Script for Radio
Split the page 25% / 75%. The left hand 25% of the page will be mostly short cues, descriptions, directions, and instructions to anyone reading the page, and the right hand 75% the script itself with script wording and more details of the various audio inserts. So in theory most radio scripts contain the following:

• • •

Centred Title header: with presentation logo; company contact and references; client name; writer; script title and duration. Left Hand 25%: Cues for voice talent; music; sound effects; directions and brief placing instructions for in-cues and out-cues of audio inserts. Right Hand 75%: contains the body of the script, with lines for each voice following the direction on the left side, as well as more detailed description of the various other non-speech audio inserts. Details of music, sound effects, and audio inserts.

The script layout will also contain some common abbreviations, such as :

• • • • • • •

Vo - Voice Over or Talent (including description/style where appropriate), Mvo - Male voice over Fvo - Female voice over Cvo - Child voice over) Sfx - Sound effect description Inserts - I/c (In-cue first audio in) & O/c (Out-cue or last audio out.) Mix or Music - Details of music including style, composer, performer or label ref.

Any copyright information, approval signature(s) and the date is normally included at the bottom of the page. A template such as this can oviously be altered to suit the production, but a radio script presented as above will be well understood within the industry.

Read more at Suite101: How to Write a Radio Commercials Script: The Layout and Conventions Generally Used in the Radio Industry http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-write-a-radio-commercials-script-a109730#ixzz16rj6cMTD

How to Voice Radio Scripts More Effectively
Learn to be a Better Voice Over and Presenter
Mar 27, 2009 Dan McCurdy

Retro Digital Radio - Dan McCurdy

There are very few born radio friendly voices. With a few simple exercises and techniques, however, the power of the human voice as an instrument can be greatly increased

It’s estimated that the human voice accounts from as little as 9% of the process in human communication, one person to another or one person to a group of people in everyday situations. When that communication is through the medium of radio, for very obvious reasons, it can increase to as much as 100%. The human voice in any radio broadcast is the main element that helps the listener construct their own image and picture of the person behind the microphone.

Paint the Picture
How often is the person on the other end of the telephone, on meeting face to face totally different to the picture created in the listener’s mind? How opposite of the picture created in the listeners’ imagination, is their favourite radio personality in real life? If radio is to make the most of this advantage, there are some who maintain that radio presenters should only be seen and never heard! The phrase ‘a perfect face for radio’ is considered by many in the radio industry to be a compliment. The listener’s imagination is a blank canvas, and with a few simple tools, and techniques that are in the main, easy to learn and do, a skilled radio broadcaster can help their listeners paint some very interesting and exciting images.
Ads by Google

Online Singing Lessons Learn to sing anywhere in the world with online lessons in english. www.virtualvoicelessons.net TruTone(tm) electrolarynx The only speech aid with Tone Control--hear sound samples now! www.griffinlab.com
The Human Voice as an Instrument
Some initiates into the world of radio feel they have to adopt another voice. They don’t. There is a stereotypical radio presenters voice that some adapt because they feel it’s the way radio presenters should sound and the more they try to achieve it they quicker they just lose their own voice. The best radio presenters have learned some simple techniques and developed and practiced them to great advantage for themselves and their listeners. Simple techniques like:

• • • • • •

Slow Down. Most people talk far quicker then they imagine Be Clear. Take the time each word deserves Breathe Properly. Learn the various breathing techniques Stand up, or at least sit up straight Smile. When appropriate of course, it comes across Be natural

Think audience
It’s very easy to forget, in the comfort and confines of a radio studio when often there are no windows or contacts to the outside world, to forget that there is actually an audience listening. Most good radio broadcasters have some idea in their own head of typical listener, one person they will talk directly to in their own imagination. This helps the presenter make the conversation and delivery more real. It’s an imaginary one to one conversation that aids them and makes their listeners feel the presenter is directly to them. There are radio presenters who construct elaborate ‘dummy’ listeners who take a place in the studio, and they deliver the presentation to them. Studio guests beware! Each radio presenter with a bit of practice and a lot of imagination will find the best way for themselves but it’s imperative for good radio delivery to think audience first.

Read on • How to Present a Balanced News Bulletin • Essential Elements of Good Radio • How to Find a Voice for Radio Voice Quality
The type and delivery of a voice, and how one human connects with another is often down to personal opinion and choice, but a few key points in the back of any radio presenter’s mind whether reading serious news or a light hearted entertainment presentation should be:

• • •

Be excited (or at least interested) Be an individual, be human Learn to talk person to person

Most radio is consumed on an individual basis. The better radio broadcasters understand this and develop such techniques that enable them to use their own voice as a powerful instrument of communication.

Read more at Suite101: How to Voice Radio Scripts More Effectively: Learn to be a Better Voice Over and Presenter http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-voice-radio-scripts-more-effectively-a105303#ixzz16rjE2lwX

Scriptwriting for the Spoken Word
General Hints and Tips for Better Radio Writing
Mar 27, 2009 Dan McCurdy

DAB Radio - Dan McCurdy

If these words were a script for broadcast on radio, very different rules of writing would apply, and the way it should be written would be totally different.

As with most advice you receive on any creative subject, there are often divergences of opinion about the best way to do something. In writing for the spoken word and for the spoken word that appears as audio on radio there are some general principals, many have found if they follow, make the listeners’ listening a better experience.

The Written Word / The Spoken Word
The words may be the same, but once the words are down on paper, there the job is largely done for the day for the written word. For the spoken word, however, the writing is only part of the process. Much depends on the voice delivering the words, the intonation of each, any apparent accents, the strength of the delivery, and if the original author is not reading the piece, the meaning the reader may have found in their reading of the piece.
Ads by Google

Free Christian Radio The best gospel and contemporary Christian radio. Come check us out! www.CrosswayRadio.com Freelance Writing Job Make a full time income writing Up to $20/page. Start Earning Now! www.academia-research.com
With the written word, it’s easy for the reader to look back over what they’ve read and re-read what they perhaps didn’t grasp the first time round. The listener generally only gets one chance listening to the spoken word, so any writer, writing for radio especially may want to bear in mind a few simple guidelines, which many radio writers have found to work for them:

• • • • • •

Talk directly to the listener as if they were sitting in front of you Use everyday language, don’t try and impress Make the first sentence interesting and grab the listener’s attention Then keep their interest, with something equally as strong Get straight to the point. A listener’s attention will easily wander The spoken word is read ‘Out Loud,’ so be the first to read it out loud

Think of the Listener
Anyone who’s performed in public knows how important it is to keep the audience on the side of the performer. There are some venues it may be physically disadvantageous not to do so. Gunfire is a sure sign! Happily a radio performance is not quite so dangerous and although the audience may not be present, once the audio is broadcast the effect may be similar.

Read on • How to Write a Radio Advertising Campaign • How to Write a Radio Commercials Script • Understanding the Basics of Radio Journalism
Whilst it may be impossible to envisage every unique listener, the type of listener the particular radio station may attract or be aimed at, will alter the way the script is constructed. This is an easier task than it sounds. Think of the listener who may be listening, write for them, talk to them and the script will follow as normal conversation follows.

Writing for the Ear
Words written well and spoken well can conjure up sights and sounds of course, but also smells, touch sensations, and feelings. The combination of a good reader, and well chosen words is dramatic as many great orators past and present have demonstrated. Listen to Richard Burton, or Dylan Thomas himself, reading his famous Play for Voices, “Under Milk Wood,” for perhaps the finest example.

General Hints and Tips • • • • • •
Get straight to the point, generate interest Keep that interest Always read out loud what’s written even as a work in progress Always be unambiguous and don’t try to be clever Use punctuation when it helps the reader to read it out loud Use the medium and paint pictures

Radio Scriptwriting, done well, can create wonderful pictures in the listeners own imagination that are all the more precious because they are the listeners own generated pictures.

Read more at Suite101: Scriptwriting for the Spoken Word: General Hints and Tips for Better Radio Writing http://www.suite101.com/content/scriptwriting-for-the-spoken-word-a105355#ixzz16rjg6QkO

Script-writing tips and real examples
Here are a few script-writing tips and examples of real BBC scripts which teachers might find use to models for writing TV and radio news. The sample scripts are from BBC Radio News. SCRIPT-WRITING TIPS Decide how long your entire programme
BBC presenter Huw Edwards

should be. A typical radio news bulletin is between two and three minutes long. Having allocated the total length of your programme, decide on the length of each report. Most people speak at three words a second, so the script for a 30-second report contains about 90 words. This worksheet will help you.
Worksheet 3.2: Script template

Think about your audience and use appropriate language. Write as you speak. You don't have to use formal language. Keep reading your scripts out loud to check how they sound. Avoid repeating the same word too often. Write any words which are tricky to pronounce phonetically. Look at the Five Live script below for an example of how to do this.
Five Live script
News presenter Fiona Bruce

Liven up your reports with lots of interviews and sound or video clips. Long sections of script, containing only the presenter's words, can become boring. Remember to tell the audience who said what. In other words, credit your sources.
Radio 4 script

If you did not manage to record the best quote of the interview, but you did write it down, do not be tempted to read the quote out loud. It's better to paraphrase like Radio 4 have done in this example: Tony Blair has said remarkable progress is being made in Afghanistan and that Britain is committed to supporting the country. Analyse as many programmes as you can. It might help students to answer these questions:

• • •

How long was the programme? Were there headlines? Did it contain music? Remember, in order to use music in YOUR news you have to compose it yourself or obtain permission for it's use. Breaking copyright law is a form of stealing.

• • • • •

How many stories did the programme contain? How long were each of the reports? What was the language like? Which sound and video clips were used? Did you find it interesting?

EXAMPLE RADIO SCRIPTS Below are three BBC radio scripts, all broadcast on the same day. It is interesting to compare the different stories and the choice of language adopted by each programme, and to discuss how this relates to audience. It is also interesting to note that all the scripts are quite short. Asking students to read them out loud and time themselves encourages them to be CONCISE when writing their own scripts Key Each script is written for a presenter to read out. It might help students to think of a news script like the lines of a play with an invisible PRESENTER: at the beginning. The point at which a sound clip is played, and the presenter stops reading, is marked by Audio insert NAME: The words at the beginning (IN WORDS) and end of each clip (OUT WORDS) and the length in minutes and seconds (DURATION ) of the clip are shown so the presenter knows when to start reading again.
Radio 4 script Five Live script Radio 1's Newsbeat script
THREE Cs Clear Correct Concise

- one of the three key writing skills involved in journalism.

Radio 4 Tony Blair has said remarkable progress is being made in Afghanistan - and Britain is committed to supporting the country. He was talking after meeting the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, in the capital, Kabul. Mr Blair said the people of Afghanistan deserved to live in a proper democratic state. Audio insert NAME: AFGHAN BLAIR IN WORDS: Our commitment... OUT WORDS: ...challenges with you. DURATION: 0'11'' The Iraqi government has rejected claims from an international human rights group

that the trial of Saddam Hussein was unfair. Human Rights Watch said, among other things, key evidence hadn't been disclosed to the defence in advance. Dozens of Palestinians have converged on a house which they believe is under threat from Israeli warplanes. This is the second time in recent days civilians have been urged to act as human shields at the homes of militants in Gaza. On Saturday, Israel called off a planned air strike. The American technical stock exchange, Nasdaq, has launched a takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange. Nasdaq is trying to challenge the dominance of its main rival, the New York Stock Exchange. Health unions have criticised proposals for NHS hospitals to be able to advertise for patients. The Department of Health has warned trusts not to spend too much on marketing their services. Doctor Laurence Buckman, from the British Medical Association, rejected the idea. Audio insert NAME: NHS BUCKMAN IN WORDS: Patients want... OUT WORDS: ...care for patients. DURATION: 0'09'' Environmental protesters are blockading a big Shell petrol station in Birmingham. They say they're angry that the impact of the oil giant's work on the environment - and also the way they believe it treats people in third world countries.
Back to top

Radio Five Live Tony Blair has said remarkable progress is being made in Afghanistan - and Britain is committed to supporting the country. He was talking after meeting the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, in the capital, Kabul. At a news conference, Mr Blair said the people of Afghanistan deserved to live in a proper democratic state. He gave this pledge: Audio insert NAME: AFGHAN BLAIR IN WORDS: I want to OUT WORDS: with you DURATION: 0'23'' A former Russian security agent remains in a serious condition in hospital in London, where he's being treated, under police guard, for the effects of poisoning. Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Putin, was taken ill after meeting a contact at a sushi bar. The Sunday Times reporter, David Leppard, told Five Live Mr Litvinenko was keen to tell his story even though he was seriously ill. Audio insert NAME: RUSSIA LEPPARD ACT IN WORDS: I was told.... OUT WORDS: .....my interview with him. DURATION: 0'20'' A police officer who was seriously injured when his patrol car overturned in Leeds on Saturday morning has died. The 36 year old officer was responding to a call when the accident happened. Dozens of Palestinians have converged on a house which they believe is under threat

from Israeli warplanes. This is the second time in recent days civilians have been urged to act as human shields at the homes of militants in Gaza. From the town of Beit Lahiya, here's Alan Johnston. Audio insert NAME: GAZA JOHNSTON IN WORDS: The owner... OUT WORDS: ...Saturday night. DURATION: 0'35'' Rescue teams searching for two ice climbers missing in the Cairngorms overnight say they may have been caught in an avalanche. The pair, both from the Aberdeen area, had been climbing in the Coire an t Sneachda (PRON: CORRY AN SNECHDA) area yesterday. The alarm was raised when they failed to turn up at a meeting point. Environmental protesters are blockading one of the main Shell petrol stations in Birmingham. They say they're angry that the impact of the oil giant's work on the environment - and also the way it treats people in third world countries. In the city, the one hundred share index is down 33 at 61-58.
Back to top

Radio 1 Newsbeat A former Russian secret agent's critically ill after claims he was poisoned An ex-Russian spy's under police guard in hospital after claims his government's tried to kill him in a London restaurant. It's thought Alexander Litvinenko's was poisoned with a chemical called thalium. He'd met a contact to try and expose who murdered a reporter who'd heavily criticised the Russian President Vladamir Putin. Alexander Goldfarb's his friend. GOTO AUDIO NAME: r1 mon Russian Spy Goldfarb OUT WORDS: can hardly talk DURATION:0'11" Tony Blair's thanked British troops in Afghanistan for the courage they've shown fighting the Taliban. He spent an hour and a half talking to soldiers at the main British camp in Helmand province. The government's putting more money into a pupil mentoring scheme in schools to try to stop bullying. It comes as a new report says 20-thousand children are skipping classes every day because of bullying... GOTO AUDIO NAME: 0800 bullying OUT WORDS: their responsibility to DURATION:0'09" Mountain rescue teams are searching for two ice climbers who've gone missing in the Cairngorns. It's thought may have been caught in an avalanche. Michael Mulford's from RAF Kinloss... GOTO AUDIO NAME: 1030 climbers OUT WORDS: sudden unanticipated avalanches DURATION:0'07" Blackburn and Spurs both ended up with ten men in a 1 all draw at Ewood Park. Red cards for Tugay (too-guy) and Hossam Ghaly and Martin Jol got in to an argument with the ref.

And more problems for Hearts in the SPL - after a 1-0 defeat at home to Rangers there was a fans protest calling for captain Steven Press-ly to be recalled and owner Vladimir Romanov to go. Radio One Newsbeat..more at...11.30...