CHAPTERCHAPTER 15 Radio, Television, and the Web

Topics Covered in Chapter 15 The Reach of Radio and Television Television Personal Appearances Product Placements The Web

More than 13,000 radio stations in the United States reach about 150 million Americans on an average day. More than 800 televisions stations in the United States also reach a mass audience. Local television news attracts about 150 million viewers. The average U.S. household still watches more than eight hours of television per day. Almost 70 percent of adults list local television news as their primary source of information. The Reach of Radio and Television

Writing and preparing materials for broadcast and digital media, requires a special perspective. Instead of writing for the eye, a practitioner has to shift gears and think about adding audio and visual elements to the story. The Reach of Radio and Television cont.

Radio news releases in the industry are called audio news releases or ANRs. Radio news release is written for the ear. It has an emphasis on strong, short sentences that average about 10 words that can be easily understood by a listener. A standard one-minute ANR is about 160 words. A radio release is written in a conversational style. The Reach of Radio and Television cont.

Eighty-three percent of radio editors use ANRs. Topics of interest include regional interest, health information, financial news, technology stories, children’s issues, politics, seasonal stories and local interest issues. The Reach of Radio and Television cont.

Public relations personnel working for nonprofit organizations often prepare public service announcements (PSAs) for radio stations. A PSA is an unpaid announcement that promotes the programs of government or voluntary agencies or that serves the public interest. Radio PSAs are written in uppercase and double- spaced, and their length can be 60, 30, 20, 15, or 10 seconds. The Reach of Radio and Television cont.

Another public relations tactic for radio is the radio media tour (RMT). Essentially, a spokesperson conducts a series of around-the-country, one-on-one interviews with a series of radio stations from a central location. A public relations practitioner prebooks telephone interviews with radio representatives. A major selling point of the RMT is its relatively low cost and the convenience of giving numerous short interviews from one central location. The Reach of Radio and Television cont.

There are four approaches for getting an organization’s news and viewpoints on local television. (1) News release (2) Media alert (3) Pitch a story (4) Video news release Television

An estimated 5,000 VNRs are produced annually in the United States. A typical 90-second VNR, says one producer, costs a minimum of $20,000 to $50,000 for production and distribution. On average, it takes four to six weeks to script, produce, and distribute a high-quality VNR. The traditional VNR package is like a print media kit, and it has various components that enable the television journalist to produce a television news story. Television cont.

Video News Releases have come under fire because television stations often use them without source attribution. Watchdog groups have complained that stations using VNR content without telling the viewers about the source is presenting “fake news.” The Public Relations Society of America and the National Association of Broadcast Communicators (NABC) issued a new standard for VNRs to be sent to television stations. Television cont.

Television stations use PSAs on behalf of governmental agencies, community organizations, and charitable groups. Many of the guidelines for radio PSAs apply television PSAs. PSA’s must be short, to the point, and professionally produced. Both audio and visual elements must be present. Television cont.

The television equivalent to the radio media tour is the satellite media tour (SMT). Today, the SMT is a staple of the public relations and television industry. Essentially, an SMT is a series of prebooked, one-on- one interviews from a fixed location via satellite with a series of television journalists or talk show hosts. The easiest way to do an SMT is to simply make the spokesperson available for an interview at a designated time. Television cont.

When scheduling a guest on a television program, PR practitioners should be totally familiar with a show’s format and content as well as the type of audience. A checklist to use before booking a spokesperson is below:  Is the topic newsworthy?  Is the topic timely?  Is the information useful to viewers?  Does the spokesperson have viewer appeal?  Can he/she stay on track and give concise statements?  Can he/she refrain from getting too commercial? Personal Appearances

Television’s dramas, comedy shows, movies and game shows are all good vehicles for promoting a company’s products and services. Product placements are sometimes called plugs and are often negotiated by product publicists and talent agencies. PR specialists should be alert to opportunities for publicity on television programs and upcoming movies. Often, product placements can be mutually beneficial for the product and the television show producers. Product Placements

A logical extension of product placements is convincing popular television programs to write an issue or cause into their plotlines. The flip side of asking scriptwriters to include material is asking them to give a more balanced portrayal of an issue. Another form of product placement is agreements with radio stations to promote a product or event as part of their programming. Product Placements cont.

There are more than 6,000 news sites, and the number grows each day. Many Web sites, of course, are extensions of a particular newspaper, magazine, radio or television station, or even television network. Podcasts, blogs and webcasts are all important tools journalists and public relations practitioners use in the digital media process. The Web