What you need to know to do radio
October 19th, 2008
Today I’m training new volunteers at 4ZzZfm102.1fm in Brisbane. What follows is my advice to anyone interested in getting involved in Radical Radio at Zed.
1. Intro to the Rad Radio concept
The Rad Radio collective formed in 2002. Originally conisting of interchangable hosts of the Anarchy Show, EcoRadio and Radio Democracy, in 2006 Locked In & Megaherz joined us and in 2008 the DIY show ‘Scissors, Paper, Glue’. Many of the Rad Radio shows have a long history at Zed, running for over two decades.
The RR shows share content and have similar world views. We also provide our interviews and other recorded matter for the Zed Newsroom to use, meaning a potential six shows a week may use our research and we may reach as many as 60,000 listeners as a result.
RANT:
Democratic media is the backbone of a democratic society. In our current society, media is controlled by individual capitalists and corporations who make up our societies elite. This is directly due to their control and power over societies’ resources or capital.
In relation to the media, control over the resources required to create media is increasingly being monopolised in the hands of a few corporations. They then have the power to control what type of media content is produced. Essentially this means that they have control over what ideas the rest of the community is exposed to. Control over ideas is the most effective method of social control. It means that the majority of people don’t realise what their interests are, seeing they are rarely voiced, and are incapacitated to take action on them.
All corporate media is oriented towards one overriding goal: the business interests of the owner. All other considerations are secondary, including their responsibility and role of honestly informing the public, to facilitate open, public discourse. This role is critical for a dynamic and healthy democratic society, but is necessarily considered after the need for profits.
The corporate media have a product: you the audience, whom they sell to corporations who want to expose you to advertising. The corporate media’s real customers are other corporations, who are sold the opportunity to expose the audience to their propaganda, otherwise known as advertising.
Regardless of the content, this corporate propaganda always promotes a consumerist culture above all other democratic and egalitarian values and processes. No one is immune. Successful indoctrination requires you to be unaware of it.
Here lies the importance of media activism. The process allows people within a community the opportunity to create alternative forms of media to reclaim democratic impulses and expressions. It is the ability to prevent our lives, our ideas, our communities being co-opted by corporate domination.
The forms of media activism are diverse. It is putting up a poster on a wall, creating a zine, or flyer, it is community radio, community TV, Indymedia and culture jamming. It can be painting on your car, t-shirt, or on an empty wall. It is making and sharing your own music, art, literature, video; or a simple as using your own mouth whenever you can. It is as much about creating and maintaining the resources to produce and distribute media, as it is about creating the content that tells a different story.
Regardless of the form of the media, the processes of media activism should be about self-empowerment that informs, entertains or connects others in the community. It should not be driven by the ‘profit motive’ or recreate hierarchies of power and domination. Anyone can do it. There are no rules, just values. The way we organise and live, is just as important as the message we spread. A Brave New World is here. Just turn on the TV news to see it. There is no way to buy ourselves out of this.
Radical Radio exists to further Zed’s motto: “Agitate, Educate, Organise!”
2. Attention all Community Radio Broadcasters: Codes of Practice
A community radio broadcasts are governed by the communtiy Broadcasting Codes of Practice 1-8. they can be found here: http://www.cbaa.org.au/content.php/20.html
Guiding Principles of the CB COP:
There are a number of general principles that unite all community broadcasters across Australia. In pursuing these principles stations endeavour to:
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Promote harmony and diversity in contributing to a cohesive, inclusive and culturally diverse Australian community;
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Pursue the principles of democracy, access and equity, especially to people and issues under-represented in other media;
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Enhance the diversity of programming choices available to the public and present programs which expand the variety of viewpoints broadcast in Australia;
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Demonstrate independence in their programming as well as in their editorial and management decisions;
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Support and develop local and Australian arts, music and culture in the station’s programming, to reflect a sense of Australian identity, character and cultural diversity;
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Widen the community’s involvement in broadcasting.
Other points of note include:
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Requirement to include a ‘language warning’ before any recordings that contain swearing
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Do not incite violence, or present it for entertainment value
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Present as desirable the misuse of drugs including alcohol, narcotics and tobacco
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Stereotype, incite, vilify, or perpetuate hatred against, or attempt to demean any person or group on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, race, chosen language, gender, sexual preference, religion, age, physical or mental ability, occupation, cultural belief or political affiliation
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Seek to involve and take advice from Indigenous Australians, and where possible Indigenous media organisations and/or Indigenous broadcasters, in the production of programs focusing on Indigenous people and issues
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Avoid censorship wherever possible
It also provides for music content rules that include a quota of not less than 25% Australian music. At Zed we also have a requirement for female and local music content at 15% as noted on our Play Sheets in the studio.
3. Producing a RR show
Producing a show requires a few hours research and a little forward planning regarding events, potential guests or interviews available to you.
a. research
Appendix i lists a lot of local potential community groups and news resources you can use. You can often pick up newsletters and flyers at rallies that will provide good sources for stories (and keen interview subjects!)
You can also browse through the Press Releases tray on the Newsroom desk, or simply join the PR mailing lists of the various community groups you want to use as sources if you have good internet access. I subscribe to the PR list of The Wilderness Society, the Australian Council of Social Services, Brisbane Feminism Online, Queensland Environmental Activist Network and Animal Activism Queensland to name a few. A diverse range amongst RR producers will allow us to keep in touch with what is happening in the community sector.
Corporate newspapers we view with a critical eye and prefer to source our news from grass roots sources. That said, local newpapers from the quest group are often a good source of local community issues and events.
Some independent newspapers available in Queensland that can be useful include:
The National Indigenous Times
The Koori Mail (both available at newsagents in the Valley)
The Independent (QUT media students’ publication)
A list of useful websites is also included in Appendix i.
Mailing lists of various community groups - like the Friends of the Earth Events list, Brisbane Stop the War Collective, New Farm Neighbourhood Centre etc…..
News list-servers are also useful, Planet Ark World Environment News is one I subscribe to. Bear in mind the corporate biases of these newservers.
You can also subscribe to the Zed news lists ‘gnus’ and ‘news’ for sharing info and receiving PR
If you don’t want to subscirbe to the news lists you can view the archives here:
http://lists.4zzzfm.org.au/pipermail/news/
b. stories
As a general guideline stories you read out on air should be no longer than one page, an optimum size is four paragraphs (half a page). Longer stories can comprise a whole show if you combine a number of short related news items on a topic, interviews or a guest, or alternatively (if you have a lot of time) you can put together a pre-recorded ‘package’ if you have the necessary recording gear and editing software.
For a guide to the kinds of stories we do, look at the programme guide for each of our shows on the Zed website at www.4zzzfm.org.au
c. interviews & events
Guests and prerecorded interviews make your job easier. Community groups are often keen to get their issues on air and will be happy to come into the studio for a show, or do a pre-recorded interview. Guidelines for phone interviewing using the Zed recording booth at the station are included in ‘Technical Notes’.
When setting up in-studio guests, always have a contingency plan in case of a no-show.
d. community notices
We try to encourage listeners to go further than reacting negatively to the often bad news we report. This we perceive is one of the problems with mainstream media - there is never any easy way for people effected by issues reported to take action on them, especially as we live in a society that does not empower us to get politically active. Democracy requires a more politically active citizenry than a once-every-three-years-vote. So we try to include community notices to provide an avenue for action on the topics of interest to people around Brisbane and nationally. These events often include protest actions, rallies or fundraising events for community groups.
You can find them on the Zed website at: http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/services/index.cfm?action=dsp_community
If you come across any community events you think should be included, please forward them to us at <radradio@4zzzfm.org.au>
4. Technical Notes
a. using the on-air desk
All on-air announcers at Zed need to get trained on using the on-air desk!
The process at Zed require a two hour training session and a six months graveyard shift. This is to weed out people who want to have their own shows but may lack the commitment when it comes to the crunch. It makes sense because Zed has to be on-air 24 hours of every day so it needs reliable and committed volunteers. I can’t stress enough the importance of commitment to the continued functioning of the station.
In 2008 all new announcers have to go through the new announcer training process. If you eventually want to apply for your own show, you need to do the official Zed announcer training.
In reality, many of us have had much less training, notably Danni who took over the Anarchy Show with a 5 minute training session! Yay Danni! We can train each other during our shows, but a formal training session is still necessary.
To arrange a session of training and practice contact the Announcing Coordinator. Zed contacts are listed in Appendix iii.
It’s not as scary as it looks and an experienced announcer will supervise you.
All announcers are required to subscribe themselves the ‘announcers’ list-serv
On air process:
For every show you need to:
- prepare stories in advance;
- bring everything you need all ready to go – it is advisable to bring your own headphones and adapter
- select music (at least 10 cds for a one hour info show), takes about 15 mins-1/2 hour. we try to choose music relevant to the topic. there is a ratty red covered book in the CD library near the new releases that lists song topics.
- fill out in-studio forms: Play sheet & log book;
- play required sponsorship advertisements (in studio folder);
- mention the time, play or say station id. ie: “you’re listening to community radio 4 triple zed one-oh-two point one FM”
- read out community notices in last ten minutes of show;
- put away music & clean up your mess.
NB. the most important on-air advice I can give you is to always wear the headphones when you’re doing the desk: that way you can hear what is going out to air and quickly notice if you’ve failed to turn off the microphones or if your CD stuffs up.
b. phone & recorded interviews
Set up a time and date to interview your subject. You need to book the interview booth if possible by filing out the time sheet on the front of it. It is located back of the groundfloor and looks like a closet.
Often you may not be able to contact the authors of press releases. You need to bring your own disk and headphones are recommended. Prepare your questions beforehand.
Inside the recording booth you will find: headphones, microphone, telephone and three electronic gadgets. The biggest is the mini-disc recorder and the small one on the right hand side is the telephone transfer device.
How To Do it:
1. Turn on the fan.
2. put in your disk and press record+pause
3. choose a phone line and phone your victim
4. tell them you’re switching over to the recording device and then put on the headphones
5. press the ‘line in’ button on the phone transfer device and speak into the mike, asking your interviewee if they can hear you.
6. hang up the phone handset
7. tell them you are about to start recording when you are ready and press the pause button to start recording the interview - it’s a good idea to ask them to introoduce themselves and state their position/organisation. You can edit this bit off later.
7. double check that the counter is ticking over while you’re talking
8. say goodbye and switch of the phone transfer device. press stop on the MD recorder
You can easily cut off false starts and goodbyes in the booth mini disc recorder so you can use your audio on-air without further editing. Or you can take it home, record it onto your computer and edit further.
You need to write a ‘News Running sheet’ or other description so that others can use you audio on their shows. Include: title, date recorded, interviewer & interviewee, length. News running sheets can befound in the upright files in the newsroom.
c. editing audio
The Zed production studio uses Sony’s ‘Sound Forge’ software and Cool Edit Pro to edit audio. You need to book to use the Zed production studio, but it’s simpler to set up you home computer to do editing.
We recommend open source software, like ‘Audacity’. It can be easily downloaded from the net. We can provide you with a training sesh. Or tutorial guides to audio editing exist on the internet.
d. uploading interviews to the internet
We have been uploading a lot of our interviews to Radio4all.net or Radio.indymedia.org in recent years. This enables us to provide on-line content for other radio stations and for listeners visiting the Zed website. This way we have had our content used by a number of overseas stations and a few local ones too!
You need to edit your audio into segements of about 15 mins max and convert them to mp3s for uploading purposes. Instructions for uploading exist on the relevant sites.
e. recording your on-air show
If you want to record your on-air show you can use one of the on-air desk’s MD recorder. Alternatively, you can ask the Newsroom coordinator to allow you to access Zed’s logging files and you can download it to your computer as an mp3.
Appendix i - News Sources
These lists are by no means exhaustive, please feel free to send us links to add to this list <radradio@4zzzfm.org.au>
RADIO
www.thewire.org.au The Wire
www.rtrfm.com.au/shows/indymedia Indymedia radio, RTR fm, Perth
www.3cr.org.au/program_list 3CRfm, Melbourne (Radioactive Show, Squatters Show, Alternative News, Anarchist World This Week, Earth Matters & more!)
www.2ser.com/podcasts 2SERfm, Sydney
www.araaustralia.org Alternative Radio Australia
www.alternativeradio.org US Alt Radio Show
www.radioproject.org US National radio project
www.democracynow.org US alt radio show
www.prx.org US Public Radio Exchange
www.cbaa.org.au Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
www.cbf.com.au Community Broadcasting Foundation (grants)
ALT MEDIA
www.sourcewatch.org - possibly the most important fact checking site you will need
www.indymedia.org Indymedia global site
www.indymedia.org.au/index.php Oceania Indy
www.infoshop.org Anarchist news
www.ainfos.ca Anarchist Info Service
www.newint.org.au new internationalist magazine
www.schnews.org.uk schnews
www.gregpalast.com independent journo
BRISBANE & QLD NGOS
www.rac-qld.org Refugee Action Collective
www.barc.org.au Barc: Brisbane Actionweb for Refugee Collaboration
www.northeystreetcityfarm.org.au Northey St City Farm
www.bq.org.au bicycle queensland
www.dvrc.org.au Bris Domestic Violence Advocacy Service
www.brissc.com.au Bris Rape and Incest Survivors Support centre (BRISSC)
www.animalliberationqld.org.au
www.brisbane.foe.org.au Friends of the Earth Brisbane
www.spiral.org.au Spiral Community Hub
www.childrenbychoice.org.au Children By Choice
www.qccqld.org.au Qld Conservation Council – umbrella group of over 50 ENGOs
www.caa.org.au Oxfam Community Aid Abroad - contact Anne Matson
www.newfarmneighbourhood.org New Farm Neighbourhood Centre - contact Camille
www.glwa.org.au Gay and Lesbian Welfare Association
www.eccq.com.au Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland
AUSTRALIAN NGOS
www.activistsrights.org.au activist rights
www.foe.org.au Friends of the Earth
www.amnesty.org.au Amnesty International
MASS MEDIA
No matter what you might have heard, the ABC is not unbiased!
www.planetark.com/dailynewshome.cfm - planet ark World Environment News
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