Terms in Radio Journalism

Here are some common terms in radio journalism used throughout the newswriting for radio and their definitions:

actuality
recorded segment of a newsmaker speaking, generally lasting from 10 to 20 seconds; this is what people outside of radio journalism often call a "sound bite"

clock
schedule of a broadcast hour, with precise time in minutes and seconds allotted for the various programming segments; for example, a clock might begin "00:00-01:30 -- news," "01:30-02:30 -- spots," and so forth; often represented as a pie chart resembling an analog clock

cut
tape containing the recording of a voicer, wrap, actuality or nat sound; networks feed cuts to affiliates via satellite

hourly
network newscast beginning at the top of the hour; the cast generally contains a commercial break at two and a half or three minutes past the hour and resumes a minute or a minute and a half later; most hourlies conclude at five minutes past the hour

IQ
"in cue" -- the first words recorded on a cut

lead
first sentence of a news story, which should concisely reveal the story's basic events and provide an introduction to the details given in the rest of the story

live shot
report introduced by an anchor that has not been recorded but is read live by another journalist, often at a news scene

lockout
final words of a report spoken by a journalist in which the journalist's name and station call letters or frequency are given, such as " M. Dawud, Prosalina FM"; often a location is given as well: "Dari Jember, M. Dawud, Prosalina FM"

MOS
abbreviation for "Man On the Street" interviews; that is, interviews of passers-by chosen at random in a public place and asked their opinions of events or people in the news

nat or natural or raw sound
"raw sound" is recorded sound that is not of a newsmaker speaking, such as the sound of an airplane landing or a marching band playing or a crowd cheering; sometimes known as "natural sound" or "nat sound," especially when the source of the sound is from nature, such as frogs croaking or geese honking

OQ
"out cue" -- the last words recorded on a cut

reader
script of a news story in which no actualities are to be played; this script is read live on the air by the anchor; the recording of a reader by a reporter is called a "voicer"

script
written-out version of a news story, the text of which is read on the air; a newscast is made up of a collection of scripts read by an anchor

slug
title of a script; used for reference purposes; wire-service stories are each given one

sounder
recorded tune used to introduce segments of the broadcast, such as at the beginning of a traffic report or sports; the networks use sounders at the beginning of the hourlies

spot
recorded commercial advertisement

tease
brief phrase spoken by the anchor immediately before playing a spot or going to traffic (or some other interruption of the newscast) to tell the listener about a story coming up later; the tease should intrigue the listener without either misrepresenting the story or revealing it entirely

voicer
recorded report containing only the journalist's voice -- there is no actuality; can be understood as a recorded reader

wrap
recorded report in which a journalist's voice occurs at the beginning and end, and an actuality is played in between; the report is "wrapped around" the actuality