Welcome Newbies!

Training the new volunteers was something I was asked to do by the station manager, so it felt pretty nice to be involved.  Our show, Platform, probably uses the most editing and scripting over any other on the station, so I guess it made a lot of sense to use me as wing(wo)man on the training.  Editing and scripting are both pretty simple once you get the hang of it and can be really absorbing and satisfying when you get it right!

So first off the station manager, Daniele, gets me to introduce myself and talk about why editing is important.  Editing is important, I explain, because you need to keep the listener interested which means you need to make the interviews punchy and informative.  I go into lots more detail, answer any questions and then we play a couple of examples of interviews I've done, before and after editing.

The volunteers give editing a go themselves, using a tried and tested piece of audio that counts from 1 to 10 but incompletely the wrong order.  The idea is to copy and paste, like with a Word document, until everything is in the right sequence.  Audacity is the program we train them on, as it's free and so everyone can download it at home and get used to how it works.  If you're looking for a good piece of sound editing software then I would definitely recommend it, it's easy to use and has a really good attention to detail.

Once they've all had a go at editing we listen back and make sure everybody got how to use the tech.  Next up they get a slightly more challenging task; to edit a piece of audio they recorded the previous week.  This is more difficult as it won't necessarily be obvious what to cut and what to keep.  Daniele and I hover as unobtrusively as possible, which at times means standing chatting and drinking tea, whilst the noobs do their level best to be the next editor extraordinaire.  Afterwards we try to give pointers on what they could improve, whilst giving confidence building compliments on which parts worked well.

Editing mastered(ish) we turn to the next most important part of any radio interview - scripting.  You might be thinking scripting of questions, but actually I'm talking about scripting of an intro and outro for the interview.  When you've finished your interview and edited it into a captivating piece, you need to have a script with it, otherwise the presenter won't know what to say about it.  Without scripting you could end up with them saying "This is John interviewing Bob" and whilst that might be accurate it's not exactly going to make you want to sit still and glue your ear to the radio for 1 minute, let alone 10.  You need info!  For this we turn to... the inverted pyramid!

The inverted pyramid was originally used back in war times when people sent telegrams and they wanted the most important info to be received first.  It still works today because although we don't use telegrams we do get bored easily and stop listening, I said we STOP LISTENING, hello?!  Anyway, it's important to get the juicy bits out first before the listener drifts off.  So...

• MOST IMPORTANT - FACT
• NEXT MOST IMPORTANT - FACT
• LESS IMPORTANT - THEIR NAME
• LEAST IMPORTANT - YOUR NAME

For example "This March marks the 3rd anniversary for Goobledegooks Garage, a local recycling centre for the disabled, Jane Doe met up with Bob Bobberty to find out more"

So taking this into account, it was time for those eager volunteers to write a script and put it together with their recently edited interview!  I think they all did pretty well and I'm looking forward to seeing them once again when they're part of the family!