Radio Production for beginners

Radio is intimate, immediate and personal. Arguably TV may seem to be more personal, radio, however,makes the listener feel included by creating visual images and keeping the conversation following as if you're listening to an old friend rather than a complete stranger in a studio.

Radio news comes in different forms. For example the amount of news broadcast depends on the particular radio station's target market. For instance Radio 1 is aimed at a younger audience and therefore provides short, informative summaries of the news. Whereas on the other hand stations such as Radio 4 with cover the news in more detail and dedicated more time to the news. This is because their target audience is of a much elder generation than the audience of Radio 1 and so they desire a more detailed coverage. The style and format of a radio show is dictated by ther target audience.

Target Audiences

• Target audiences are defined by age and social demographic ( A,B,C1,C2,D and E).
• The As and Bs are people of a high salary profession.
• Bs are professional jobs such as doctors and lawyers etc.
• C1s are people who have desk jobs.
• C2s are skilled manual workers.
• Ds are the working class (unskilled)
• and the Es are the people of the lowest income/people on benefits.
• Age is categorised in groups 10-20 years. For example, 16-24 25-44 etc.

A standard radio show would usually contain a selection of the following:

• Headlines
• Bulletins
• News Programmes
• Magazine Programmes
• Documentaries

Headlines

These are a summary of what the news stories of the day are. You will either then continue with a bulletin or programme which gives the audience more detail of the story, or simply have a stand alone bulletin.

Bulletin

• These usually last between 2-5 minutes and start with a headline and contain audio cuts of interviews or vox pops ( a series of answers given by the public to one particular question). 
• A voicer or voicepiece is where another journalist summaries a story.

News Programmes

• These usually begin with headlines and explore top stories in greater depth.
• Other news stories are included too along with interviews which will either be prerecorded.
• Outside broadcasts.
• Debate, comment and commentary.
• packages.

Magazine Programmes (E.g Radio 4)

• These may be specific or wide-ranging but generally magazine programmes have specific remit. For example 'you and yours'.
• They are less likely to include headlines or bulletins but may react to the top stories of the day.
• Cover stories are usually both topical and timeless or may often use a topical story as a peg on which hang on an otherwise timeless issue.
• Listener interaction is sometimes used.

Packages

• Packages are cues read by the presenter. The cue may include an introduction and conclusion by the reporter or participant.
• Reporter links are recorded either in the studio or on location.
• There will be be at least one interview as well as vox pops, music, sfx, actuality and archive clips.

Documentaries

These are expanded packages or features which explore a particular subject or issue in much more detail than is possible in either a news or a magazine programme.