Guest Article

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This article is aimed at Christian music stations, but some of the principles can be applied at any station where “informing the public” a.k.a. news, isn’t the primary goal. I’ve tried to lay out the key points as effectively as possible, but forgive me if I get off track. I’m not the world’s best copy editor! Also, I welcome your feedback, feel free to e-mail me with questions or comments.

Every good newscast you and I have ever listened to in our lives has had three simple things in common. Formatics, Content & Delivery. When rules and goals are set, and then met, in these three key areas a quality newscast is almost sure to occur. Let’s look at each separately.

We have times and clocks for almost every other part of our station, we should have them for news too, right? You bet! Without setting parameters for your newsperson to follow newscasts can easily get out of control and become a “tune out” point for your audience. I’m talking about particular guidelines. Saying something like, “News should be about 3 minutes with a few local and national stories and weather at the end.” is like telling a DJ to play whatever he thinks the listener wants to hear.

Let’s start with total length of newscast. I recommend no more than ninety seconds. Let’s face it, our listeners are not turning to us because we provide the most complete coverage of every story. In fact, if I talked to some of your listeners I bet I could find a few that think news is a waste of time and wouldn’t care if it went away altogether. Ninety seconds, start to finish, is enough time to cover the big stories, but not sound like CNN. Each newscast should have between five and eight stories, more about how to cut the length in the “Delivery” section.

In a music format it’s important to give the perception (as much as possible) that the music never stops. Have you ever listened to a two minute break without a music bed underneath? I don’t care what the topic is or how funny the jock was, it sounded TOO long! Now listen to that same break with a good music bed and it’s ten times better. The same applies to news. I know some people will say that music should NEVER play during the news, but this isn’t 60 Minutes. Get a good contemporary news bed that isn’t too abrasive and keep it going. At one station we had a nice sounder on front and then just lowered the level. Having a ninety second track is also a good way for the newsperson to know when he/she has gone on too long.

To stations who include traffic in the morning. Think about putting it first in the newscast. In Portland we had several News/Talk stations that positioned themselves well as “the traffic authority”, or “Portland’s Real-Time traffic station”. Remember one of the four questions people want answered by your show is, “How long will it take me to get to work today?” If you don’t answer that when they want it, they know where else to go. Not letting that switch take place will help keep those P1’s from becoming P2’s.

I’m sure that some of you are still wondering how I’m going to cram up to eight stories into seventy seconds. Two words, conversational writing. That term is something you may have seen popping up in job ads for News stations, and now it’s a strategy that we as a format need to adopt. Conversational writing can be described as getting rid of fluff, useless facts, and the formal news writing style. The best way to explain this is to give an example. You might get the following from AP, UPI or whomever your raw news comes from…

Now everyone agrees that the middle east is an important story, and your listeners will be wanting to hear the latest about the situation. (Note: this is being written about 14 days after the Israeli response to terror attacks during Passover) The challenging, and most rewarding, part is taking the thirty-five second story up above and turning it into no more than ten seconds. Here’s how I did it…

The key info that our listeners would be interested in (fighting continues; Powell arriving; anti-American sentiment) is still there, but cut down to just two sentences. Not all stories are this hard either. I did a one-line story yesterday when the Governor here fired his Chief of Staff. That’s really all the story was, “Governor McCallum fired his COS today over campaign strategy differences”. You don’t have to get into obscure facts or statistics. Just tell the listeners what is happening in a quick and concise way.

The other thing to consider when writing conversationally is effect to listeners. When deciding story selection, ask yourself the following questions. Does this change the overall safety or security of our world, country, city, or neighborhood? Will it effect my listeners pocketbooks? Will it create an emotional response in them? Is it important info that needs to be brought to the public’s knowledge? If the answer to one or more of those questions is yes, than consider running that story. Of course, when writing it be sure to put that “effectual info” up front. What would grab your attention better, “OPEC leaders met today to discuss increasing production…” or “Gas prices may be heading down after today’s meeting…” The second one of course because it talks about something your listeners care about, their money. Suddenly you’ve taken the “tune out” of a newscast and started getting people to turn up the radio just as they would their favorite song.

This section is really what the title of the article refers too, and in my opinion is the most important part. Should our news sound different than the competitors? Again the answer yes...but the question is how? By the everyday content and how that info is relayed.

While listening to a major market station recently I heard them position themselves as “safe for your family”. I like that, and really do enjoy this particular station, but then heard the lead story on the news was about how a local young woman had been found raped and murdered the previous night. It was in a bad part of town that this act had occurred, and while sad, not too uncommon of an event. As I listened to the graphic words being used, (rape, homicide, sexual assault, etc.) I found myself wondering how I would feel if my son were six or seven years old and hearing those terms. Suddenly the station didn’t seem so family friendly.

Let’s put this particular story through the four-question test I talked about earlier. First up…did the event change the overall safety or security of our world, country, city, or neighborhood? No, the area was already prone to high crime. Any resident of the area would not have been surprised to hear that this happened in that neighborhood. Second, will it affect my listener’s pocketbooks? Pretty straight forward “no” answer to that one. Third, and this one gets tricky, will it create an emotional response in my listeners? Yes it probably will, but it isn’t they type you’re looking for during morning drive. The story is a “downer” and could throw off any flow of momentum you have going in the show. Finally, is it important info that needs to be brought to the public’s knowledge? Not really, the answer may be different if the crime just happened and police are actively searching the area for a suspect, but that wasn’t the case here. I think you get the general idea of how to pick stories that make a difference to your listeners and won’t bring thoughts of negativity.

Another way to separate yourselves from other stations in your market is by having stories they don’t. I know a large majority of Christians (myself included) think that most of the media is pretty liberal and unwilling to cover so called “religious events” with objectivity. Now you have the ability to get that info out that the networks won’t give. Search for “Christian News” on the Internet and you’ll find some really great sites that deal with news you won’t hear anywhere else. (Note: be careful to not get political, remember not all Christians are republican or even conservative). Make sure you are on the press release list for area churches so you can talk about upcoming or past events in your city. Nothing starts word of mouth publicity faster than talking about one specific church or pastor. As radio communicators we have a responsibility to spread the news of good works to our listeners. Let’s not ignore that by relying on the AP computer for all our stories.

Finally, and I touched on this in the last paragraph, the media is pretty liberal. Examples are how they have reported on the Israeli response to terrorism, the bias reporting of the Catholic Church issues, coverage of Pro-Life activities, and rarely reporting on anything good about Christians. To combat things make sure YOU have the full story. Don’t just take what the AP gives and read it verbatim. This week I saw a story that had four paragraphs about Israeli activities and how several civilians had accidentally been killed in the West Bank. At the bottom of the story there was one small line reporting that Yassar Arafat had refused to condemn terrorism against Israel. Just one line! Six months after the attacks on New York and Washington D.C., after President Bush had called all who sponsor or allow terrorists to operate “enemies of America”, Yassar Arafat is refusing to halt terrorism. This should have made it on the major networks, but didn’t. Again I caution you, read the full story and use common sense when writing. I’m not saying to be biased to the left or right, just be fair. I’m pretty sure it’s what Jesus would do. Happy writing!

Scott Michaels is formerly the Morning Host and Music Director for WCLQ-FM in Wausau, Wisconsin. He has spent over five years in major market radio working as a Production Manager, Music Director, Air Talent and News Anchor/Reporter. He’s spent time at Oregon Public Broadcasting, KBVM-FM/Portland, KXL-AM/Portland, KPAM-AM/Portland and the Crawford Broadcasting Company. He can be reached via e-mail at scott@89q.org

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