CanACT explored radio broadcasting as a medium for reaching the public today, at a meeting with guest speaker Andrew Campbell, a farm broadcaster with CKNX Radio in Wingham.

Radio broadcasting covers a large region and its impact of reaching such a broad audience can at times be difficult.  Campbell told CanACT to “talk as though you are talking to one person 25,000 times rather than to 25,000 people at once”. 

The immediacy of radio is alluring, though there is a limited amount of time for the news clip to be presented.  This balance can be achieved although it maybe difficult at times.  Finding the equilibrium between vagueness and conversation is an important part of the equation.   These are a few suggestions for how to write a news article for radio:

• what kind of impact will it have locally?
• will it remain a large news story?
• sensationalize the news article to get people’s attention
• watch names and numbers, instead of $496,349 use nearly half a million dollars.
• start general and then go into detail

Keeping the clip simple, watching your level of language and staying current are some of the key steps to being successful in radio production says Campbell.

CanACT explored radio new by working through the writing of a radio clip with Campbell, using news releases and current articles.