Radio

Unit 5. Covers Writing for radio; Radio recording.

Mass Media/Mass Communication10 questions2 topics

About this unit

Radio is a sound-only medium that is cheap, portable and able to reach remote areas and people who cannot read. This unit explains how to write scripts for the ear and the basic equipment used in recording and broadcasting radio programmes. It also highlights community radio and FM as ways radio stays close to local audiences.

Key ideas

Radio is an aural medium: listeners cannot re-read, so writing must be simple and clear.
Conversational language, active voice, short sentences and vivid word pictures.
Studio equipment: microphones, mixers (consoles), amplifiers, headphones and speakers.
Microphones differ by type and pick-up pattern.
Signals go from studio to transmitter to the listener's receiver.

How to prepare

Practise rewriting newspaper sentences into radio style. Learn the function of each piece of equipment and the pick-up pattern of common microphones, as these are frequent short questions.

Topics in this chapter

Writing for radio

Conversational language, active voice, simple sentences and imagery.

5 questions

Radio recording

Studio and transmission equipment: microphones, amplifiers, mixers and speakers.

5 questions

Practice questions

Writing for radio is often described as writing for the	Easy
Which sentence is best suited to a radio news script?	Easy
Instead of saying "4,98,763 people attended", a radio script would better say	Medium
A radio presenter repeats the helpline number at the start and end of an announcement. The main reason is that	Medium
A radio script says, "The air smells of wet earth as the first drops hit the dusty fields." What technique is the write…	Hard

Practise all 10 questions as a set

Practice this topic