THE ELEMENTS OF RADIO

The Elements of Radio by Rubén Bermejo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

THE ELEMENTS OF RADIO

The main set of elements involved in the creation of a radio script are:

1.Human voice

2.Music

3.Sound effects

4.Silence

Human voice

Voice is a crucial element in radio. It can provoke different reactions on the listener depending on its characteristics.

Human voice

• Speak slowly. We are not in a hurry!• Move your mouth as much as you can while

pronouncing words.• Do not laugh! (if not on script) There are people

listening to you.

If we do not take care of our voice and the way we speak, we will not make it easy for the listener to understand our message.Tips

Music

Music is very important. Its main aim is to generate the appropriate atmosphere so as to make language work on the listener and with the desired objective.

Music

Music does not transmit ideas or concrete realities, instead it works on emotions. The listener would understand and feel different emotions depending on the images and feelings generated by the music. It is one of the most meaningful elements of the radio language.

Music

Music functions:

• Grammatical: it joins different spaces and identifies different contents and sections of the programme.

• Descriptive: when the music is part of the narration.

• As content: in musical programmes.

Silence

Silence is a very useful resource to put emphasis and atmosphere to the radio message. However, there is usually not much place for silence in radio scripts. Silence can provide a message with tension, emotion and very deep feelings.

Silence

Silence functions:

• Expressive: to represent emotional states.• Interactive: when doing interviews, the

interviewer does not speak to stimulate the thinking time.

• Narrative: to represent a gap in time.

Sound Effects

Sound effects are sounds produced by a human voice or by other things (e.g. animals, objects) which are neither words nor music. Noises and effects provoke the listener to imagine, thus they are very important in a radio message.

Sound Effects

Effects function:

• Descriptive: effects are crucial in the process of building a sound landscape.

THE ELEMENTS OF RADIO

Human voice, music, sound effects and silence combine altogether and create

sound landscapes or

sound images.

Sound Landscapes Radio listeners create images in their minds with the help of these sound elements. A radio piece makes your listeners imagine.