Preface to the fifth edition
The world of radio broadcasting moves on. The computer and its developing software are firmly at the heart of the operation – controlling the station, editing the interview, scheduling music and streaming the output on to the Internet. This edition comes with a CD that reflects some of this – illustrations of MP3 compression and digital acoustic effects, as well as programme extracts, exercises to work on and innovative commercials. I am most grateful to my colleague Jeff Link, not only for his comments on updating the text, but also for his work on producing the CD, which forms a significant and interactive part of the book. We are both most interested in how you use the illustrations and downloadable files.
My research for this new edition included an international survey of how stations work – from Argentina to Ghana, and from Taiwan to Mexico and Slovakia. Indeed, it was on a Lutheran Hour station in the Philippines that I first learned of a major use in broadcasting of a text messaging response by listeners from mobile phones. So techniques progress. Digital transmission moves ahead, with governments talking of switching off their national analogue services, while in the United States car manufacturers are installing satellite radio receivers as standard. And everywhere costs are coming down, fuelling the proliferation of stations and the methods of making radio. Equipment becomes ever smaller, lighter and immensely more versatile, so that the facilities of whole studios can be compressed into a portable package for automated playout.
What this means for the listener is largely a vastly increased choice – off the air or the Internet, the range of what can be heard is huge, which of course means in turn that the audience for any one channel or programme is likely to be much smaller. The question then is whether this must inevitably mean that the income for any one channel is decreasing – and if so, what happens to quality? For me, this is the key trend to be watched and for broadcasters to see that radio continues to meet the widest possible range of listener needs.
I must acknowledge my debt to so many who have contributed to this book – to the late Frank Gillard for his encouragement with the original draft and for Dave Wilkinson’s ideas for the early illustrations. The BBC was ever helpful – Radio 4 supplied the complete documentary programme for the CD, and the Health and Safety department updated the entries on hazard assessment. Kevin Johnson, a senior BBC Trainer, answered my many questions on current studio practice, as did the staff at BBC Radio Solent and Radio Norfolk. The commercial station WAVE 105 and the Radio Advertising Bureau were most supportive in my research, providing invaluable information in the commercial sector. Here I warmly thank the advertising agencies and the owners of the copyright who gave permission for the text of their commercials to be reproduced, some of which can be heard on the CD.
Dr Graham Mytton, an international audience research consultant, revised the section on programme evaluation, while Campbell Hughes, an authority on music recording, provided new insights on orchestral balance. Tim Dean of the World Media Trust suggested additional source material for the new chapter on Ethics, including the UK Government’s Department for International Development booklet, The Media in Governance, which I have quoted. Finally, two lecturers in Media Studies, Bill Dorris of Dublin City University and Ken Hall, Senior Lecturer in Radio Production at The University of Teesside, generated a flow of ideas, many of which found their way into the final text. I am grateful to them all.
As I have noted before, revising and updating a book is far more difficult than writing one from scratch. Producers will know that the challenge of a blank sheet is more exciting and often easier to deal with than an existing script. I therefore willingly thank my wife for once again working with me through the process. Her clear, not to say blunt, advice has been what all producers need in their times of doubt – the voice of the listener.
Robert McLeish