Radio day three;

 As the weeks go on, myself and Nadine's radio show seems to follow the same structure which makes it easier for us to prepare and find content to fill the hour, although the topics that we discuss are very soft news or very gossip/celebrity based (which suits our intended target audience). 

The masters students took over the role of the radio news editor throughout the day and there was little change to the content of the bulletin. There were a quite few technical issues - the microphones in the studio where the news is read from were not working, meaning that the headlines weren't aired. For the second bulletin at 11, the mics played up again but this time the news wasn't aired at all, and was pushed back to the top of the next hour. The radio shows during the four hours were also effected. 

This was my contribution to the bulletin; sourced from the Hampshire Constabulary.

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Three men in Hampshire have been arrested for running a cannabis factory. 

Police forced entry to a property in Fareham, after members of the community reported suspicious activity. 

Officers found an estimated thirty six thousand pounds worth of plants, a large amount ready for sale.

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RADIO!

Radio News;

WINOL have been allowed to take over sound radio every Tuesday in order to make a basis for our hourly news bulletins.

The radio news day is an early one, so that we are able to find and script the day’s news. Then at 10am the first of the news bulletins is aired, followed by a variety of radio shows throughout the day. Nadine and Myself present the first show of WINOLs take over, and we are followed by sports week and the final show is presented by Harry. 

Week one;

Me and Nadine decided to aim our show at young females, choosing to use gossip and celeb magazines as a basis, as well as current reality TV shows and WINOL features, such as doctor fashion. The first show went really well, I had never done any radio stuff before so it was new and slightly daunting, but I survived. Unfortunately, we were so concerned with content and news bulletins we forgot to record the show!

I managed to get a story and an ‘and finally’ in the bulletins that were played throughout the day – these were the original scripts, but they were changed to fit the script and timings.

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Christmas lovers will be making their way to the Winchester cathedral for its annual German inspired market this Thursday.
A variety of hand-crafted gifts and festive refreshments will be available for visitors from an selection of chalets.
The markets main attraction, an open-air ice rink, will open on the same day and follow the countdown to Christmas.

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Drinkers of Hampshire have been asked to lay off of booze for the launch of a new campaign in support of Alcohol Awareness Week.
Twenty per cent of adults in the county are classified as ‘increased risk’ drinkers and pose major threats to their health.
In a statement yesterday, Hampshire’s director of Public Health said: ‘two alcohol free days a weeks is good sensible health advice.’ This will be the focus of the ‘Give me a break’ campaign. 
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Week two;

This week was less daunting and felt a lot more comfortable in the studio. Before our show began we experienced some problems – the radio broadcasting software crashed and so we had to use a different studio last minute. Maybe next week we will check the studio equipment early, like we do for the TV bulletin so that things go smoothly. The content of our show followed the same structure as the week before, gossip, TV and features.

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I managed to get another story in the later news bulletin this week.  

Police are cracking down on troublemakers in Stanmore after receiving a large number of complaints reporting crime in the area.

They are putting a six-month dispersal order in place from December first, which will involve moving on troublesome groups and those under 16 unaccompanied by an adult after 9pm.

Anyone refusing to leave the area could face a fine of up to five thousand pounds or up to three months in prison. 

Voicing; the P's

Some tips for recording for radio;

PACE;
- Should be consistent and not monotonous - pace should e=be slower than ordinary conversation but not so slow it becomes dreary.
- Once you've slowed down. slow down again.

PAUSE;
- Well placed pauses arrest attention and allow a moment to breathe.
- Pause to allow proper phrase spacing, as well as punctuation.
- Pause to give the listener time to digest the information.
- Mark your script where you think you need pauses.

PHRASING;
- Grouping words into sense unit - spoken in one breath - though it may not be necessary to take another breath in between two.

PITCH;
- is the position of sound on the tone scale. Variation gives colour and depth of meaning, tending to raise for the important words then fall.

PRONUNCIATION;
- most accents and dialects are acceptable, provided words are clear.
- beware of misconstruction of words.
- record yourself then listen back.

Two Minute (and a Bit) Radio News Bulletin;

SCRIPT;

Story One:

Winchester LibDem MP's reject the new NHS reform bill, believing the changes will have no immediate effect or no effect at all because of recent budget cuts.

A ConservativeHome  reporter suggests that going through with the bill is the 'most dangerous path' for Cameron, possibly dividing the coalition and pushing away party's supporters.

The Prime Ministers efforts to change parts of the bill have settled some disagreements in parliament, but are causing conflict elsewhere. 

Online petitions have been started and MP’s urging those against the reforms to sign it through on twitter.

The bill is currently awaiting scrutiny of the House of Lords and will determine Cameron’s decision.

Story Two:

Winchester councillors are pushed to decide whether to refurbish or relocate the River Park leisure centre.

Because of the dramatic rise in maintenance costs over the last few years, Councillors have agreed the problem needs to be solved.

But Chris Pines believes a rebuild will threaten the space and funding the development of affordable housing, with a possibility of costs reaching twenty million pounds.

The site currently being assessed in Bar End holds the potential of an Olympic sized pool, which is highly favoured by swimming group directors. 

But Pines suggest that this site could hold over 100 new homes; 

AUDIO: Chris Pines interview.

IN: ‘We’ve got enormous…’

OUT: ‘…it’s a no brainer really.’

DURATION: 00.20

Story Three:

Winchesters commuters were introduced to a new way of using Blue Star bus service;

The key card allows customers to buy pre-paid travel passes, which allow unlimited travel for 7, 30 or 90 day periods.

The company have introduced the key with reduced prices as an incentive to try the new service and it is hoped, by the Go Ahead Group, that the key will reduce waiting time at stops and help lower their carbon footprint.

While also saving the customer money when compared to prices of regular tickets.

We asked a Blue Star driver his views on the success of the Key;

AUDIO:  Blue Star Buses.

IN: ‘I think it’s too…..’

OUT: ‘…it will be.'

DURATION:00.09

Story Four:

Naomi House have organised a 'Moonlight Walk' on the 17th of March, to raise money for the Sutton Scotney hospice.

The charity are re-organising the event following last year's success, and have opened the walk up to men as well as women.

Radio News Story Three;

An interview with Chris Pines, Winchester Councillor, about proposals for the River Park Leisure Center. Yet to be edited down for the radio bulletin.

Radio News Story Two Audio;

This ghastly thing called technology has hit Winchesters bus services and I decided to ask a few people and a bus driver (I'm totally going to drive a bus one day) what they though of the new service and potentially use it for one of my radio bulletin stories.



That's possible audio to go along side this news story (even though I realised I forgot to edit some other vox pops in :/);

Winchesters commuters were introduced to a new way of using Blue Star bus service this week.
The key card allows customers to buy pre-paid travel passes, which allow unlimited travel for 7, 30 or 90 day periods, that can be topped up over and over.
The company have introduced the key with reduced prices as an incentive to try the new service and it is hoped, by the Go Ahead Group, that the key will reduce waiting time at stops and help lower their carbon footprint. while at the same time saving the customer money when compared to prices of regular tickets.
We asked a Blue Star driver his views on the success of the Key;

Radio Column;

Soo, this is my first attempt at time using the sound booth. It was an experience - three of us spending 15 minutes or so wondering why the microphone and mixer weren't working, to then discover the plug socket was switched on....brains. Then realising there is an echo and I'm sniffling the whole way through; damn having a cold.

Radio; News Story One

Winchester Liberal Democrat MP's reject the new NHS reform bill, believing the changes will have no immediate effect or no effect at all because of recent budget cuts.

A ConservativeHome reporter suggests that going through with the bill is the 'most dangerous path' for Cameron to take, dividing the coalition and pushing away the party's supporters.

The Prime Ministers efforts to change parts of the bill have settled some disagreements in parliament, but are causing conflict elsewhere, with e-petitions appearing and MP’s urging those against the reforms to sign it through social networking sites.

The bill is currently awaiting scrutiny of the House of Lords and will determine Cameron’s

Radio News Writing - short, sharp and straight to the point;

We were told how to write a coherent news story suitable for radio
Grab attention immediately;
- Use a headline.
- identify the main point of the story.

Cut the waffle;
- Don't use ten words where two will do fine.
- Avoid repetition.
- Avoid long words and complicated sentence structure.

Avoid cliches, melodrama and emotive language;

Express yourself clearly;
- complex sentence structure and/or complicated sentence structure can alter the meaning of your story.

Remember your target audience;
- younger- more informal choice of language and structure.
- Older - less conversational; more informative.

Say it out loud;
- Must be fit for purpose -  to be carried by voice alone.

Mechanics;
- Scripts shouldn't be handwritten.
- Should be one and a half line spacing.
- Written on only one side of paper.

When using audio cuts in scripts, they should be written as follows;
NAME:
IN WORDS:
OUT WORDS:
DURATION:

The audio file must have the same name as audio insert name on script.

How to achieve a successful interview and using the sound booth;

The key features to an interview are;
- Good operation of the equipment; with some sound capturing devices small sounds are picked up incredibly easily, something like the swinging of cable or fumbling with buttons, and will ruin the recording, leaving you in a bit of a pickle.
- Reasonable questioning; too many questions will sometimes mean you miss key/important information because you're not listening properly.

Interviews need to sound like unscripted chats and the best way to achieve this is to limit the number of questions you have written and instead use what the interviewee has to said in answer to those as a starting point for others.
You need to listen to what is being said so that answers can prompt unscripted questions. All questions should be simple and straight forwards, but allow discussions as using closed questions are a bit of a pain; 'yes'' and 'no's' aren't what listeners want to hear.
Questions should be asked one at a time, as more than one can cause a commotion.
Finally, do your research so interviewees aren't always presented with the same questions in different interviews. They will get bored.

How to use a sound booth;
1. Gotta turn the thing called the mixer on. The switch is usually on the back panel.
2. Make sure the two master faders are all the way up.
3. The far left hand fader controls the mic, and the mic should be plugged into the fader.
4. Turn on the PC and open Adobe Audition.
5. Start recording, quite obviously by pressing record which is usually a little red dot icon. (Make sure the speakers are turned off!)You have to select 44100 as the sample rate, then stereo format, then 16-bit resolution.
6. Once recorded play back recording, by turning down the mic fader on mixer.

Radio News Lecture one:

Radio is immediate, intermediate and personal and is therefore different to broadcast on television.
Radio journalism uses the following conventions:
Headlines - outline a summary of main stories and proceed bulletins.
Bulletins - usually 2-5 minutes long and begin with a headline. Include a voicer or voice piece, use audio cuts and vox pops.
News Programmes - have a headline, explore topics in greater detail, include many stories, interviews, two ways and sometimes debate and comment, also packages.
Magazine Programmes - Topical (new stories) and timeless, or may use a topical story as a peg on which to hang. May use many of the same conventions as news programmes, but may also include other items.
documentaries

Packages:
- a cue is read
- May have an introduction and conclusion read by reporter.
- reporter links recorded or on location may be included.
- Some times there is more than one interview.
- May have vox pops, music, sound FX and archive clips.
- These are all then packaged together.

Documentaries:
- Documentaries are extented packages or feature which explore particular subject or issue in great depth.
- they use the same conventions and content as packages and, sometimes, news programmes.

Target audiences:
- Defined by ages and social demogrphic (A, B, C1, C2, D, E).
- Style and format will be dictated by target audience to which the station aims it output.

Practical - Vox Pops:
We were sent out with recording equipment to gather vox pops on a newsworthy topic of our choice. Myself, Ellen and Tammy set out with the intention of asking people what there views were on the nearing £1million pound bonus, Stephen Hester of RBS is set to receive. After approaching a handful of people we realised no one was willing to give us an answer and decided to change what we asked.
We then came up with asking how the rise in the cost of living has effected the people of Winchester, particularly the rise in train fares, as we believed this to be a timeless topic effecting most people in some way. Our change of question meant we actually got some very interesting answers to edit together next lesson. Fun times.