RADIO BROADCASTING AND SCRIPTWRITING

Things you need to know:

✓ What is News Script?
✓ Why do we need news script?
✓ Types of News Script
✓ Broadcast vs. Print News
✓ Writing for your listeners
✓ Radio News Lead
✓ Radio News Headline
✓ Radio News Timeframe

What is a news script?

For purposes of radio journalisms, a news script is the text or the copy read on the air by a radio
news anchor, newscaster or host.

Why do we need news script?

• To avoid sounding confused and muddled
• To avoid repeating yourself
• To avoid forgetting essential items
• To avoid over-or under time

Types of Scripts
1. Plain or simple script. This is read by the newscaster, no voice clips. (Sometimes called the
“reader”)
2. Script-clip or script voice. This is written and performed by reporter. It has a voice clip.
3. Voice report. This has an introduction performed by a newscaster and a report from a reporter
with a voice clip.

Broadcast VS Print
• What you write will be shorter. There won’t be a s many words, but those words must be more
carefully chosen.
• You will have to consider whether or not you have audio to go with your story. You will have
to learn some different style rules.
• The main consideration you have will be time. You might write your copy so that it can be
read aloud in certain time period. For most stories, that is 45 seconds or less.
• In broadcast, you write for the ears, for your listeners. You also write for your announcer.
WRITING FOR YOUR LISTENERS
1. Adopt a conversational, informal and relaxed style. Broadcast news is written in the way
one friend talks to another. Sometimes this style includes using contractions and incomplete
sentences. Yet, one should keep the conversation more formal that usual.
2. Write short, declarative sentences limited to one idea. People cannot listen to a long
sentence and always associate the end with the beginning. The sentences often have fewer than
15 words, and none should have more than 25 words.
3. Write short, declarative sentences limited to one idea. They should be simple sentences in
the active voice, keeping the subject, verb and object-and in that order.

Example:

Wrong: Police helicopters clattered above a wooden area near Baguio City yesterday looking for
an armed man still on the loose after a roadside shootout where two policemen were
wounded and are now in hospital.

Correct: Police looked for an armed man near Baguio City yesterday. They used helicopters to
search a wooden area north of the city. The man is wanted because he shot two policemen.
Both were wounded. They are now in the hospital.

4. Use present-tense verbs.

a. This emphasizes recency. Use “says,” not “said”, “is searching”, “not “searched.” If the
present tense does not work, then try the present perfect tense.
Example: A wildlife biologist has traced two eaglets to a large nest on Santiago Island.

b. If past tense is used, try to include the time element to reflect recency and place it
immediately after the verb:
Example: President Aquino announced this morning a new free online payment service
for local taxes.

5. Give numbers meaning. Instead of “20 percent of students live on campus” you say one in
five students live on campus. Instead of saying,”58 percent of teachers have MA degrees,” you
should say more than half of teachers have MA degrees.”

6. Shorten long title. Long titles make people forget what else the story has to say.
Example: Chief Inspector Juan Dela Cruz, chief of the Philippine National Police public
relations office, said that….
Shorten the title to PNP spokesman,” or to a brief description of the person’s job, such as “a
police official.”

7. Never put an unfamiliar name first in a story. Sometimes the individual’s name is less
important than the position he/she occupies. Delay the name until the story has captured the
audience’s attention.
Example: A market vendor says the city government’s plan to build a new public market will
benefit the city’s small entrepreneurs.
 Juan dela Cruz says…

8. Place descriptions before a person’s name.

Wrong: Jorge Morales, 13, a Pangasinan high school student, has won the national
championship spelling bee.
Revised: A Pangasinan high school student is being celebrated this afternoon in Lingayen
town.
Thirteen-year-old Jorge Morales spelled “cat” to win the national championship spelling bee…

9. Avoid direct quotes. Listeners cannot see a quotation mark, so a journalist needs to paraphrase
what someone said.

10. Try to avoid pronouns.

Example: “Mara and Clara found her dog.”

11. Hyphenate words that go together in a group. Announcers will then avoid taking a breath
between these words, saying them as a group.
Examples: The 75-year-old woman finished the race.
The 19-25 dictionary sold for 45-pesos.

12. Spell out numbers up to and including eleven. Spell out eleven because it may look like two
letter l’s (ll) instead of 11 (two numeral ones).
Example: An announcer may pause when reading “11 llamas” instead of “eleven llamas.”

13. Use a combination of numerals and words for large numbers (e.g., “40-thousand”).
Announcers may pause at the numeral “P10, 123, 011,” but can glide along more easily when
reading (rounding) “about ten-million-120- thousand-pesos.” The numeral “6,500” should be
written as “six-thousand-500.”

14. Use words instead of abbreviations. Spell out rather than abbreviate titles, months of the
year, measurements and other words so announcers can easily recognize and pronounce then
without guessing their meaning.

Examples:
Saint or Street – not St.
Association-not Assn.
Miles-per-hour –not m.p.h

15. Hyphenate some numbers and some abbreviations on second reference. Hyphens let an
announcer know that the letters are to be read not as a word, but individually. Acronyms, such
as EDSA, NATO and NASA are written without hyphens because they are pronounced the
way they are spelled.
Examples:
A-B-C News
A-B-S-C-B-N
16. Use hyphens for numbers to be read individually. Numerals in phone numbers and
addresses are usually read individually or as two-digit numbers.
Examples: That telephone number is 6-7-6-3-4-4-2.
Her address is 14-21 Perez Boulevard.

Radio News Lead

The lead rarely tells the whole story in broadcast news.

1. Dramatic unity. The dramatic unity structure has three parts: climax, cause and effect.
Example:
A barangay tanod was killed in a fiery car crash in Binalonan last night. (Climax)
The tanod was 29-year-old John Cruz. The driver of the pick-up truck that rear-ended the
tanod, Azaria Maja, has neen charged with reckless driving. (Cause)
Cruz is in the hospital in fair condition with lacerations to his face. Three other people
suffered minor injuries. (Effect)

Radio News headline

Radio news headlines are written differently from news print headlines. Study the following
examples.

News Print: Don’t kill me, my sons”

Radio: Gadhafi begs Libyan fighters to spare him
Gadhafi begs for life during capture

News Print: Ping kay Pnoy: Mag-ala “Erap ka!

Radio: Pangulong Aquino pinayuhan ni Senador Lacson na mag-ala Erap laban sa M-I-L-F
Pangulong Aquino, dapat daw mag-ala Erap na sa paglaban sa M-I-L-F

News Print: President Aquino’s order: Pursue peace, not Moro rebels
Radio: President Aquino rejects calls for an all out war against the M-I-L-F
President Aquino orders military to stay put

Radio News Timeframe

For a 5-minute newscast:
Intro: 20 sec
Greetings: 15 sec
Headlines: 25 sec
Extro: 20 sec
Infomercial: 60 sec

Length of each story: 30 sec

Number of news story: 5 items
Allotted time for radio news: 30 sec x 5 items = 150