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UNIT 1 BA (JMC) 207 L: 12

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Radio News and Structure of Radio Station

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LESSON 1
Basics of Radio News: Concept of News, News Values:
Objectivity, Balance and Fairness

LESSON 2
News Sources: News agencies, Reporters, Correspondents
and Monitoring Services

LESSON 3
Structure and Functioning of News Service Division and
News Room

LESSON 4
Structure and Functioning of FM Radio Stations
(Govt. & Private)
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LESSON 1: Basics of Radio News: Concept of News
News Values: Objectivity, Balance and Fairness
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STRUCTURE

1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Concept of News
1.3 Qualities of News
1.4 News Values and Elements of News
 1.5 Types of News Story
1.6 Radio News Vs. Newspaper News
1. Basics of Radio News: Concept of News News Values: Objectivity, Balance
and Fairness
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This lesson discusses on basics of radio news, concept of news, news values, elements
of news, qualities of news etc. because news plays a significant role in our day to day life.
It is often said that modem society lives every minute on news gathered from various mass
media resources like radio, television, newspapers or new media.
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1.0 Objectives
After reading this lesson you will be able to:
 Define the concept of News
 Enumerate the elements and qualities of the News;
 Understand the news values
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1.1 Introduction
Radio is identified as the fastest medium for getting information. There are many
listeners who start the day with listening morning news bulletin. Radio News is
basically a spoken-word item. Radio News is different from a newspaper or
television news. The reader of a newspaper can select news items of his/her
choice, which is not possible with radio news. Moreover, one can leave a story and
go back to the previous one, which again is not possible with radio news. Although
the radio news is written in advance, it is 'presented' and not 'read'. Radio is a
medium of voice-to-ear, not news-to-eye as in newspapers. Radio news is
presented in different formats, viz., News Bulletin, News Magazine, Newsreel etc.
1.2 Concept of News
Several newspapers, editors, news reporters, eminent journalists and many media
educators have attempted to define news, but these definitions have not always
met the test of the time.
Generally speaking, news is anything that is new. News is a report of an event that
has just taken place. News is a detailed account that provides information or
description. It could also include depiction (representation), delineation
(description), statement (announcement, declaration), and narration of a
development, event, or occurrence (incidents, happenings). The event is usually
recent, fresh or not known earlier. News is something that at a particular moment
happens to attract and hold the interest of the reader, or listener or viewer.
According to George Hough of the University of Georgia, U.S.A. - News is both a
product and point of view. As a product, news is gathered, processed and
 packaged. Newspapers, news services, news magazines, radio, television and
cable station and networks then present news to their respective audiences.
A former managing editor of the New York Times, Turner Cateledge described
news as “Anything you can find out today that you didn’t know before.”
In modern times, newspersons and media personalities are likely to define news in
terms of what people, readers, listeners, viewers want to know.
These definitions can be summed up as:
“News is anything that is timely and significant to audience in respect of their
personal affairs or their relation to society and the best news is that which
possesses the greatest degree of this interest and significance for the greatest
number."
Definition of News for radio depends on -
• The size of listeners
• The periodicity of Broadcast (Usually AIR broadcasts news hourly)
• The social character and economic base of the listeners
• The focus of attention or emphasis of the listeners.
Hence, the News is -
 Perishable (Which news is new at the moment but next moment it will old)
 Is of interest to a large number of people;
 Of unusual events and happenings;
 What is new to the public; and
 An event put forward by a reporter, as without a reporter, a news item does
not exist.
1.3 Qualities of News
There are some basic qualities of the news. These are accuracy, balance,
objectivity, and clarity.
 Accuracy: Accuracy is basic to any news item. When you fail in accuracy,
you lose credibility. Hence it is important to cross check your facts and
information. Check figures, names and facts. Check how names are spelt.
Did you get your first name correct? People are generally offended by
wrongly spelt names. If you are paraphrasing a speech from a text given to
you, make sure you do not change the meaning or quote statements out of
context. Rumours and speculation need to be avoided at all costs.
Sensitization of news must be avoided.
 Balance: To be balanced in reporting is as important as being accurate. If
you are writing about a controversy, give both sides of the story. When
reporting a strike, for instance, give the claim of authorities and also that of
the workers on how far it is successful. A story may appear to be imbalanced
and thus biased, if it has too much of Government's views, or tends to give,
too much foreign news which has little relevance to your listeners.
 Objectivity: You should not mix your opinion in the story. Report only facts
and other people's opinions. You should be a disinterested observer,
 reporting events without taking sides. News must be presented objectively
in an unbiased manner and it should not be allied to any selfish interest.
 Clarity: A story must be best in the way it expresses the theme. Your
introductory sentence should be short and in active voice to the maximum
extent possible. The ideal length of each paragraph may be 3-4 lines
containing two-three small sentences to facilitate easy comprehension.
 Conciseness: A news story must be concise. It should not be
unnecessarily lengthy. Where unnecessary details are to be avoided,
unnecessary wording must also be pruned out. Verbosity always kills the
purpose and this is brevity that is unanimously agreed upon to be the soul
of intelligence. Wordy expressions and unnecessary repetition must be
avoided. One-word substitution saves the the space and time, both.
 Comprehensiveness: It means that complete by all regards and aspects.
A news item is considered comprehensive only when it answers the every
possible question that may arise in the minds of listeners. As a general
principal to make a news story comprehensive and complete five Ws and
one H (what, when, where, why, who and How) are to be satisfied.
 Cohesiveness: When we talk of an order, a kind of symmetry, a well-knit,
well-planned, well organized and even end-product, is actually talked of
cohesiveness. It means that the order of the details to be put in a news
items must be in proper order. Symmetry suggests beauty and it must be
self-evident in the construction of the news story. Asymmetry mars the
beauty and the listener does not go on with the bulletin smoothly and
comfortably. It must not be jumpy and uneven.
 Interesting: The news story, especially to be broadcast on radio, must be
presented in such a way that the listener may not get bored. It is quite a
difficult task to be managed when it comes to writing and presenting news
bulletin since news is something that can never drift away from the
principals of accuracy and objectivity. What we actually mean by making
news bulletin interesting is the reading effect in the tone and style must be
avoided by the newscaster and spoken language is to be employed which
writing the lines of any news item.
1.4 News Values and Elements of News
New values differ from community to community, country to country. While
reporting such events, you should be careful not to appear to be insulting or
laughable in tone or in content. Similarly, news values are different for developing
and developed countries. For the industrialized and individualized societies of
developed countries, communally provocative speeches and incidents may be
reported word for word, blow by blow. But the same treatment would be suicidal
and would be lighting a powder keg in a communally sensitive, illiterate, developing
country. You should take all possible can in reporting such developments keeping
in mind the volatile nature of the audience and the reach of your audience.
The following are those factors that can aptly be called news values:
1. Conflict: Conflict means a kind of clash, quarrel, disagreement, discard or
battle between persons, groups, societies or countries. It may be physical,
social, economical, political, boundaries between or issues between two states
or countries, religious, ethnic or personal. Most conflicts are newsworthy to
some extent or degree.
2. Victory and Defeat: Conflict naturally paves way for the victory of one party
and defeat of the other one. Whether the conflict is between two hockey or
cricket teams striving for a cut or trophy, or two armies combating in a battle or
two political parties contesting an election, one side’s fate is victory and the
other’s is defeat. These two ingredients of human society are teemed with
healthy newsworthiness.
3. Progress and Development: Progress means any improvement in any field.
If the progress is really significant it will be a part of the news bulletin. Progress
of student or person, a society, a country, science & technology, relations
between two countries, etc. gets attention of public. News related to
development issues such as Environment, Ecology, Gender, Health,
Population control, Agriculture etc. need to be reported and disseminated.
4. Government activities and action: The passing of a law or other order
concerning general people, cabinet meetings, parliament and assembly
sessions, notifications about new rules and regulations are newsworthy.
5. Eminence and Prominence: What happens to important people makes news.
The value of the news increases with the prominence of the person involved.
What the prominent people say is also very important for a reporter, particularly,
if they make some announcements which have an impact on the common
people. It is agreed upon that names make news and the bigger the name, the
larger the news. There is an aura of news around prominent persons.
6. Timeliness (Immediacy): Timeliness means freshness. News must be timely
and new. “Now” is more newsworthy than "Then". News is about what is
happening now. It will not arouse interest if it is already, known, or brought to
notice long after its occurrence.
7. Proximity (Nearness): Local is more newsworthy than “Distant”.
Proximity is nearness which means that an incident which has taken place
near the people. We, naturally, tend to take more interest in the news story that
is about us, or our city, or our province, or our country. The closed the accident,
the more the interest will be.
8. Novelty: Novelty means something different, something against the general
routine of people, something amazing, incredible, astonishing or unusual.
Anything, any action, any hobby, any incident, people would hardly prepare to
believe in something novel and hence carries the characteristic of novelty.
9. Human Interest: People are interested in what is happening to other people.
In addition, oddities, humour, tragedy, triumph over handicap, stories involving
kids, animals-all make for good human interest stories.
Women are normally considered to go after lifestyle and fashion news.
 10. Disaster: Disaster is destruction, ruin, adversity, calamity, devastation, and
catastrophe. Where there is any disaster on a considerable scale, there is an
availability of new. Earthquakes, tsunami, floods, famine, starvation, torrential
rains, tornados, twisters, all these are natural kinds of disasters and
devastations. People wish and deserve to know about such stories. The
coverage of such disasters is not only a professional duty of any media but also
it is a noble service to humanity and a moral and religious obligation. It is the
responsibility of media to inform people about the magnitude of the disaster,
number and names, if possible, of the casualties and injured ones, aid
activities, rehabilitation efforts, etc.
11. History: History is an important source of news. The digging of thousands and
thousands year old ruins, in fact, is an effort to peep into man’s past and to
explore the basic regarding man’s creation, evolution, and old civilizations.
These are the quest to history is an effort to quench the thirst of man’ faculty of
curiosity. New truths about established truths are also attempted to discover.
12. Relevance: Stories which have direct influence on our lives or have direct
relation with us are more important for us. Even a news story that is about my
own city will fail to catch my attention, if I am waiting for my own interview on
radio.
13. Consequence/Impact: Any event or statement of any important person in a
society, capable enough to affect a larger number of people in future, carries
newsworthiness and must be given space in news bulletin. The incident, as a
matter of fact, at the time of its taking place, may not be that important but in
future may acquire a great deal of significance in terms of affecting people in
one way or another. Likewise, under the head of consequence, there may me
a statement of any personality who enjoys the authority and power of policy
making in a state or society and he makes a policy statement that concerns
with the coming days of people.
14. Weather and Sports: Both the weather and sports have great news value. The
arrival of monsoon or cyclones makes important news. Similarly, fury of drought
and floods make news.
15. Follow-up: A good news story does not end at the first reference, it needs a
follow-up. Follow-up keeps the interest of the listeners alive by updating them
on the latest development of an event or an issue.
16. Miscellaneous News Values (Any news of the common public interest):
There are certain news stories which though do not posses any of the news
vales mentioned above but still find place in radio bulletin.
1.5 Types of News Story
Broadly speaking all news items can be categorized under four heads. They are:

1) General types
2) Simple types
3) Complex types
4) Special types
 1) General Types: The following are the news stories which are treated as
general types:
i. Personals: These are the news stories about important persons of a society
about whom people want to know. These figures could be from politics,
showbiz, sports, or from any walk of life. The near and dear ones
of these celebrities also make news. For instance,
· Any minister is admitted to hospital.
· Minister visits any market.
· Prime minister's mother gets ill.
· Minister's son gets married.
· Any important figure's near one passes away.
· Names of visitors, guests, committee members, conventions.
ii. Briefs: These are short news stories not pertaining to persons but they are
related to different organizations, non-government organizations, associations,
trusts, clubs etc. Policy or progress announcements/ statements of different
government or non-government organizations or departments etc.
iii. Meetings: News regarding different meetings held or to be hold at different
levels are to be covered.
iv. Events: These events may be fairs, or festivals, or exhibition of pictures of a
renowned photographer or of portraits made by an eminent painter or
handicrafts. These events are the social and cultural activities in any society
and deserve to be covered or to be made a part of a news bulletin.
v. Speeches: Speeches of leading politicians, religious leaders, any department’s
chairman, minister, prime minister, president are to be covered and given
space and place according to their respective importance.
vi. Publications: News pertaining to different publications is also covered if again,
they deserve to be a part of a news bulletin in terms of the eminence of their
author and the importance of the subject matter. The publication may be article,
book, or research paper.
vii. Interviews: Important interviews, if revealing anything important that may affect
or interest a handsome number of people are also included in news bulletin,
especially if the interview is on any current issue. Some important kinds
of interview are - Personality interviews, Informative interviews,
Opinion forming interviews, Illustrative interviews, Thematic interviews.
2) Simple Types:
These are the news items which require a reporter to be bit interpretative while
writing the story. It implies that these stories need a little more interpretation and
explanation about the personality or accident or incident. The story pertains to the
following are the simple types of news stories.

1. Illness: This news is about the illness of a personality who is enjoying

prominence in a society. Since the rapid and extensive emergence and growth
of media has shrunk the whole world into a village, some personalities are
 blessed with worldwide prominence and importance. While covering the stories
of illness, following points must be given importance.
 Name & identification of the person who is ill
 Cause of illness
 Nature of illness
 Condition (fair, serious, critical)
 Name of hospital ("local hospital" if private)
2. Death: Following are the essentials of death stories to be covered carefully:
 Name and identification of the person died
 Age of the person at the time of his death
 Place of death
 The Time and Date the person died
 Cause of death
3. Funeral: Stories about the funeral of any person may be the Follow-up of death
story of the same person but not always. The following are the essentials of a
death story to be covered:
 Time and date when the funeral ceremony is to be performed
 Place of burial
 Pallbearers
4. Fires & Accidents: The essentials of the stories of fires and accidents are as
under:
 Place where the fire or accident took place,
 Causalities
 Injured persons
 Damages to property
 Escapes (experiences of escapes)
5. Crime Stories: No such society exists on earth that is free from crimes. So to
keep people informed, the coverage of crime stories is very important. The type
of crimes may be the suicide, murder, kidnap, burglary, robbery, forgery,
contempt of court, conspiracy, gambling, drug trafficking, smuggling, disturbing
peace (riots), rape,
6. Weather News: In routine weather news items, following areas are covered:
 Temperature (highest and lowest)
 Humidity
 Rain or Sun

Sometimes the weather may become the lead story or one of the major stories
of the day. The weather aftereffects do not disappear with dawn or dusk, so in
case the weather story is the most important or one of the important news items
in a news bulletin, its follow up story goes on and on until the repercussions of
the story get diminished. The story about the weather will be treated as special
news item if: The weather results in disaster; floods, hurricanes, tornadoes,
droughts, dust storms, thunder & lightening, blizzards (snowstorm), or other
weather oddities which cause deaths or serious damages. There are sudden
changes, cold waves, early snows, heavy rains or other out of the ordinary
 conditions. Previous records are broken, like, highest ever or lowest ever
temperature, quantity of rainfalls breaking the previous records. The affect of
bad weather on crops and drought is expected, it will be news.
3) Complex News
These are, as a matter of fact, stories which involve complexities of the nature of
the beat, of the language that is to be employed while penning down the news item,
of the jargons which are frequently used in the writings or in the conversation about
the field.
These are the news stories which demand reporter's special knowledge about the
beat he is covering. The reporter covering this type of stories must be well versed
in the basic knowledge about the beat. Actually this is where comes up
interpretative reporting to facilitate people with back and foreground of the event
covered by the reporter so that they may not find any lack or ambiguity while
listening to the news item.
The following are the essentials to be made a part of complex news items by a
reporter:
 Reporter must incorporate extra explanation in the news item.
 Technical vocabulary is to be made easy.
 Expert knowledge of the reporter about the beat must be evident from the
coverage of the event like –
i. Court, Trials, Law-suits: Court stories are considered among the most
difficult and challenging stories to report since they involve complexity
of legal process. The reporting of a trial especially when it is under
hearing in any court is a pretty sensitive task.
ii. Government & Policies: News stories regarding different department
and organ of government is pretty important.
iii. Business & Commerce News: Stories pertaining to business and
commerce also demand a reporter to equip him with special knowledge
of terms, jargons and economic trends of business and commerce
sphere.
iv. Science and Technology: Stories regarding science and technology
demand a reporter to make special terms easy for listeners.
v. Education: While covering education related news items a reporter
must keep following points in his mind i.e. govt.'s policy on education,
change in syllabus, exams of different classes, results, interviews of
toppers and policy makers
vi. Religion: Reporter covering news items regarding religion needs to
have the adequate knowledge about the beliefs and traditions of
religion.
4) Special News
The emergence of so many radio channels has created an atmosphere of
competition and in this competitive era listeners demand more than just what is
termed as hard news. A quality news bulletin is the one that contains as many
segments as it can. The segment contains something to tell listeners about
 entertainment, engagement & wedding of celebrities, life style, fashion, family,
foods, social events, sports, art & literature etc.
1.6 Radio News Vs. Newspaper News
Radio news writing demands the same standard of accuracy, speed, clarity and
objectivity as the news writing for newspaper. The relationship in a newspaper is
between the printed text and the eye, whereas in radio it is sound and the ear,
thus, you read text printed in newspaper; while you hear a radio bulletin.
Therefore, the radio limits to sound only and presenter has to describe visuals
through sound medium only.
While reading a newspaper, if you come across a difficult word or expression, you
have the option of consulting a dictionary or a reference book. In the case of radio
news, if you do not understand a difficult word or expression, you cannot go back
in time. The news items and stories are to be presented using simple and familiar
words, which even an average listener can easily comprehend.
While reading a newspaper you have the option of reading any page or news item
first, e.g., most young people like to glance through the sports page first. Some
may prefer political news, while others may opt for stories dealing with economic
news, crime or scams, but with radio news, you cannot change the chronology of
the news item at your choice.
In case of newspaper, you can hold it for a longer time. You can read the
newspaper at any time or in any breaks at your leisure while the radio bulletin
begins at a fixed time and if you miss it, you cannot retrieve it, at bests, you can
only wait for the next news broadcast.
Radio bulletin has a limited time space from 15 minutes main news bulletin to 2
minutes news highlights. Therefore, radio news story has to be presented in
precise and comprehensive way. Cut the non-essential and less essential
aspects.
Being an audio medium, care is taken towards the tone and pitch of the speaker
so that it does not create ennui. Now radio news is undergoing a great deal of
changes. The style is becoming more and more informal and many voice casts
are included in the bulletins. Efforts are also being made to make radio bulletins
people-centered by highlighting the problems, hopes and aspirations of the
common man. Ideally, the emphasis of radio news should shift from political news
to human-interest stories with a focus on social, cultural scientific and economic
news.
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LESSON 2: News Sources: News agencies, Reporters, Correspondents and
Monitoring Services
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STRUCTURE
 2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 News Sources

2. News Sources: News agencies, Reporters, Correspondents and Monitoring

Services

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In the previous session we had studied the Lesson 1 Concept of News: News Values. In
which had discussed about concept and definition of news, qualities of news, news values
and types of news.
In the present session we will study various sources of news i.e. reporters, correspondents,
news agencies and monitoring services etc.
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2.0 Objectives
After going through this lesson, you would be able to:
 Identify various sources for gathering the news for radio.
 Know the responsibilities of reporters and correspondents of AIR.
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2.1 Introduction
News gathering is a specialized job which needs lot of skill. It reaches the news
room mostly in four ways, through staff reporters, monitoring of foreign broadcasts,
through news agencies or press releases, hand outs etc. News falls into the
newsroom from all the sources and at all the time and used then and there because
there are plenty of news bulletins as against news papers which are printed once
each day. The staff reporter is not only responsible to collect his own stories but
also generally asked to confirm doubtful stories filed by news agencies or elaborate
the message contained in press releases or handouts.

2.2 News Sources

News sources are the ways and routes through which a news channel gets news.
Some important news sources are -
1. Reporters / correspondents/ foreign correspondents
2. News Agencies
3. Newsroom diary
4. Newsroom Files and records
5. Monitoring services
6. Handouts and Press releases
7. Press conferences
8. Interviews
1. Reporters / Correspondents
A fairly large team of trained reporters and correspondents based in the capital is
responsible for covering, national and international events, activities of various
Government departments, political parties and other events. They also take care
of the parliamentary proceedings.
Some broadcasting organizations deploy their Correspondents in a few select
distant locations and also hire part-time Correspondents from uncovered areas of
their own reporting staff. Correspondents are also stationed in the State capitals
and other cities where news-fall is usually heavy. They have to cater to national
bulletins broadcast from Delhi and regional bulletins broadcast from local stations.
Working alone, a correspondent has to prepare two versions of the same story in
two different languages. They also have to cover visits by the Prime Minister,
President and other dignitaries to the State. They have to be quick in filing reports
and accurate in facts as they faced a tough competition from other sources. These
correspondents are generally Part-time Correspondents (PTCs) at District
headquarters, who may be reporters or stringers.
A reporter/correspondents needs to have a variety of reliable and well-placed
contacts to fork out information. These contacts are sources of exclusive
information for the reporter. They may be in the Government, public or private
sector, business or even a common person.
Foreign Correspondents: Work of a foreign correspondent is a challenging task.
Although some administrative help from the Indian Mission is provided, they have
to manage the professional front on one's own. They have to be in constant touch
with various sources of news which include officials, the diplomatic corps, local
newsmen, other foreign correspondents, local radio, TV and newspapers. The
functions of a foreign correspondent include:
 Reporting major developments in the area, keeping in view the Indian interest.
 At the same time, guarding against the in-built bias in stories filed by foreign
agencies, reporting developments of particular interest to India and the region
and, Collecting material for spotlights and commentaries.
 A bilingual stories and voice dispatches in Hindi as well as in English.
 Knowledge of the country, including the language spoken there is also an
added asset.
Qualities of Reporters/Correspondents
Besides proper education of journalism, a reporter must possess following qualities
if he strongly wishes to be a figure in the field of journalism.
 Nose for news/ Curious: A good reporter is one who has an ability to smell
the news in any apparently normal and ordinary event. He needs to be
curious and nosy about the things behind the curtain.
 Sharp Observation: Unless a reporter's observation is sharp and
outstanding, he is unable to smell something newsworthy in any happening.
  Public Relations: A good reporter is the one who enjoys a good repute in
the society and cultivates healthy relations with officials of important status
in almost all important departments and walks of life. His strong relations
make him obtain news in time and without applying extra efforts.
 Active and Dynamic: A reporter is the one who is always active and ready
to be assigned any task of news gathering. A sluggish, lethargic and
inactive kind of person can be anything on earth but can never be a
reporter.
 Well informed: A reporter is a man of knowledge. He is not only supposed
to have information about important happenings in the world, capitals of
different countries, facts and figures of different national and international
issues, national and international economic trends, but also it is imperative
for him to have knowledge of the basics of almost all social sciences. A
good reporter though can’t be master of all, but he has to be the jack of all
trades.
 Shrewd yet well behaved: The profession a reporter has opted for,
demands him to be sharp, active, shrewd and sometimes cunning as well
but it does not imply at all that he is required to display ill-mannerism. He
needs to be polite, well behaved, courteous, lively, refined and easygoing
kind of person.
2. News Agencies
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to collects or gathers
news and supplies to different newspapers, magazines, radio stations and
television channels who are subscribing to its services. They are also known as
wire services or news services.
After receiving and selecting news from the agencies, the copy has to be rewritten
in the spoken word idiom to meet the requirement of the radio. The slant and
biasness in stories needs to be carefully looked into and weeded out.
News agencies have a well-organized wide network which provides a continuous
flow of information through electronic tele-printers or computers. The Press Trust
of India and United News of India are the two major Indian news agencies. Their
Hindi wings are known as Bhasha and Univarta which were launched to meet the
demands of news in Hindi. For foreign and sports news, radio networks mostly
depend on foreign news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press (AP),
Agence France Presse (AFP) etc.
3. Newsroom Diary
Newsroom diary is a kind of diary or register in which information about coming
important events to be covered are logged in. every page of this diary is divided in
different columns containing important information about the function, ceremony,
workshop, seminar, or symposium. Normally following information about following
five Ws is put in these columns:
What: Nature of the function/ gathering.
Who: Name of the Chief Guest or persons involved
When: Time & date of the event to be covered
Why: Importance of the event
Where: Complete address of the place where the event has to be held.
4. Newsroom Files and Records
Newsroom cabinet contains files and previous records with titles showing different
captions. Each file is about any national or international issue and is updated as
and when there is any progress in the issue. The purpose of these files is to provide
the reporter with the factual background of any problem. For instance if, in the city,
there is a secretary-level conference of SAARC countries, the reporter will be at
ease while making the news of this conference by looking up the file containing all
the history and development of SAARC from its inception to date.
5. Monitoring services
Various radio and television broadcast channels of other countries are monitored
to obtain information. These are known as monitoring services. Monitoring officers
listen to the transmissions in different languages, translate them into English and
make a report of it. Monitors normally work in three shifts. For good monitoring a
monitor must be proficient in the language he is monitoring. Senior monitors
scrutinize the monitoring reports and finally the news items to be made a part of
news bulletin are sent to the news editors. Important channels to be monitored are
BBC, VOA (voice of America), VOG (voice of Germany), Kabul Radio, All India
Radio, Iran Radio, CNN (Cable News Network) etc.
6. Handouts and Press Release
The Government offices and private organizations issue handouts and press
releases from time to time. Most of these handouts and press releases are
exercises in publicity and public relations. The news value of these handouts
should be closely examined before including them in the news bulletin. Many a
time, the handouts are not written in a logical manner and need rewriting. There is
need to look for the lead point, give the story a logical sequence, roundup the
figures and add background information wherever necessary.
A press release or press statement is a written or recorded communication,
directed at members of the news media, for the purpose of announcing something,
claimed as having news value. Press Releases are generally sent through post, e-
mail, fax, or by-hand to the assignment editors at radio stations. Some departments
send out audio news releases (ANRs) which are pre-taped audio programs that
can be aired intact by radio stations.
7. Press Conferences
A press conference is a media event in which newsmaker (person who holds press
conference) invites journalists to hear him speak and most often, ask questions. In
a press conference, one or more speakers may make a statement, which may be
followed by questions from reporters. Sometimes only questioning occurs;
sometimes there is a statement with no questions permitted.
8. Interviews
 Interviews can lead to exclusive stories and scoops. However, for producing a good
interview, a great deal of planning and home work is essential. The areas which
need probing need to be identified in advance. The interviewer should build up a
rapport with the interviewee and make the Interviewee comfortable by having some
pleasant preliminary conversation as relaxed atmosphere is conducive for a good
interview. The interviewer should also be conversant with the handling of tape-
recorder and a micro-phone. Before starting an interview, the correspondent
should carry out a thorough check of the sound recording system, micro-phone and
the batteries. And also check the ambient sound. If the ambient sound is loud then
change the location where it is comfortable to broadcast quality recording.

LESSON 3: Structure and Functioning of News Services Division and News Room
________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

STRUCTURE
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 News Broadcasting in India: An Initiative
3.3 News Services Rendered by News Service Division (NSD)
3.4 News Service Division (NSD): Network
3.5 News Service Division (NSD): Organizational Setup
3.6 Functioning of General News Room (GNR)

3. Structure and Functioning of News Services Division and News Room

________________________________________________________________
In the previous session we had studied the Lesson 2 News Sources i.e. reporters,
correspondents, part time correspondents, foreign correspondents, news agencies, press
releases, press conferences, interviews, newsroom diary and records etc.
In the present session we will study the organizational structure and functioning of News
Service Division and Newsroom.
________________________________________________________________

3.0 Objectives
 After going through this lesson, you would be able to:
 Describe organizational structure of News Service Division of All India Radio
 Elaborate the functioning of General News Room of All India Radio
________________________________________________________________

3.1 Introduction
News Service Division, All India Radio is one of the largest radio news
organizations in the world. It works round-the-clock. The News Services Division
of All India Radio disseminates news and comments to listeners in India and
abroad. From 27 news bulletins in 1939-40, AIR today puts out 647 bulletins daily
around 56 hours in 90 languages/dialects in the Home, Regional and External
Services.

3.2 News Broadcasting in India: An Initiative

The first official news bulletin was aired on January 19, 1936 from Delhi Station.
Besides, news bulletins in English and Hindustani, talks on current affairs were
also started from the Station in both the languages.
The Central News Organization (now known as News Service Division) was set up
on August 1, 1937. Mr. Charles Barnes took charge as the first News Editor in
September and he later became the first Director of News. The outbreak of the
Second World War in 1939 gave an impetus to the development of the
Organization. The Monitoring Service was set up in 1939 to monitor foreign
broadcasts. In 1943, the External Broadcast Unit was set up under the Director of
News. By 1945, the Central News Organization was handling news bulletins in
different Indian languages as well as in the External Services. After Independence,
news broadcasts of AIR grew both in quantity and quality. More emphasis was laid
on national and regional news bulletins.

3.3 News Services rendered by News Service Division (NSD)

News Services Division of All India Radio handles all news bulletins and news
related programmes. News Service Division is one of the largest radio news
organizations in the world. It works round-the-clock. The News Services Division
of All India Radio disseminates news and comments to listeners in India and
abroad. From 27 news bulletins in 1939-40, AIR today puts out 647 bulletins daily
around 56 hours in 90 languages/dialects in the Home, Regional and External
Services.
(1) Home Service
Home Service of News Services Division broadcasts from Delhi 178 daily news
bulletins in English, Hindi and 33 languages for duration of 22 hours and 17
minutes. This includes 56 bulletins in external services in 22 languages. In Hindi,
21 news bulletins are broadcast for duration of two hours 30 minutes while 26 news
bulletins are put out in English everyday for duration of 3 hours and 05 minutes.
These include two Sports news bulletins one each in Hindi and English. Apart from
Hindi, 48 news bulletins in 18 Indian languages for duration of 8 hours and 05
minutes are broadcast every day. Language bulletins have over the years become
the main source of national, international and regional news for the masses in small
towns and villages. The evening bulletins in Dogri, Kashmiri and Urdu include a
commentary on topical subjects.
(2) Regional Service
Regional news bulletins were introduced in the early fifties. The first such news
bulletins were broadcast in April, 1953 from Lucknow and Nagpur Stations. In
1954-55, Regional News Units were set up at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. This
grew steadily and at present there are 45 Regional News Units functioning in
different parts of the country. 469 news bulletins in 75 regional languages/dialects
including English and Hindi are being broadcast for duration of 33 hours and 10
minutes. This includes 290 headlines bulletins on FM and other frequencies from
39 stations.
(3) External Service
Initially, the External Services were part of the News Services Division. They were
de-linked from the Division on September 15, 1948. However, the responsibility of
compiling the external news bulletins remains with the News Services Division.
At present, a total of 66 news bulletins are broadcast daily in 26 languages (Indian
and Foreign) for duration of 9 hours and 13 minutes. Fifty six of these go on the air
from Delhi while the remaining ten bulletins of 1 hours 20 minutes duration are put
out by our 56 Regional News Units – Mumbai (01), Kolkata (03), Hyderabad (01)
and Chennai (2), Dharwad (11), Ahmedabad (2).
(4) News on FM Rainbow
The News Services Division has been putting out news headlines on FM Rainbow
channel since Delhi from May 28, 1995. Twenty four news headline bulletins on
FM Rainbow are broadcast round-the-clock from Delhi. The duration of each
headline FM Rainbow bulletin from Delhi is one minute approx. At present 40 AIR
stations are broadcasting FM Headlines.
(5) News on FM Gold
FM Gold, the news and entertainment channel was launched on September 1,
2001. The Channel carries news on the hour originating from Delhi. Composite
news programmes Dopahar Samachar in Hindi & Midday news in English are
broadcast daily for duration of 30 minutes each. The channel has also some
specialized programmes like ‘Market Mantra’ (Business Magazine) and ‘Sports
Scan’. Other news-based programmes mounted on FM Gold include ‘Vaad
Samvaad’ and ‘Countrywide’ based on interviews with prominent personalities.
Some other news programmes introduced recently are Aaj Savere, Parikrama,
Public speak & World News.
(6) News on Phone Service
AIR's News-on-Phone (NOP) service was introduced on February 25, 1998 from
Delhi. The service provides the latest news highlights in Hindi and English to a
listener anywhere in the world on phone by dialing specified numbers. NOP
services are now available from 14 AIR stations including Delhi.
3.4 News Service Division (NSD): Network
NSD subscribes to the news wire agencies – UNI, PTI and their corresponding
Hindi services – Univarta and Bhasha. Another source of news is the Monitoring
Units (English and Hindi) attached to the General News Room (GNR) and the
Central Monitoring Services (CMS), which monitor the bulletins of major
broadcasting organizations of the world. A Radio News Exchange Programme has
been initiated with the members of the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union to broaden
the news coverage. An Information Technology Unit was set up at Delhi to take
care of the IT requirements of NSD. The Unit has set up an internal Website to
cater to the news requirements of the Regional News Units and others.

3.5 News Service Division (NSD): Organizational Setup

The News Service Division (NSD) is headed by the Director General News, who is
assisted by four Additional Directors General and seven Directional Officers. They
supervise the functioning of the General News Room (GNR), Reporting Units,
Current Affairs Units, Language Units, Regional News Units and the Monitoring
Service. The monitoring service, monitors broadcasts by foreign radio stations and
makes them available to All India Radio.
Apart from receiving news from news agencies, AIR has over a hundred regular
correspondents in the state capitals and other important centers. It also has 232
district-level part-time correspondents spread all over the country. Besides, there
are seven special correspondents posted abroad.

3.6 Functioning of General News Room (GNR)

Through all news sources, AIR receives three to four lakh words of news items
daily. It is responsibility of the news editors of AIR working in the General News
Room in Delhi to examine this copy and select the usable items.
The General News Room of AIR called GNR, functions round-the-clock in four
shifts and handles over 300 bulletins in 24 hours.
Each shift is headed by an Editor-in-Charge, assisted by a number of Assistant
Editors, Sub-Editors and Compilation Editors. The Editor-in-charge is in-charge
of the news desk where the news copies received from various sources are
selected, edited and rewritten.
Their job is to carefully read the items which have been picked up for possible use,
than rewrite and reduce them according to the merits of the story. After all, the
longest radio bulletins of 15 minutes duration can only carry over 1500 words.
Every story earns its place in a radio bulletin on the basis of its news value. The
usable stories emanating from within the country are placed in the Home Pool or
Pool-I, those from abroad in Foreign Pool or Pool-II. There is a Sports Pool and on
occasions like Parliament session or elections, separate pools viz., Parliament or
Election Pool are formed. There is also an External Pool to facilitate compilation of
different external news bulletins.
The pool system enables the Compilation Editor to prepare their bulletins without
having to wade through the mass of news material coming from different sources.
 Compilation Editor selects stories from the News Pool and arranges them in a
coherent order. They also selects the major stories for the lead and 3-4 stories for
the headline thus investing the bulletin an identity of its own.
The charts representing AIR’s news network and news flow provide a general
overview of the countrywide news network, and the work distribution among
domestic and foreign correspondents, part-time and regular correspondents.

ALL INDIA RADIO (AIR)

NEWS SERVICE DIVISION

(NSD)

AIR NEWS NETWORKS

NSD HEADQUARTER,
NEW DELHI
News
GENERAL NEWS ROOM Agencies
(GNR)
Regional
Home External Service
Reporting News
Overseas Outstation Part-time Monitoring
Service Service News
Unit Bulletins Correspon
Correspo News Correspo Reports
Units
News
(Delhi) ndents News dentsand Output
Input
Units ndents
Units Flow Chart

News Sources

Home Pool Foreign Pool Sports Parliament Election

(Pool-I) (Pool-II) Pool Pool Pool

Editor-in-Charge of News Assistant Sub- Compilation

3.7 Summing Up
news desk of each shift Bulletin Editors Editor Editors

News Service Division of All India Radio is one of the largest radio news
organizations in the world. It works round-the-clock. The News Services Division
of All India Radio disseminates news and comments to listeners in India and
abroad. AIR today puts out 647 bulletins daily around 56 hours in 90
languages/dialects through the Home, Regional and External Services.
 News Service Division subscribes to the news agencies. Another source of news
is the Monitoring Units attached to the General News Room and the Central
Monitoring Services, which monitor the bulletins of major broadcasting
organizations of the world. Apart from receiving news from news agencies, AIR
has over a hundred regular reporters and correspondents in the state capitals and
other important centers.
The News Service Division (NSD) is headed by the Director General News, who is
assisted by four Additional Directors General and seven Directional Officers. They
supervise the functioning of the General News Room, Reporting Units, Current
Affairs Units, Language Units, Regional News Units and the Monitoring Service.
Through all news sources, AIR receives three to four lakh words of news items
daily. It is responsibility of the news editors of AIR working in the GNR in Delhi to
examine this copy and select the usable items.
The GNR functions round-the-clock in four shifts and handles over 300 bulletins in
24 hours. Each shift is headed by an Editor-in-Charge, assisted by a number of
Assistant Editors, Sub-Editors and Compilation Editors. The Editor-in-charge
is in-charge of the news desk where the news copies received from various sources
are selected, edited and rewritten.

________________________________________________________________
LESSON 4: Structure and Functioning of FM Radio Stations (Govt. & Private)
________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

STRUCTURE
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Organizational Structure of Government FM Radio Station
4.3 Organizational Structure of All India Radio
4.4 Private FM Radio Station: Initiatives in India
4.5 Organizational setup of Private FM Radio Station

4. Structure and Functioning of FM Radio Stations (Govt. & Private)

________________________________________________________________
In the previous session we had studied the Lesson 3 Organizational Structure and
Functioning of News Service Division and Newsroom. In which had discussed about
initiatives of news on radio in India, establishment of News Service Division and General
News Room, organizational structure of News Service Division and functioning of General
News Room.
In the present session we will study the organizational structure and functioning of
government owned FM radio station and private FM radio station.
________________________________________________________________

4.0 Objectives
After going through this lesson, you would be able to:
 Discuss general principles and structural pattern of a radio organization
 Describe the evolution of private radio station in India
 Understand the organizational structure and functioning of FM radio stations.

________________________________________________________________

4.1 Introduction
The organizational structures of FM radio stations are designed in accordance with
their objectives and functions. There are several broadcasting networks in the
world, some are public service broadcasting organizations, and others are
commercial networks. Besides, there are individual radio stations, mostly of a
commercial nature. The policy objectives of FM radio stations differ widely
depending on the policy of those who own or control them. The organizational
structure of a broadcasting organization also varies widely in relation to the size,
of the network, ownership pattern, its policy objectives and capital investments.

4.2 Organizational Structure of Government FM Radio Station

In India government owned FM radio station is running by All India Radio (AIR)
under the control of Prasar Bharati Board of India. At present AIR have 206 FM
stations (transmitters) across the country which includes 35 FM Rainbow stations,
4 FM Gold stations, 26 FM Vividh Bharati stations, and rest are local radio stations
broadcasting their program through FM transmitters.
The headquarters of All India Radio is located in New Delhi is headed by a Director-
General.
There is not a separate infrastructure for Government FM radio stations. These are
using basic infrastructure of All India Radio network spread all over the India at
various levels i.e. headquarter, state capitals, regional centers and local levels.

4.3 Organizational structure of All India Radio

The All India Radio is headed by The Director-General, assisted by a Director-
General (News) and an Engineer-in Chief. There are Additional Director Generals,
and Deputy Director-Generals for Programme, Administration and Security, a
Director of Monitoring Service and a Director for Audience Research. The Director
General is answerable to the Parsar Bharati Board of Management.
The Director-General provides the professional leadership. He controls and
supervises the activities of various divisions. The heads of programs and
engineering divisions are, in turn, assisted by regional/zonal heads and a chief
 engineer in-charge of civil construction. The heads of programme regions are
located in Mumbai, Calcutta and Guwahati, while the zonal chief engineers are
headquartered at the four metropolises. There are 41 Regional News Units
attached to the various radio stations and they receive professional guidance from
the Director-General (News). A Deputy Director General carries out the inspection
of radio offices.
The chart given below explains the hierarchical arrangement:
Director General

DG (News) Eng. in Chief ADG/DDG DDG (Admn) DDG (Security)

41 Regional Zonal Offices Programmes Admn & A/cs Security
News Units at 4 Metropolis of Radio Stations at Radio Stations at Radio Stations

Each radio station, except the smaller ones, has Programme, News, Engineering,
Administration, Accounts, Audience Research and Security Units. The head of the
station reports to the Director-General directly or through regional/zonal heads. He
coordinates the various units to ensure that the communication objectives of the
organization are achieved through the station's programming and other activities.
The typical organization chart of a radio station is given below:

Head of Station (Station Director)

Ksdfaskf;sdlf lkdsfjsdkfl

Program News/Current Affairs Engineering Administration & Audience

Wing Wing Wing Accounts Wing Research Wing

4.4 Private FM Radio Station: Initiatives in India

FM broadcasting was initiated on 23 July 1977 in Chennai (Madras) and was
expanded in other metropolitan cities i.e. Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai during the
1990s. In the mid-nineties, when India first experimented with private FM
broadcasts, Goa was the fifth place in this country where private players got FM
slots.
Times FM (now Radio Mirchi) began operations in 1993 in Ahmedabad. Until 1993,
All India Radio or AIR, a government undertaking, was the only radio broadcaster
in India. The government then took the initiative to privatize the radio broadcasting
sector. It sold airtime blocks on its FM channels in Indore, Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Delhi, Kolkata, Vizag and Goa to private operators, who developed their own
program content. The format of programming was totally different as compare to
traditional stations. The Times Group operated its brand, Times FM, till June 1998.
 After that, the government decided not to renew contracts given to private
operators. In 2000, the government announced the auction of 108 FM frequencies
across India. Radio City Bangalore, started on July 3, 2001, is India's first private
FM radio station.

4.5 Organizational setup of Private FM Radio Station

After the Supreme Court’s decision government of India issued license to private
operators to run FM radio stations. At present (upto 2016) there are 243 private
FM radio stations are broadcasting their programs in 86 cities of all over India.
These stations are operating for commercial purpose and to give entertainment
to Indian audience. The major operators are:
Organizing a private FM radio station involves setting up of a sound recording
cum broadcasting studio, transmitter and generation of software (programs).
This requires a substantial investment, entrepreneur-ship and manpower and
this will depend on the hours of broadcast and type of programming. The station
has to depend on advertisement revenue for its day-to-day expenditure, profits
and provision for depreciation etc.
The private FM radio stations have to be compact organizations i.e.
management body (owner of the station – individual or corporate or any other
setup), the advisory body, and minimum working staff including administration,
accounting, security staff, marketing & publicity, audience research, multi-skilled
program production crew and technical crew, avoiding the expense of large
paraphernalia of divisions and departments with huge staff (like public sector)
manning them.
These stations are managing with a small contingent of multi-skilled staff
numbering 10 or 15 persons or even less.
The software is drawn from live broadcasting, pre-recorded contents or the like.
To hook the listeners, in a competitive environment, these stations are usually
organizing interactive programmes, chat shows, phone-ins, prize schemes etc.
In case of corporate body, which are getting license for operating a number of
radio stations at many cities/centers, the situation is different. These could be
'functional' type of organizations.
In community radio stations the organization would be distinctively different
depending on the informational resources.

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