18

Even More Ways for Radio

 

What You’ll Learn_________________________

Radio is a pure medium. What this means is, you have to capture the listener with only one tool: sound. That probably sounds limiting but it isn’t. Sound is sound, but how you edit, package, and present it can make every piece different. Sometimes it might seem that the reporter’s voice is the most effective way to convey the facts. Sometimes the words of the newsmaker do it best. Sometimes it’s the sounds recorded at the scene of the story itself—the bulldozer knocking down a house, the water rushing under the bridge, the woman screaming on the balcony.

Within those categories of sound, you have a variety of options. If you choose just the reporter’s voice, do you want a pre–written carefully delivered narration, or do you want the reporter to describe something extemporaneously? If you have both a reporter at the scene and sound from the scene, do you combine them into some sort of packaged report? If there’s an interview, do you include the reporter’s questions, or run only the newsmaker’s answers?

What you’ll learn in this chapter is how to produce each of these in a radio news story, and how to create a mix of sounds so your radio newscast has all the dynamic, flexible, unpredictable elements it needs to be interesting.

You’ll also learn a bit more about writing. Namely, how to write a radio report that brings the listener into the story, rather than just delivering the story to the listener. And how to help the listener understand what he is hearing, so that in the absence of television’s visual cues, distracting questions don’t come up.

Finally, because radio is more likely to have one or even two newscasts every hour (unlike the typical three or four per day on TV), you’ll learn how to make each newscast fresh, so the listener doesn’t start to think the stories sound stale.

All in all, writing for radio is tougher than writing for TV. You have to squeeze more information into less time, and you don’t have pictures to support your words. What’s more, you usually have to produce more reports for radio than for TV, because radio usually has more newscasts. But the reward is what you read at the top of this section: radio is a pure medium, which often makes it a pure pleasure.

The Voice of Authority

Nothing is as credible as firsthand coverage, whether the reporter writes and narrates a story that she personally has covered or the anchor takes the reporter’s facts and weaves them into a “reader” from the studio. The facts are just as accurate either way. Everyone in the newsroom knows that. But listeners don’t. Just as television news stories often include a standup to “prove” that the reporter was really there (which raises the audience’s comfort level with regard to credibility), radio news stories often include a report from the scene.

But how does the radio reporter convince the listener that she was really there? Well, with nothing to work with as indisputable as video, the answer is to verbally place oneself in the story. How?

Sometimes with a single word. Since I was responsible for pieces on ABC Radio News while I covered stories for ABC TV News, I often put that single word at the very top of a radio piece written in tandem with a package for TV:

Here above the Arctic Circle, oil companies ceaselessly, purposefully pump nearly two million barrels of oil, every long Arctic night …

Or, deeper in the lead sentence:

The good old days for smokers here at Denver’s airport have gone up in smoke.

Or, deeper in the story:

Military spokesmen say that according to their first reports from the battlefield, the field is silent. Whether surviving Iraqi units actually got word from Baghdad—there is some question about whether lines of communication still exist—or whether they just stopped shooting because they weren’t being shot at, nobody here at the Pentagon knows.

That one word, “here,” sends a message. Reread the examples without that word, and think about how much less “eyewitness” credibility they have.

Sometimes another way of placing oneself at the scene works better. Read the following portions of radio reports I wrote during the Gulf War in 1991, and you’ll see how different words personalize the pieces:

Vice President Quayle got his longest and loudest applause when he told the wives and children of F-one-eleven crews now fighting in the Gulf, quote, “We will hold Saddam Hussein and his henchmen personally accountable for their actions.” No F-one-elevens have been shot down so far, but these families are painfully aware that it can happen any day.

As he walked into the United Nations, I asked the Kuwaiti ambassador for his reaction to Saddam Hussein’s speech. His response, and I quote, “Back to square one!”

A Pentagon spokesman told me that 27 of Iraq’s 42 fighting units are now, for all intents and purposes, out of business.

From my conversations with diplomats at the United Nations, it appears that Iran will keep the Iraqi airplanes on the ground…

And, of course, sometimes you combine “personalizing,” first-person references:

Some of the Iowans I interviewed think it can be costly to help the Soviets. Some think it can be costly not to. Businessman Roger Stetson says if we help them, we help ourselves, because we create another strong market for American goods. But Carl Bales, director of a homeless shelter here, disagrees.

I spent the better part of a day just watching people walk into police stations here in St. Louis, bearing bagsful of rifles, shotguns, handguns, whatever firearms they wanted to sell to the city for 50-dollars apiece.

For the last 30 years here there has been an almost ceaseless flow of lava from Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. For the last 15 years, defying the laws of nature, some of this lava has flowed right back. We saw dozens of packages of lava, mailed back from tourists who took home more than just memories.

What’s the Point?

It’s important to make it clear that you’re not just rewriting a wire service story or just reporting secondhand information, but that you spoke personally with the newsmaker, or witnessed the news event firsthand.

Shifting Your Lead

If you’re covering a major story, your radio station might want the story on every newscast—which could mean twice every hour. But you don’t want to report it precisely the same way each time, because it’ll sound stale to listeners who’ve already heard it before.

If there are new developments, coming up with a different lead for every newscast is easy if you simply make the newest development your new lead. But sometimes the story isn’t changing, yet you still have to vary your lead. It shouldn’t be too tough, because there’s no single “best” way to write a story. In fact, sometimes you’ll welcome the opportunity to use more than one of your good ideas.

For example, a blizzard in the Midwest. Here was the lead in my first spot for ABC Radio News:

Forecasters here predicted only one to three inches of snow. It is more like an inch an hour.

Then later:

Forecasters here got it wrong. They had predicted only…

Then:

At its peak, the snow fell here at about an inch an hour. Nothing like the forecasts …

Then, later still:

All told, almost two feet of snow fell here… almost two feet more than forecasters had predicted!

In other cases, the challenge won’t be how to come up with a new top to the same hard news story, but how to come up with different approaches to a softer story so that each radio spot stands alone. But it shouldn’t be hard because, as I said before, there’s more than one good way to write a good story.

Here are three examples from a story about a controversy over whether Japan should be represented at the fiftieth anniversary observance of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor:

No one here at Pearl Harbor said “over my dead body,” but they came close. The question was, should Japan play a role in the fiftieth anniversary of its attack here?

The attack on Pearl Harbor, 50 years ago today, still is vivid for many Americans: the surprise, the irreversible call to war.

Every day, there seem to be as many Japanese tourists paying their respects here at Pearl Harbor as Americans. But not today.

Finally, remember that sometimes you’ll cover a story at, say, 8 o’clock at night that will be newsworthy the next morning. So if you prepare more than one version, you want to change the time reference. For example, your first report might say:

The plane crash tonight has left two children without a father.

Then, for the morning newscast:

The plane crash last night left two children without a father.

What’s the Point?

In radio news, you sometimes have several reports to prepare on the same story, and you have to keep them sounding fresh. Freshening your lead is the best way to do it.

Let Us Count the Ways

As you read at the beginning of this chapter, there are many ways to use sound to present information in a radio newscast. We’ll refer to them as:

• Actuality

• Voicer

• Wraparound

• ROSR

• Q&A

Actuality

This is the sound from the story itself. Sometimes we just call it ACK (rhymes with “back”). In some newsrooms it is called NAT (for “natural sound”), WILD (for “wild sound”), or RAW (for “raw sound”). For the rest of this chapter, we’ll stick with ACK.

What is it? Maybe it’s the sound of flames crackling from a burning building, or of the firetruck’s siren as it races to the scene. It also might be sound from an interview with a victim, or with the firefighter who rescued her. Or from the fire chief at a news conference after the fire has been put out.

How might you use ACK in a radio news story? Here’s a hypothetical example, where the anchor reads the intro:

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.

Then, using the possibilities listed above, you might insert:

• ACK of flames crackling from the burning building

• ACK of firetruck’s sirens as it races to the scene

• ACK of the victim screaming

• ACK of the firefighter describing how he rescued the victim

• ACK of the fire chief at a news conference afterward

Each one requires a setup, of course. So, here is how you might set up each one, using your words to help identify and reinforce the actuality:

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
The sound of the flames told the story: the house burned to the ground.
ACK: flames crackling from the burning building

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
ACK: firetruck’s sirens as it races to the scene

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
Jennifer Jones was trapped inside until firemen rescued her.
ACK: the victim screaming

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
Firefighter Sam Smith ran inside right away and saved the owner.
ACK: firefighter describing how he rescued the victim

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
At a news conference afterward, Fire Chief Barb Blank explained why the house could not be saved.
ACK: fire chief at a news conference afterward

After the ACK, usually it’s a good idea to re-identify what the listener has just heard. Therefore, each example above might be constructed this way:

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
The sound of the flames told the story: the house burned to the ground.
ACK: flames crackling from the burning building
ANCHOR: Those flames took firefighters 20 minutes to put out.

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
ACK: firetruck’s sirens as it races to the scene
ANCHOR: A firetruck got there in enough time to rescue the owner, but not to save the house.

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
Jennifer Jones was trapped inside until firemen rescued her.
ACK, victim: I thought I was going to die in my own kitchen.
Anchor: The home’s owner also says her kids had just left for school five minutes before the fire started.

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
Firefighter Sam Smith ran inside right away and saved the owner.
ACK, firefighter: I knew there was a woman inside because I could see her through the window.
Anchor: The firefighter says saving the owner’s life made this his best day ever on the job.

ANCHOR: A fire destroyed a home this morning just a block from the high school.
At a news conference afterward, Fire Chief Barb Blank explained why the house could not be saved.
ACK, fire chief: The flames spread through the insulation, and burned through the walls in every part of the house, all at once.
ANCHOR: Fire Chief Blank promises she’ll try to convince City Council to outlaw the kind of insulation used to build that house.

Voicer

This is the reporter’s narrated report, pretaped or live. As you now know, it should include some kind of reference such as the word “here” to convey to the audience that the reporter actually is covering the story. Also, it should include information that you’d only know by actually being there.

A voicer does not contain ACK, but if you have ACK from the scene of the story—“natural sound” in the television sense of the phrase—you can use it in the background. Or, if you write and record the voicer (or call it into the station) with the sound in the background, better yet. For instance, if it’s a story at an airport, it’s effective to include the sound of airplanes taking off in the background (but only if they’re recorded while you’re covering the story, meaning don’t fake it). If it’s at a fire, it’s effective if the listener hears the crackling flames.

Wraparound

This is a combination of voicer and ACK. We usually abbreviate it to just a “wrap,” because you “wrap” the reporter’s voice around the actuality.

We’ll use the fire again as an example.

REPORTER: When the firetruck got here, the first firefighter to jump off the back, ran into the burning house.

ACK, firefighter: I knew there was a woman inside because I could see her through the window.

REPORTER: The firefighter pulled her through the burning doorway and saved her life.

Also, a wrap can have more than one piece of ACK. For instance:

REPORTER: By the time the firetruck got here, the whole house was burning.

ACK: crackling flames

REPORTER: The first firefighter to jump off the back of the truck, ran into the burning house.

ACK, firefighter: I knew there was a woman inside because I could see her through the window.

REPORTER: The firefighter pulled her through the burning doorway and saved her life.

When doing a wraparound, just like when you’re using ACK as a standalone element for the newscast’s anchor, identify the speaker again afterward. The radio listener doesn’t have the advantage the television viewer has, seeing the name on the screen. And, use words to reinforce what the audience is hearing, like “firefighter” both before and after the ACK with the firefighter in the examples above.

ROSR

This one is fun. ROSR stands for Radio On Scene Report. You say it as if it is spelled “roser,” rhyming with “dozer.” It’s useful whether you’re doing radio or TV, because it is what its name implies: an “on scene report,” but unlike a voicer, which is written and rehearsed, a ROSR is extemporaneous. What this means is, you look at the scene in front of you, then you think of a few key points you want to cover, then you just talk, into a recording device, a live line, or a telephone.

A ROSR doesn’t serve any purpose if you’re covering a mayoral news conference, but it works well when there’s some kind of action in front of you. It might be a political demonstration, where you simply describe what you see:

About a hundred people are running toward City Hall, and I’m watching maybe a dozen policemen chasing them, and now a woman who was running has just tripped on the steps, and it looks like she’s hurt—she’s holding her leg and crying…

Or it might be a flood in the middle of a town:

I’m just high enough on a bluff to be above the water, but about 30 feet in front of me, a man and a woman are perched on the thick limb of a tree… I think it’s an oak tree… and there’s a woman in a rowboat trying to get to them, but from here it looks like the current is carrying her too far from the tree…

A ROSR isn’t just about the facts; it’s a chance to tell how it feels to cover the story. It’s the best device to make the listener feel like he is right beside you.

Q&A

Q&A means “question and answer.” It’s like ACK from an interview or a news conference, but it includes the reporter’s voice.

So in the fire we’ve been using as an example, instead of just running a sound bite of the firefighter as ACK, you might run it as Q&A:

If the next Q&A set is good, you might continue it:

Of course you might also want to omit the first question and write into the Q&A, starting with the first answer:

Different news directors have different preferences for how to use Q&A. There are a few good arguments for using it: