10 Tips of Producing Radio news Bulletin

1. Syed Ahmed Hussain
HOD-Productions &
CTS

2. 10 Production Tips10 Production Tips
Radio News BulletinsRadio News Bulletins

3. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
What is a radio news bulletin? Nourishing the audience
 Putting together a radio news
bulletin is like serving up a satisfying
meal that nourishes and prepares
your audience for the day
 It’s not about making you sound
great. It has to be focused,
digestible, easy to listen to and
catch the attention of the audience

4. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
1: Serving the audience
 Understanding their needs
 Addressing there concerns
 Informing the public debate

5. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
1: Serving the audience Understand their needs
 Think target audience.You need to
know who is tuning in for the
information you are delivering and
what they need to know
 Focus on the news stories and
information that is relevant for your
radio station’s targeted audience

6. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
1: Serving the audience Addressing their concerns
 Your top stories are not necessarily
the biggest stories, but will be those
that have the most impact on the
lives of your target audience

7. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
1: Serving the audience Informing the public debate
 The audience will be listening for
information that they can use
 Your top stories must make up their
staple diet of ‘must know’
information

8. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
2:Variety
 The Spice Of Life
 Issues not processes
 Voice of theVoiceless

9. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
2:Variety The spice of life
 Offer an information mix
 News tends to be multi-coloured
and multi-faceted, as is real life
 Your job is to reflect the realities of
the issues that most affect your
audience

10. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
2:Variety Issues not processes
 If you are covering politics you must
highlight how the issue impacts on
the lives of your audience

11. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
2:Variety Voice to the voiceless
 Always try to include the voice of
those affected by whatever the
story is highlighting
 If you are covering a story, it’s
important that you talk to the
victims and the man and woman in
the street, not just officials

12. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
3: Listenable
 Would you Listen?
 Do you turn people off

13. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
3: Listenable Would you listen?
 A voice that pleases is important to
ensuring the audience returns
 Try recording a few of your bulletins
and listen back to them
 Would you like to wake up every day
and listen to that?

14. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
3: Listenable Do you turn people off?
 Audio creates emotions
 An attractive voice that catches the
attention of the audience is
important
 The last thing you want is a grating
voice that makes people switch off

15. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
4: Slow down
 It’s not a race
 Practice difficultWords

16. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
4: Slow down It’s not a race
 Don’t rush. Make sure your audience
can understand what you are saying
 Reading too quickly could result in
your audience not understanding
what you are saying and not being
able to absorb your information

17. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
4: Slow down Practice difficult words
 News readers often read fast when
they are nervous or when they know
that they are about to pronounce a
name about which they are
uncertain
 If you know there is a foreign name
coming up in the bulletin, highlight
it and practice it until you are sure
 Then approach it slowly, pause, and
pronounce it clearly

18. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
5: Deliver fresh material
 Not stale News
 Always re-write
 Editorial Justification

19. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
5: Deliver fresh material Not stale news
 Is your bulletin fresh, dynamic, and
stimulating?
 Re-writing is essential
 Many people will listen to several
bulletins during the day
 It's important they are not served up
stale news that hasn't been
reworked

20. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
5: Deliver fresh material Always rewrite
 When you come out of studio after
reading the latest bulletin consider
sitting down and rewriting all the
top stories and refreshing the key
points
 Don’t just put the bulletin down and
expect to pick it up again an hour
later untouched and unchanged

21. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
5: Deliver fresh material Editorial justification
 Don’t change your format randomly
as this will confuse your audience
 A confused audience may switch
channels to a place where there is
less confusion

22. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
6: Radio needs sounds
 Not just your voice
 But only the right sound

23. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
6: Radio needs sounds Not just your voice
 Sound bites are important
 A longer news bulletin becomes a
lot more attractive for audiences if
you include short sound bites
 This can be a five- or 10-second
audio clip from an interview or
sounds from the scene of an
incident

24. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
6: Radio needs sounds But only the right sound
 Such sound bites can make your
bulletin easier to listen to, more
authoritative, more credible – and
more interesting for the listener
 However, all sounds have to have an
editorial reason for being there
 You should not fill with sound clips
that distracts

25. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
7: Storytelling Short stories works best
 Write news stories as if you were
telling the story to a friend
 This means: short, simple and
straightforward sentences
 The majority will be listening on the
move and won't be able to rewind
the bulletin

26. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
7: Storytelling Avoid verbiage
 Don’t obscure the essential facts
with verbiage
 Short, simple and straightforward
sentences are required
 This makes it much easier for people
to grasp the information

27. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
8:Writing style Small and effective packaging
 Long, heavy sentences may work for
print but they don’t work for radio
audiences
 Don't try to be clever. Use words
that make most sense and can be
understood by all

28. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
9: Concise Summing up the main points
 If you are putting together a longer
bulletin (e.g. seven minutes or
more), you may want to end the
bulletin with a brief recap of the
main stories
 This can help audiences recall the
top stories and/or other relevant
information

29. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
10: Be honest Only broadcast facts
 If you don’t believe what you have
written and what you are saying
your audience won’t either
 Make sure you are honest in how
you describe situations and events
 Don’t sensationalise; it will damage
your credibility and integrity

30. Radio Bulletins – 10 Tips
Acknowledgements Syed Ahmed Hussain
HOD-Productions & CTS
FM-106.2 Just Music
ahmed.hussain@1062.fm
03018551062
https://www.facebook.com/sahussain1