A news bulletin (or news program) is an important piece of radio production. It has a big impact on how listeners perceive the station. It is vital that it has an appropriate mix of stories, some light and some heavy – and that the bulletin has the right pace for its length.
Listeners expect the most important stories to be featured at the start of a bulletin. This ensures that the first few minutes of your bulletin are relevant and memorable. It also means that any new listeners tuning in after the bulletin starts will be able to catch up with the key stories.
However, it is often possible to re-order stories within the bulletin to give them a different emphasis or tone. For example, serious national broadcasters might focus on major political developments in their news bulletins whereas youth-oriented music stations might choose to include more stories about popular culture in their bulletins.
Some stories may have a dramatic or emotionally evocative tone, and are best placed as the lead story in the bulletin. Likewise, it is sometimes good to have a lighter or funny story as the closing headline – these can act as a refreshing change of pace to the bulletin and help listeners retain interest.
Actuality grabs are short clips of people talking in their own words and can be used to add credibility to your bulletin, or simply as a break from listening to your own voice. However, it is important to be careful that you don’t fill the bulletin with grabs of people who aren’t known to your audience unless they have been overdubbed. This process involves fading down the sound of the original speaker until it is just audible, then playing back a spoken translation over the top of it.
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