UNIT 2

Radio

3.1 Understanding the language of radio presenters

1. Match the BBC radio stations (1-6) to the genres (a-f).

2. Listen to the following excerpts from different radio stations. Decide which genre of radio
station belong to. Use the genres a-f in Exercise 2 to help you.

1. Popular music or easy-listening music 5. news

2. sport 6.
3. current affairs and arts 7. Documentary
4. classical music 8. youth-oriented

3. Listen again and tick the phrases that you hear.

4. Correct the mistakes in the following extracts from radio broadcasts.

1. You’re listening to Radio Australia. I’m Gil and welcome to Good Morning Australia.
2. Here’s Bach’s Concerto for keyboard in D major, performed by Alison Balsom and Colm
Carey.
3. It’s Tuesday the 19th January. This is Report, with Bill Noles and Justine Welsh. Still to come
in the next half hour, we’ll be interviewing Janie Kirk.
4. That was Coldplay with Viva la vida. Before that, you heard Rockstar of Nickelback.
5. This week, John Walsh presents a programme about finding work on the Internet.

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5. Read the radio commissioning brief and answer the following questions.

1. What is a radio commissioning brief?

2. Who do you think wrote this brief? A young person

3. Who is written for? London 1

4. Where would you expect to see this type of document?

5. Who listens to London 1? Nearly 60% of London’s 15-24s

6. Apart from the audio documentary, what else does the producer have to provide?
Marketing, dry version of podcasting, selected highlights to be played

7. How many different formats can the producer choose from? Two five-minute packages,
two-ten minutes packages, one twenty-minutes packages

8. What kind of documentaries do London 1 want to commission? Based on highest journalistic

standards and deal with the subject matter in an appropriate and interesting way

9. Why are two web links included? Musical and social issues based

10. What is the budget for a London 1 documentary? 3000

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11. When is the deadline for proposals? Midnight 16 may

12. When will the documentaries be broadcast? Beginning of june

6. Complete the following definitions using the words in bold in the commissioning brief.

1. A pre-recorded radio item which can include all or some of the following things:
interviews, comments, music: package
2. Length and structure: format
3. A digital medium that is distributed over the Internet and can be listened to on a
personal computer or portable media player: podcast
4. A pre-recorded item which includes only the spoken word –that is, no music or sound
effects: dry-version
5. Words said by a DJ/presenter to introduce and link segments/music: cues
6. Most important listeners: key-audience
7. To promote with a preview: trail ahead
8. To be broadcast: go on air
9. A technique that uses established social networks to promote a product; for example,
friends forwarding a funny video clip by email: viral marketing

3.2 Understanding the production process

1. Complete the definitions (1-11) using the words in the word web.

1. List chosen from a longer list: shortlist

2. Sequence of stories in a radio show: __Running order_____________
3. Events that are happening as we speak: ___breaking news_________
4. The most important stories: _____lead stories________
5. To give instructions/information: _to brief______________
6. Stories to be included in a programme: _ __news list__________
7. Pre-recorded radio items which contain interviews, comments, music, etc.:
_packages__
8. A freelance journalist: stringer __________
9. Detailed discussion about work that has been done: debriefing _ ________

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10. To add the most recent information: __ to update _________
11. To speak to people in order to Exchange information with them: _ to liaise _______

2. To brief and to update can also be used as nouns –a brief, an update. Which of the nouns
in the word web can also be used as verbs?

3. The following magazine extract is from a profile of Dawn Henderson, a producer for the
current affairs radio show Good Morning Australia. The profile was published in an Australia
magazine in an article from a series called A Day in the Life of…Complete Dawn’s typical 24-
hour schedule using terms in the word web in exercise 2.
6. packages 10. Liease
7. brief 11. diebrifing
8. breaking news
9.

4. Complete the ‘People’ section of the word web in Exercise 2. Can you add any more
vocabulary to the word web?

5. Listen to Dawn Henderson giving instructions in the newsroom. Which of the following
items does she mention and in what order?

__Children’s names _1
_Rising house prices
_3_Schools closing _ _World War II
_5_Global warming 4__A new museum

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- I want you to talk about lana del rey and taylor swift
-

6. Choose the best title for columns A and B in Exercise 7 from the following list. Write the
titles in the table.

Checking editorial content Giving instructions

Checking instructions Managing an editorial meeting

7. Which phrases in column A are the most direct and which are the most indirect? What
effect can using direct and indirect instructions like this have?

8. Complete the following table using the phrases in Exercise 8 that are followed by a noun, a
gerund (-ing) or by the infinitive.

I want you to shall I

you’ll need to
Speak to
I’d like you to would you mind
contact
use
do you mean

9. Correct the mistakes in the following sentences.

1. Shall I to use our contacts database?

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2. I like a five-minute package on that story.
3. I’d like you briefing the guests thoroughly.
4. I want you liaise with our stringer in San Francisco.
5. Could you mind checking the story for accuracy?

2.3 Planning a news list

1.- Look at the box below. It contains some vocabulary taken from Dawn Henderson’s new
list for the first thirty minutes of Good Morning Australia. For each story, there are
words/phrases. Guess which pairs of words/phrases are from the same story, and discuss
what you think each story will be about.

2. Read the news list to see if your productions were correct.

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News list (noun) A

list of stories to be
included in a
programme. It is
written by the
producer for the
news team. There
is a summary of
the stories and
how they are to be
covered and
information about
who to contact for
interviews,
opinions, etc.

3. Look at the sentences in bold in the news list and decide if the following statements are
True (T) or False (F).

1. These sentences summarise the topic of the item.

Topic sentence (noun)
2. They are all examples of topic sentences.
3. The topic sentence is always controversial. The sentence in a paragraph
4. All the topic sentences in this news list use present tenses. that summarises the main
5. Topic sentences are never questions. idea of the paragraph.

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4. Underline the topic sentences in the following news list items.

5. Look at the extract below from the Good Morning Australia news list and anser the
following questions.

6. Listen to phone conversation between Dawn Henderson and Sarah Bernard, a stringer.
Complete Sarah’s notes.

Write short script about issues and interview questions

People to interview the museum and homeless people
Fee – same as usual
Deadline – 4am Australia time

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3.4 Giving post-production feedback

1. Look at the following points, which might be mentioned in a debriefing meeting for a radio
programme. Decide if the points are positive (P) or negative (N).

Debriefing is a process of receiving

an explanation of a study or
investigation after participation is
complete.

2. Listen to a debriefing meeting at the Good Morning Australia studio and tick the points in
Exercise 1 that they discuss. Listen again and complete the following extracts.

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2. great moment
3. what happened
4. cause was/ happening again
5. happen to
6. account/real
7. sleepy when /well done

3. Read the extract from the debriefing meeting and answer the following questions.

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4. Decide if the following statements are True (T) or False (F).

5. Complete the following phrases that a radio DJ or presenter might say, using the phrasal
verbs in the box.

1. Moving on
2. Coming up
3. Go over/Lined up
4. Run out of/Wind up

6. Use your dictionary to complete the following sentences using phrasal verbs formed from
the words in brackets. Then try to answer the questions.

2. tune in
3. make up/ get away with
4. set aside
5. do without

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7. The following text is the debriefing email that Dawn Henderson sent to the overnight staff
(who were not present at the debriefing meeting) to tell them how the show went. Which
four points does Dawn comment on?

A) There are three phrasal verbs in the text. Have you found them?
B) Find a word in the text that means:
Paragraph 2
1) was unsuccessful in achieving his/her goal (verb)---------------------------
2) weather forecaster (noun) ---------------------------
3) gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally
attributed to the greenhouse effect (noun: two words)---------------------------
Paragraph 3
4) violent collision (noun) ---------------------------
5) report (noun) ---------------------------
6) to reveal a news item or make it available for publication (idiom: 3 words) ------------
7) a newspaper correspondent who is retained on a part-time basis to report on events in a
particular place (noun) ---------------------------
C) In pairs, answer the following questions.

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3.5 Practising interview skills

1. Katie Jones, a journalist, is being interviewed about her career in the media world for a
newspaper article. Listen to the first part of the interview and tick the topics she talks about.

---Her family and friends ---Her past jobs and education

---Television and the Internet ---Her present job

2. Now listen to the second part of the interview and decide if the following statements are
True (T) or False (F)

a. Katie thinks the newspaper format has changed during her career.
b. Newspaper sales are not increasing.
c. More and more people like to watch news on the internet.
d. Journalists are becoming less important.

3. Look at the plan Simon Young made for the article he is going to write about Katie Jones.
Listen to the interview again and fill in the missing information.

4. Look at the following jumbled sentences from the interview. Put the words in the correct
order to form the questions that the journalist asked Katie Jones.

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5. Complete the following table using the questions 1-9 in Exercise 5.

6. The phrases below are taken from an interview. Complete the following table by writing
the phrases 1-8 in the correct column.

7. Listen to this professional podcast about interviewing tecnhiques and fill in the gaps.

1) You must prepare before the interview. Research_________________ and ______________

matter of interview.

2) Prepare questions in advance and decide on _________________________

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3) Ask questions about ______________first –easier to answer

4) Introduce yourself and state_____________for interview

5) Don’t use list of questions as rigid_________________

6) Ask_______________________questions to support claims made

7) End by reviewing main areas -ask if interviewee want to __________anything else

8) Ask if you can ____________________them again if necessary

9) Review your ______________as soon as possible after the interview

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