Radio, as a medium of communication, though has been undermined after the advent of television, but there are certain distinct advantages of radio over television. These suggest that radio can never be reduced to the level of insignificance. Radio, specially if broadcast in short wave, can reach out to a very large cross section of listeners. A radio or transistor set is much more affordable than a television set. One can listen to radio while working, driving or even when half asleep. The radio listener is not as passive as a person sitting in front of the TV as a radio programme always leaves something to the imagination. It is much cheaper to produce a radio programme, than a video programme, sometimes even 100 times cheaper.

The scope of radio has further been widened with the advent of FM in a big way in the metro cities. Since FM transmission is not received more than 100 km beyond the broadcasting station, the programmes for FM can be addressed only to localized listeners, while the AM broadcasting in short or medium wave can be reserved for a wider cross section of listeners across the country.

It is therefore, worth discussing the rudiments of producing a radio programme for the interested readers who will pick up the cue and venture into the production themselves. There certainly is a lot of scope for good science programmes to be broadcast.

Producing a radio programme

STEP-I

Jot down your idea in a small paragraph. This will help in crystallising, giving shape to your thoughts. Ask yourselves, for whom are you making the programme, who is your target audience.

Decide what is the purpose of the programme, i.e what do you want to achieve through it. Try to predict the listeners’ reaction, i.e, what do you expect the listener to do after listening to the programme.

Example - A programme that will bring to the notice of the listener some everyday occurrences that cannot be explained away easily and then give explanation for these phenomena. It will explain common mysteries of everyday life like ‘why does a green bar of soap yield white suds’ or ‘why do dogs have wet noses’ or ‘when do fish sleep.’

Target audience - 12 years onwards (urban listeners).

Purpose - To enlighten the listener in an entertaining manner. It will indirectly illustrate some principles of science and help clear some concepts. It should provoke the listener to be more alert and observant in his everyday life.

STEP-II

Based on the decisions taken in step-I, now decide the language, duration, format and treatment of the programme.

Example - The programme ‘Imponderables’ will be in English.

Duration - 5 minutes duration, to be broadcast as a filler between two long programmes.

Format - presenter based and interactive, interaction between presenter(s) and a cross section of his listeners will be either through mail or through a phone facility in the studio.

Treatment - Presenter will speak in an informal and conversational tone. He will describe the riddle. If a listener poses the riddle, he will announce the name of the listener and then go on to give the explanation in a simple language. Simplicity of the language is of utmost importance. The listener should not be turned off by scientific jargon. The sentences must be short and humour should be put in wherever possible. It should be kept in mind that the listener does not have any visual support. So verbal explanations should be lucid and illustrated with appropriate analogies. To enliven the programme, sound effects and music can be put on other tracks.

STEP-III

Decide in which channel you would like the programme to be broadcast. Go and meet the programme coordinator. Discuss the outline of the programme and get their approval.

Having got the approval, you can now start serious work. Begin by doing research. Read up books, talk to experts and get all the information you require. Remember, you cannot afford to make mistakes.

Example - Suppose in the programme ‘Impondesabler,’ you want to discuss ‘why do eyes sometimes come out red in a photograph? Why is this particularly true of cats’ and dogs’ eyes?’

Before everything else, you have to ensure that the question is correct, that eyes sometimes do look red in photos.

Talk to photographers, physicists, etc. Get their experience and explanations.

You must understand the explanation thoroughly. If necessary, read up some books on basics of optics or the experts you meet can suggest you about reading. Enlist some related phenomena, if you can.

STEP-IV

Having got all the necessary information, now you are finally ready to write the script. Here is how you may go about doing it :

 

Commentary		Sound Effect / Music
		Signature tune Fades out after a couple of seconds.
Here I am once again, to make you ponder over some imponderables around us.
I must say, it’s extremely encouraging to receive all those letters from you, bombarding me with all sorts of questions. I spent sleepless nights trying to figure out some of the puzzles, satisfactory answers yet.
I’ll quickly rattle off a few of the queries sent by you.
Mr. X from ___________ writes ___________  Miss Y from ____________ asks ___________		Light music
And now the prize question from Miss ABC of _____________. She writes - "The other day, we were having an evening walk at the ups of our face from various angles.		Light music and sound effects like sea beach near our house and we decided to finish off the roll waves, bitts of dialogue, hawkers and close barking of a dog.
Our pet dog also happily posed for the camera.		Camera clicking
The snaps came out quite well, except ...... except You know in some of them our eyes came out quite red!
Perplexing ! Isn’t it? ................. Well, Miss ABC_______ thank you for sending your letter. Red eye ball instead of black do make you look ghostly - and rather mars your pretty face.		Brief Music
It reminds me of that gruesome movie ‘exorcist.’ But don’t worry. It’s not the work of any exorcism. It has a perfectly understandable scientific explanation. I talked to a few professional photographers and scientists and this is what they told me -
(explanation is given that if the flash is too near the lens, the light enters straight through the pupils, bounces off the retina and enters the camera).
So, Miss ABC_______, next time if you want to conceal the blood vessels in your eyes, avoid looking straight into the camera, shift the flash away from the lens and don’t take the snap in pitch darkness. I’m sure, that night it was quite dark at the beach and the darkness was partly responsible for your ghostly appearance.		Repetition of beach sound effects
I hope all of you are satisfied with this explanation. If not, do write to us.
And yes, don’t forget to send in more queries.
See you next week		Signature tune

That was a rough draft of a script, to give you an idea. The success of such a programme lies largely with the presenter, how well he delivers his lines and modulates his voice. In the above script, he has scope to modulate his voice twice — once when he’s quoting the photographer to give the explanations, and also when he’s reading the letter.

Finally, the four tracks are mixed and re-recorded in a single track by the sound engineer. He adjusts the loudness level of the tracks while mixing. Special effects like reverb, etc. can also be put wherever appropriate.

It is possible to make a wide range of programmes some having entertainment and enrichment value and others having pure utility value. A list of some programmes that can easily be produced could be as under:

<< Back