| CHAPTER 11 | |
 |
Radio/Audio: Story Forms and Working with Sound |
Not so long ago, when we talked about audio, we were talking about radio. Today, radio is simply one aspect of the audio storytelling spectrum. Audio is now a standard part of information websites. Almost 60 percent of radio websites include audio, and half include streaming audio. But an even higher percentage of TV websites include audio (63 percent), and 34 percent include streaming audio. More and more newspaper websites include audio as well, and more and more slideshows are cut to audio.
Regardless of whether we’re talking about websites or radio, the basic principles of working with sound remain the same.
RADIO STORY FORMS
Television divides stories based on the technical aspects of the construction, but radio generally divides its stories based on a mixture of technical construction and the origin of sound:
• The reader,as in TV, simply involves the newscaster/anchor/announcer reading a script with no outside sound.
• Actualities,which are radio’s version of TV bites, are the “actual” sounds of a news event or news maker. This can include chanting protestors or comments from the mayor.
• Nat, natural or ambient sound (among other names) includes the “natural” or general sound of a meeting, traffic, playground sounds—whatever the news event is about. Some consider the sound of chanting protestors (listed above as an actuality) to be nat sound, but it’s probably better to distinguish the two on the basis of function. Actualities involve the use of words to be understood, and nat sound creates a feel for a part of a story, serves as a sound bridge between story elements or serves as an audio bed under the reporter in a wrap.
• Voicer is a radio report that includes just the sound of a reporter reading a story, most often limited to 20–30 seconds in commercial radio and a little longer in public radio.
• Wrap or wraparound is a voicer that includes one or more actualities. These are most often limited to 30–60 seconds in commercial radio but can be considerably longer in public radio, especially with the added use of nat sound.
• Live or ROSR (radio on scene report) is a live report from the scene of a story.
DRAWING RADIO PICTURES
The Words
In many respects, radio is the most visual of all the media. Television pictures are limited to the number of diagonal inches on the screen, but radio offers the opportunity for limitless images in the mind’s eye. The price of that opportunity is the precision and storytelling ability necessary to evoke those images.
Unlike television, radio allows no shortcuts, no easy way out. Names and details cannot be supered on the screen. Charts and diagrams and animation cannot make clearer what the words do not. Poignant pictures can carry the television writer; radio writers must draw those pictures from scratch.
Using Nat Sound
There is some help available, although it’s frequently not used. Natural sound can do for radio what pictures do for TV. Natural sound can give us the “feel” of being there. We may not be able to see the scene, but, properly done, we should be able to feel it and fill in the visual details between well-drawn words coupled with listener imagination.
Nat sound is available for most stories. We don’t get it for two reasons: (1) We don’t think about it enough, and (2) we aren’t there to get it. Radio’s ability to gather news inexpensively via the telephone also contributes to its mediocrity. It’s hard to gather nat sound over the phone. You can get actualities from anybody you can reach, but you can’t get the sound—and feel—of being there. Cost factors will always limit our ability to get out and gather the news in person. It also means that we shouldn’t miss local opportunities to collect nat sound.
Other than straight interviews, everything offers ambient sound. It’s not just the obvious such as stories on racing and protest marches; even meetings have sound to them. Traffic, children at play or in school, factories, sporting events and lunch counters all have special sounds that can help give the audience the feel of going on location. One of the first things a radio reporter should do at a story is to listen and record the natural sounds of the event. Frequently called a wild track,this sound is used either full (nat sound full) or as background under the track of a reporter’s story or wrap. The effect makes all the difference between having the listener merely informed about an event and having the listener transported to it.
Weave the nat sound in and through every report you can. Natural sound bridges used full volume can also help change the mood or location of a story or presage new information not yet delivered. Critically, it continuously sets the scene and reinforces the credibility of the report. You cannot get that sound without being there.
“You have to have a passion,” says Mike Sugarman, whose work at KCBS Radio in San Francisco has earned him perhaps more local, state, regional and national awards than any other local commercial radio reporter in the country.
Sugarman says he gets really excited about good sound. “I remember coming home once doing some story where I was at a bowling alley, and my wife said, ‘Some reporters go to Sarajevo and get really excited. You get to the back of a bowling alley, and that’s what you get excited about.’ Because it was great sound; I just loved it.”
Sugarman says he looks for that kernel, that little bit that he finds interesting or important or fascinating. “If you think it’s dull,” says Sugarman, “then it’s going to be dull.”
Listen to the Sound Quality
Be careful about the quality and clarity of both nat sound and actualities. First, remember where your audience is. A lot of radio listening takes place while people are doing other things—commonly getting ready for work or driving in the car. That means you’re competing with the distractions of other things, including other people, road noise and the general obligations of paying attention to driving. It also means that actualities must be sharp and clear to be understood. A great actuality is worthless if the audience can’t make it out. Don’t depend on someone turning up the car radio and straining to hear. It won’t happen.
Although you can run nat sound under a reporter track recorded cleanly in the studio, you normally can’t run nat sound under actualities. Most aren’t done under technical conditions good enough to handle the competition. Besides, the actualities should include their own ambient sound.
Putting It All Together
Watch the weaving of words and sound to create a feel for the story:
Intro: About 24-thousand people here are expected to be without a home at some point in the next year. For most of us, that’s pretty hard to imagine. But as reporter Bob Smith found out for this special series on homelessness, it’s a harsh reality growing at an alarming rate. :15
Man at shelter: man calling out name: “Jones … Jones … is Sam Jones here?: 04 … fade nat sound under: man calling names
Smith: If you sign up early enough … if you wait in line long enough … you might get a bed. But even if you can’t, usually there’s still space. On a couch … in a chair … a patch of floor. :10
Nat Full: people talking :03 … fade nat sound under
Smith: Just over half the area homeless will spend the night in a place like this … one of eight emergency shelters in the city. :06
Nat Full: street sounds/traffic full :03 … fade nat sound under
Smith: The rest? Well, some stay in cheap hotels … a few with friends or family … some will make camp under a bridge … some will just be on the streets or in cars or shacks - - like Shorty. :10
Shorty: (voice sounds old, shaky and with a hint of alcohol) “I got no place to go. The only thing I got is gettin’ cans. Copper and brass and stuff like that. That’s all I got.” (fade voice under) :08
Smith: He’s 46 years old … but he looks and sounds twice that. He’s bundled in layers of tattered cloth. Blood from a large cut on his forehead has dried where it flowed. :10
Shorty: “When you’re living by yourself like this, sometimes you need to get your mind off things.” (voice trails off … under) :06
Smith: Shorty looks down at an empty bottle of vodka on the dirt floor of his shack … a home of discarded wood and cardboard. :07
Shorty: “Quite often I get depressed. But it’s one of the things I have to overcome, you know? I’m the only one that can do it. I get depressed … get lonely … and lonesome. (pause) But I have my cat. (cat meows) My cat keeps me company.” (cat meows) (nat sound outside under) :16
Smith: Less than a week later, Shorty died. His real name was L-D Beeler. The autopsy report says he died of natural causes … mostly alcohol. He’s in the city morgue now. :11
Nat Full: sound of people in bar :03 … then under
Smith: A group of his friends at the West Broad Street bar are trying to raise the money to bury Shorty. :05 (cross-fade nat sound under from bar to slight wind outside) If they can’t … and no one claims him … the city will have the body cremated. Eventually, Shorty’s remains will be buried with 60 others in a single grave. :09 (start bringing music up under) Anonymous dust in a pile of ashes. :03 … total: :17
Group at shelter singing: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” (sound under) :14
Smith: Back at the shelter, there’s almost always a good turnout for prayers and singing as supper time approaches. :06
Group: prayer of thanks: 04 … and under
Smith: This is the story of the city’s homeless … and the many different groups - - and people - - that includes. Tomorrow … day to day survival … life in the shelter. I’m Bob Smith. :10
At 2:28 tape time, this is a long radio story—more attuned to public radio than commercial radio, but there’s no inherent difference in technique. Notice the similarity in technical approach and pacing to a television package. There’s one 16-second actuality, but most are just a few seconds longer than the many natural sound bridges that help to give a feel for the story. Notice the physical description—the audience needs to “see” Shorty. Notice also that the narration is broken up into short bits, mostly 6–10 seconds. The one long one of 17 seconds has two natural sound changes or bridges within it. Note also the use of a strong central character to help tell a story. In this case, Shorty is a vehicle to tell a larger story of one segment of a city’s homeless population. We commonly attempt to humanize stories this way. It’s easy for a story about the homeless to seem distant and one-dimensional. A story tends to have a lot more meaning when we bring it down to the level of a single human being or family. It’s about getting the audience to care.
Former NBC correspondent Don Larson complains about all the “empty people” in the news. He says there’s no dimension to many of the people we cover, and so there’s no reason for the audience to care. “It’s like there’s been a vampire that runs through the news every day and sucks the blood out of every possible human being,” says Larson.
Not Shorty. Notice also the detail in the story—like the description of the shack, the clothing, the bottle.
NPR’s Susan Stamberg believes details tell the story, and she works to draw strong visual images for her radio audience. That attention to detail is one of Stamberg’s favorite parts of the writing. Listening and watching and making notes are critical, Stamberg says, “observing the bits and pieces that help tell the story and draw the images.”
Sugarman calls it painting or cooking. “It’s whatever you can use to make it tastier, make it interesting,” says Sugarman. It could be a weird fact, a sound, or part of an interview, or an observation. It could be anything.
“The art of what we do,” says NBC’s Bob Dotson, “not just the craft—but the art—is being able to select the right stuff for the story. Not only so that the words and pictures don’t fight each other, but more importantly, that they are compelling and create an experience.”
SUMMARY
The principles of audio storytelling remain the same, regardless of the medium. Radio divides its stories based on a mixture of technical construction and the origin of the sound. Those six story forms include reader, actualities, nat or natural sound, voicer, wrap or wraparound and live or ROSR. Many, if not most, commercial radio stations involve newscasts with an anchor reading a series of stories, possibly punctuated with some nat sound bridges. Noncommercial radio, especially National public Radio and NPR-affiliated stations, tend to place more of an emphasis on reporting and the use of sound.
KEY WORDS & PHRASES
reader
actualities
nat or natural sound
voicer wrap or wraparound live or ROSR
NPR
EXERCISES
A. Listen to the major radio stations in your area.
1. How many of them run news?
2. How much news do they run and when?
3. How long are the newscasts?
4. Do those newscasts include any sound? Are there actualities and/or natural sound?
5. Was all the sound gathered on the phone, or did the station send a reporter out to gather interviews and/or natural sound?
6. How many radio stations in your area actually have reporters who go out to cover news?
7. Are there any all-news stations in your area? If so, how do they cover the news differently from other stations?
8. Are there any news/talk stations in your area? To what extent are they news versus talk? How do they cover the news?
9. Are there any public radio stations in your area? How do they cover the news?
B. Write and record two different radio newscasts for two different radio stations in your area. Explain why the newscasts were written and put together differently. Who do you think is the primary audience for each station? Back that up with concrete evidence.
C. Listen to Morning Edition or All Things Considered on National Public Radio. How are those stories different from the ones you hear on most of the local commercial radio stations? Working either individually or in pairs, report, write and record a local story in the same style as you hear on NPR.
D. Compare the audio stories on radio, TV and newspaper websites. What similarities and differences do you notice? What are the similarities and differences you notice between those audio stories on the web and the stories you hear on the radio?