1. Basic
Radio
Firebird's mandate is simple; to entertain people on the wards of Prince Charles
Hospital. We are here to give them what they want - not what we want.
The
address of Radio Firebird is the Radio Room, PCH, Gurnos Estate,
Merthyr Tydfil,
CF47
9DT.
The
24 hour telephone number is 01685 728367
The
studio telephone number is 01685 72 8815
E
Mail Address is radio_firebird@hotmail.com.
Website Address is www.radiofirebird.co.uk
2.
Broadcasting tips
1.
Talk to an individual listener, not a group of listeners. Never refer to the
audience as "listeners" .Imagine you are having a friendly chat to
one person as people listen as individuals.
2.
Avoid terms like "all of you out there" .You re doing a radio show
not a road show or disco.
3.
Avoid sounding like you are stuck in a rut. You may have said the telephone
number a million times, but you
must always sound fresh and interested in what you're saying. Remember you have
new listeners every time you open the microphone. If you are bored with your
features, change them.
4.
Everything on your show must have value. Don't look forward to one link more
than another. All must be of equal importance.
5.
Don't gabble through something, which to you sounds routine.
Things like programme information
and particularly weather are important to the listener. Present them with care.
6.
When playing a request for someone, avoid referring to it as a "request"
- use terms like "especially for you" or "one of your favourite
songs. Never make derogatory
comments about their choice of music.
7.
Remember the listeners can't read your mind. If you have a feature coming up
on your show you have to talk it up or there's little point doing it.
8.
Don't do long and drawn out "shopping lists" of what's coming up.
Pick on one or two aspects of a person's show and recommend them to the listener.
9.
Avoid cutting tracks. Time your
music properly to avoid this. Never play 20 seconds of a song just to lead up
to the news. You might have annoyed a listener by cutting their all time favourite
song.
10.
Always go to the news on the hour, it's one of the most important parts of your
show.. Use the news jingle and only fade up when the news reader has said the
time and their name. Never thank the news reader.
11.
Handle CD’s and minidisks carefully. Be careful not to smudge or scratch them
because they can jump and stick like old records. It will be embarrassing if
this happens in your show.
12.
Sound as if you're having fun, however you feel personally. Don't talk about
your ailments or problems. The patients are probably feeling far worse than
you and want to be cheered up.
13.
Think about what your listeners want when doing a show. We're here to entertain
them, not just ourselves.
14.
Be positive and "up". Don't
patronise or criticise a song, it might be someone's favourite.
15.
Never say "back after" anything.
Neither you or your show are going anywhere.
16.
Keep your links short and to the point.
17.
Think about your link before you speak. If you have nothing to say, don't say
anything. On the other hand, if all you do is play music and never introduce
yourself or the station, you might as well be playing a
CD in your house.
18.
Writing down a link isn't shameful. It may help you sound more professional,
but don't sound as if you're reading it out.
19.
During a link you can talk before a jingle but don't talk after them. Jingles
are there to take you into the music. There's no need to say "We've got
some jingles coming up" or play lots of them back to back as this sounds
unprofessional.
20.
Never talk after a promo. The listener wants to hear more music not more chat.
Don't thank the person on the promo or repeat anything they have just said.
It slows the pace of the show.
21.
Use voice-overs wisely. They rarely sound good without music underneath them.
22.
Avoid "fader shuffling" .If you have something to say, then say it
in one go with the music underneath you set at a fixed level - Don't move the
fader up and down in between what you say.
23.
There is no need to put on false "DJ" accents. You'll just sound like Smashy n Nicey.
Be yourself.
24.
Remember that you are a "salesperson of the airwaves." Everything
you do should sell the station, the music and yourself (and in that order).
25.
If someone phones for a request or a competition, always be polite. Thank them
for calling but don't ask inane questions like "How are you?"
26.
When talking on air, you should talk In the present tense e.g. "That's
Eiffel '65 and Blue" not "That was Eiffel '65 and Blue..." Don't
draw attention to a joke you made five minutes ago without briefly explaining
what you said. Your audience is changing all the time. Don't make "in jokes"
about other presenters or previous station events. Your listeners won't understand
them.
4.Dont's
1.Don't
refer to radio jargon such as faders, PFL’s and takes. These mean nothing to
listeners.
2.
Don't worry about doing time checks. The patients don't need them because they're
not leaving. The same goes for
day checks.
3.
Never say "Good-bye". Radio Firebird is not going away. If someone
is on after you or even later in the day, promote their show. If not, explain
that you are handing back to Radio Wales or whatever station we hand back to.
Please don't say "See you next week" or anything similar. Remember
you are in a hospital and people want their stay to be as short as possible.
4.
Don't open the microphone and hope something good comes out.
All you need for a link is something simple like "Radio Firebird,
Merthyr's Number One with George Thomas playing that great song from Ricky Martin.
Now we've got the latest hit from Steps. Always remember to mention the station
liner "Merthyr's Number One" or "The South Wales Sensation".
All links should end with "from Radio Firebird" or something similar.
6.
Finally, just use common sense. Don't swear, play songs some people might offensive
(remember a large part of our audience is made of under 10's and over 55's)
or mention operations and illnesses. If we offend our audience they'll switch
off and probably not tune in again.
News and Weather
In
each hour, whatever your style of music, features or how much you talk there
are several things you should be doing.
00.00
News (Radio Fader)
00.02
Newslink (Followed by a Recruitment / Generic Promo)
00.02
Weather
59:50
News Jingle
The
rest is up to you but please stick to this format except in special circumstances
e.g. you know that Red Dragon or Radio Wales will not be putting out the news
that hour. If you enjoy news and current affairs you are also welcome to read
out news updates from teletext or the Internet you could just do a roundup of
funny/ interesting stories from the newspapers.
News
is received via the radio fader. Keep the fader on PFL (Pre -Fade Listening,
if you are wondering) while the News jingle is playing and only put the fader
up when the news reader has said the time and their name, so that we only get
the first news item.
Our
Recruitment Promo has been specially chosen to follow the news as it promotes
the station very well and could help to gain us new members.
Weather
should just be a brief outlook of the local weather for the next 24 hours using
general terms such as "Scattered showers possible with rain by the morning,
top temperature 3 degrees Celsius, 37 degrees Fahrenheit. There should be a
conversion chart available for all temperatures. Don't waste time giving an
outlook for the rest of the week or weather conditions all over Britain but
don't rush the forecast. This is one of our most popular features.
Final points
Another
important feature is "Happenings" ,as patients are always interested
in what is going on in their local community. We receive weekly updates from
St. David's Hall in Cardiff and we have more local information in our black
happenings file. If you are involved in sports, clubs or charities locally,
please fill in one of the cards and put it into our folder. This will help to
make the feature more varied and interesting.
Try
to read out one "happening" each hour but don't repeat yourself.
At present we only have a couple of presenter promos but soon we hope
that every presenter will have a chance to record their own promo advertising
their show. This should increase our listeners and help other shows sound more
interesting.
At
Firebird, we have a very free music policy. There is no point trying to force
a presenter to play non stop choir or brass band music if he does not enjoy
it
The
show would suffer. But please bear our audience in mind. You might love rave
or gangster rap, but don't play it non stop for two or three hours, you'll just
lose listeners. Requests are always more important than presenter choice. Please
don' t play the same songs in the same order every week.
These
guidelines are just to help us all to improve our presentation. As we have mentioned,
some things may change in the future but these are only a starting point to
how I want Radio Firebird to sound.
Many
thanks!
Chris
Davies
Station
Manager