{"id":1077,"date":"2015-06-06T10:32:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T22:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2015-06-06T12:22:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T00:22:00","slug":"radio-rules-ok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1077","title":{"rendered":"Radio rules. OK."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bose\"<\/a>I love radio.\u00a0 I grew up listening to light static interspersed with music, comedy, news, and drama.<\/p>\n

Is there a radio gene?\u00a0 I suspect that there might be.\u00a0 My father was a big fan of radio (\u2018wireless\u2019, as he called it).\u00a0 And my only other sibling spent most of her working life presenting, producing, and directing radio in four different countries.<\/p>\n

Among my earliest memories are programmes like Take It From Here<\/em>, The Navy Lark<\/em>, Brothers In Law<\/em>, Hancock\u2019s Half Hour<\/em>, and, of course, The Goon Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But I also enjoyed American shows like Nightbeat<\/em>.\u00a0 \u2018Hi there.\u00a0 This is Randy Stone.\u00a0 I cover the night beat for the daily.\u00a0 Stories start in many different ways \u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n

And I was an enormous fan of Alistair Cooke\u2019s Letter from America<\/em>.\u00a0 I loved the way in which his \u2018letters\u2019 took you on a journey and then, perhaps when you least expected it, they returned you to the point from which you had set out.<\/p>\n

Quiet early in my writing career I heard radio described as \u2018theatre for the mind\u2019.\u00a0 And that seemed about right to me.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it is.\u00a0 You hear\u00a0sounds; and your mind\u00a0\u2018sees\u2019 pictures.<\/p>\n

After I had been writing for radio for a year or five, I attended a workshop led by a couple of radio \u2018gurus\u2019.\u00a0 Over the course of the day, they stressed three things.<\/p>\n

Tell a story. <\/strong>\u00a0Whether you are reporting news, presenting drama, or pitching a commercial message, what people are listening for is a story.\u00a0 They are listening for something that tells them something.\u00a0 They are listening for something that \u2018makes sense\u2019.\u00a0 If there is no story, they will probably tune out.<\/p>\n

Use language that people can easily understand<\/strong>.\u00a0 If the listener has to stop and mentally \u2013 or literally \u2013 look up a word or phrase, they will miss part of your message.\u00a0 And maybe they will abandon it altogether.\u00a0 Use plain language.\u00a0 Wherever possible, eschew jargon and other esoteric language.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t over-write.<\/strong>\u00a0 Let your listeners use their imagination and \u2018fill in the gaps\u2019 in their own way.\u00a0 Leave space for them to think, to digest, to \u2018file\u2019 what you have told them.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, most of us have learned to deal with potential information overload.\u00a0 We have learned to pick a path, however imperfect, through the multiple messages we are presented with each day, each hour, each minute, even each nanosecond.\u00a0 And yet the old radio \u2018rules\u2019 still have a lot to recommend them.\u00a0 Just a thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love radio.\u00a0 I grew up listening to light static interspersed with music, comedy, news, and drama. Is there a radio gene?\u00a0 I suspect that there might be.\u00a0 My father was a big fan of radio (\u2018wireless\u2019, as he called … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1080,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions\/1080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}