WHAT IS A RADIO MAGAZINE?

A Radio Magazine is a variety or mixture of items

Aiming at a specific target

With a definite style

Having different formats

Magazines combine both the spoken and musical items

making it entertaining and interesting
with a purpose to inform

The magazine program is a mixture of topics, contributors and ways of presenting them,
using various techniques. It is a program, which taps the resources of speech and music
and the noises and sounds of the human environment. A magazine is a mixture of topics,
contributors, formats or techniques but is aimed at one audience and has one style and
one narrator or a personality producer.

PLANNING A MAGAZINE

How frequent?
Daily? Weekly? Fortnightly? Monthly?

Whom to target?
The educated elite? The common masses?
Is there a special type of audience?

What is the subject?

Is it general? Literary, Digest, Popular
Sports? Film? Science? News?
People: Children? Women? Youth?

How much Variety?

Spoken content: interviews, dispatches, tips,
eyewitness, talklet, discussion
Longer: playlets, shorts, features
Musicals: songs, music bytes, effects, instrumentals
ARE YOU READY?

A Radio Magazine needs:

A title - Signpost which explains the AIM AUDIENCE AREA
A Signature Tune - Like the cover in print Radio Magazine
should have a catchy musical byte conveying the purpose.
Ideally, a 15 min. music piece is enough to establish

Content Menu
Spells out the variety of the items included in
the magazine

Introduction
This is like the editorial: speaking a short theme
suitable to time
giving a thought

Listener's participation
To give vent to their voice and make them feel included
entertain their requests, enlist their participation
for quiz, other competitions,
help-line, phone-in and casual visits

Information Variety
Voicecast, dispatches, interviews, filler tips, playlets,
shorts, songs, music and effects
PRODUCING A RADIO MAGAZINE

• Presenter
The most important factor for steering the magazine
A good broadcaster with good articulation
Able to take listeners consistently

The presenter regulates the tone of the program by his approach to the listener. These
could be friendly, warm, chatty, humorous, serious etc.

• Sequence of the content

Establish with an interesting and topical introduction
Start with a solid and short opening
to be followed by longer sequences
Avoid repetitions of subject, format, or ideas
Reject anything long and dull
Ask yourself: is this above the listener's head
or remote from their experience?
Make deliberate contrasts for smooth flow

• Linking Style
Be consistent, target friendly, chatty and humorous
Find a theme, take a cue, make a link
Move on to hold the attention of the audience

• Music and effects

A major component: to evoke interest,
to keep the sequence, to ensure smooth transition
Can follow or precede to break monotony or
part of an item of the magazine
It must be supportive to the theme

• Check your time to select items or music

Delete, reduce, and recast whenever it sounds dull
• Listen to the recording with associates to
check time, content, accuracy or last minute change
• Preview and review

Remember! With radio, the audience is anything but captive and needs a strong item at
the beginning. Your task is to hold the listener’s attention through the successive items to
the very end.
THE RADIO MAGAZINE PRODUCTION
SUMMING UP

PRESENTER
• The most important factor for steering the magazine
• A good broadcaster with good articulation who is able to take the listener consistently

SEQUENCE OF CONTENT
• Establish with an interesting and topical introduction
• Start with a solid and short opening to be followed by longer sequences
• Avoid repetitions of subject, format or ideas
• Reject anything long and dull
• Ask yourself: is this above the listener’s head or remote from their experience?
• Make deliberate contrasts for smooth flow

LINKING STYLE
• Be consistent, target friendly, chatty and humorous
• Find a theme, take a cue, make a link
• Move on to hold the attention of the audience

MUSIC AND EFFECTS

• A major component: to evoke interest, to keep the sequence, to ensure smooth
transition
• Can follow or precede to break monotony or to separate a part of an item of the
magazine
• It must be supportive to the theme
• Check your time to select items or music: delete, reduce and recast whenever it
sounds dull
• Listen to the recording with associates to check time, content, accuracy or last minute
changes
• Preview and review
EVALUATING A RADIO PROGRAM: POST MORTEM
ASK
What audience was the program aimed at?
What was the purpose of the program?
Was the broadcast time ideal? What would have been the ideal time for broadcast?

ITEMS
Were the items suitable for the program?
Why were they included?
How was the treatment? Was it the best way to treat the items?

INTERVIEWS, REPORTS AND OTHER FORMATS

Did they give the facts completely?
How were the questions in the interview? Badly phrased? Unnecessary? Searching?
Arrogant sounding?

VOICE AND TECHNICAL QUALITY

How was the technical quality?
Was the program well edited?
How was the program structured? The beginning, the middle and the end?

NARRATION
Quality of writing: Was it ideal for radio?
Was it accurate, clear and brief?
Vocal quality of the narrator: Pace, pause, tone, emphasis, conversational.

MUSIC SELECTION
Was it suitable to the program?
Was it suitable to the time of broadcast?
Were the individual items properly bridged through music?

PRESENTATION
Consider the theme: aptness and timing
Flow of the program and the links
Variety in lead ins and back announcements
Credits and titles
Overall program: Did it have variety?
Was it interesting?
What impact did it have on the listeners?
TESTING SCRIPTS

After writing a script, read it aloud, preferably using a cassette recorder and play
back.

• If it isn’t easy to say then it isn’t easy to hear

• If it sounds strange its difficult for the listener to understand
• If its ambiguous the listener gets the wrong idea
• If it is complex the listener is lost; attention is lost
• If it is any of these CHANGE IT!

THE SCRIPT WRITER OFTEN ASKS

• Is it worth saying it? It often isn’t

• Does it make sense? It often doesn’t
• Is it all to the point? Check it out!
• Is it in logical order? Find out!

GET USED TO SPEAKING YOUR SCRIPTS ALOUD AND YOU WILL THEN
GET THE RIGHT SOUNDING WORDS IN YOUR SCRIPTS!