News bulletin is one of the most important elements in any radio station’s programming. It’s a daily opportunity to stimulate a conversation with your listeners about the issues that they face.
A good bulletin is balanced and varied. It should contain stories that are serious and light, some about major political events and others about ordinary people. It should also include some recorded actuality, short segments of spoken words taken from interviews or speeches. These are called grabs and should be as short as possible to maintain the pace of the bulletin, and clear so that the newsreader can identify who is speaking. If the grab is in a language other than your own it should be overdubbed, with the original voice faded down to a level where it can still just be heard and then the translated voice played over it.
It is also important to examine each story in terms of how it will fit into the structure of the bulletin – its importance and its relevance to your audience. Examining the order of stories is vital, with the most important story being placed at the beginning of the bulletin and the rest built around it.
Once the order of stories has been decided it’s worth taking a little more copy than you might need into the studio. This will give you the flexibility to add or drop a story if necessary. It will also be useful if you have any problems during broadcast. You can use these extra pieces of news as a brief at the end of the bulletin, to boost pace or introduce a topic your audience may have missed.