Writing Guidelines for Good Dirt Radio » Download Printable Version

Good Dirt Radio broadcasts stories about individuals, businesses, groups and institutions helping to solve environmental problems through innovative, inspiring actions. Our goal is to provide nonpartisan stories about positive solutions that motivate listeners to learn and emulate similar actions in their own communities.

Story submissions must align with the mission and goals of GDR News. If stories are based on a negative issue, positive examples and solutions for change need to dominate the story.

Stories are not limited to biological or atmospheric issues. They may address any subject pertinent to our mission such as law, the arts, communication or travel. Reports may have a local flavor, but if so, find a way to make the narrative relevant to other geographic areas as well. We are catering to a national audience and are interested in stories that stimulate a change in behavior and have a long shelf life... I.E. no dated material that relies on a specific date or time for relevance.

Listen or read the stories posted on our website: www.gooddirtradio.org. Introductory paragraphs are intended to capture the listeners' attention and lead into the interviews. Listen or read for what kinds of questions to ask, which statements are best for encouraging from interviewees concise answers. Often in the course of an interview statements that inspire others to action occur when the interviewee’s enthusiasm is drawn out by the interviewer. Those statements are extracted for use, the “pearls.”

Hear how to interject questions or comments into the story line, which produce a natural transition from one subtopic to the next Write the piece so the listener can come to their own conclusions. Good Dirt stories are in the genre of bi-partisan environmental advocacy, and writers need to keep that in mind so they don’t cross into endorsement of any particular product, business, or political party etc… Keep the focus on the positive changes that can be enacted by anyone.

Your 5 minute interview will actually be four minutes and thirty seconds in finished length. Our standard intro, outro, underwriter's space and conclusion take up the remaining 30 seconds. Remember to limit your story’s scope or focus in order for information to fit within GDR's time format in a smooth, professional manner.

Find a topic you feel passionate about. This sets the tone, which will come through the story. Create a rough outline of the topic and then seek out the best two or three interviewees you can find, who might provide different perspectives. (Depending on the subject, a show can be designed around one individual or include as many as four interviewees. Just remember: 4:30.) Make your initial contact, either for a personal interview or one conducted by phone. Arrange times for interviews that are at least 10 days in advance. Notify GDR of your intentions with a brief outline.

Choose your interview subjects by way of who has:

• Credibility
• Inspirational attitude
• Has experienced the positive effects of the modeled behavior
• Can provide real examples of how the mass listening audience can get involved now on a grass roots level. (Stories on high profile icons doing something are less engaging since the average listener doesn’t necessarily have the same tools at their disposal to enact change. Make the stories resonate with citizen level involvement.

Formulate interview questions, remembering to keep it simple, the “who, what, when, where, how and why” formula. You are the one that will have to hone down the interview to salient points fitting the 4:30 timeframe. You may find it helpful to email your questions to the interviewee in advance, so he or she is apprised of keeping answers concise. An interview lasting longer than 15 minutes requires a lot more editing time for you.

We recommend that broadcast writers intending to do free lance work regularly acquire personal recording equipment. GDR staff can assist writers with how to acquire such equipment, at the writer's cost. If this does not interest you, GDR owns equipment for both telephone recording and in-person interviews. If necessary, we may be able to ship the appropriate interview equipment to out-of-the-area writers with instructions and return mail packet. Allow yourself enough time to acquaint yourself with the recording equipment. You will not find it difficult to use. Initially, a deposit will be charged for this service. Shipped recording equipment must be returned in a timely manner as we have a very limited supply that must be shared.

Writers living in the Four Corners region are welcome to use the GDR studios.

Writers who do not have access to editing equipment may make notes of interview timelines, within the script, noting the specific portions of an interview intended for final broadcast. GDR staff will then do final editing. Determining timelines can be done with any CD player that has a 'track time' clock [i.e iTunes, Diskman, Console CD players, etc.]. Because this choice in editing requires more work for GDR staff, we encourage writers to acquire the equipment necessary to create independent broadcast journalism.

COMPUTER EDITING/TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Professional grade interviews are required of writers, which in turn, require quality equipment. Many options may exist for obtaining broadcast quality interviews. There are several ways to record and edit your interviews using digital equipment and a computer. Recording can be done directly onto a computer or onto a portable digital recording device and transferred to a computer for editing. Final interview sound bytes shall be submitted as .wav or .aif files suitable for final editing at 44.1 khz GDR staff can assist writers with acquiring such equipment, at writer's cost,

One such computer based editing program is Audacity, a free wave-form software program. It accepts imports of .wav and .aif files from an external digital recording device. It shows the data as a graphic wave-form image, which then can be edited by cut, paste and other basic commands, resulting in a sound byte that has been “cleaned up” and streamlined. There is some learning curve with this process, and, since it is free, it is not the best software of its type.

ProTools Free, (no cost) or better, ProTools LE with an M-Box [computer interface], which costs about $420, has the same basic functions as Audacity but is far superior, making better recordings with more controlling features. It also operates on basic computer commands, such as cut and paste, to create professional editing, but has more features, is more user-friendly and perhaps has less of a learning curve. There are several types of computer interfaces available other than the M-Box.

The best low cost telephone [digital-hybrid] interviewing device we have found is JK Audio's THAT-2 which costs approx. $225. A professional grade telephone interview device together with a 16 bit [minimum] recording device or computer are tools which are needed to perform and edit interviews.

External devices that GDR uses are mini-disc recorders [$200-400], Olympus DM-10 or DM-20 digital recorders [$150-200], or the M-Audio 24/96 Microtrack recorder [$350], all of which can transfer .wav or .aif files to a computer for editing.

After downloading or transferring the interview files to a Mac or PC with editing software, you can create finished, professional grade sound bytes. With an internal or external CD burner, you can then burn a Data CD with the edited sound byte files for mailing to GDR for production. GDR also maintains an FTP site for transmitting such files over the internet, which requires the writer to have access to broadband internet service [DSL, minimum].

OVERVIEW OF WRITING SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FINAL SCRIPT

You’ll find that interviews will shape your story, so edit your interviews before attempting to write the scripts. Copy down the opening welcome from the website. Then write your introduction, which will state the issue and introduce how or who is solving a problem or working on an issue. Within this section comes the intro of the first interviewee. Per examples on the website, create transitional sentences that introduce new aspects of your subject, while also introducing other interviewees. Write the narrator script with action oriented sentence structure. This is radio copy and needs to have an action appeal to the listening audience. Many times the listener is only partially engaged as radio is a media that is prone to be a secondary activity to some other prime activity i.e. driving, working, or activities around the house etc… You need to capture their attention by using emotion, action. and short, engaging sentence structure. Note the different kinds of conclusions writers have made. Try to ask open ended questions to your interview subjects. The remainder of the time is used for referrals to further information, a plug for our website and GDR’s standard closure.

FORMAT FOR OUR STORIES

Write as Word docs in 12 point Helvetica font, with interviewees’ words in italics.
Submissions should accommodate the voices of two hosts and be based on the style and presentation of previous GDR reports. Stories need to have a length of approximately 500 words or 265 seconds of read time, including the interviews. (GDR’s intro and conclusion and sponsor plugs add approximately 30 seconds to the story, for a total of 300 seconds.) All interview segments need to have their respective times included, and if you are writing from a CD, where the final editor must extrapolate sound bytes, include the exact 'time-clock' or timeline numbers posted on your CD recorder. They indicate the exact location of your selected sentence[s] in a track. Submissions must be accompanied by sources, a list of references including books, articles and web links to be used on the GDR website.

Your report will also need a story “blurb.” This is the “teaser” that appears on our website's homepage prior to the running of a story. It can be the first paragraph of the script or a synopsis. Check the web for examples.

Each report submission shall be accompanied by a 23 second 'promo,' a short, inviting introduction offering a glimpse into the topic. Promos usually include a meaningful, intriguing sound byte from an interviewee and are aired on the radio a few days or hours before the program. This, too, can be a rendition of the first paragraph, but you’ll need to time it. The complete promo timeframe is 25 seconds, which includes approximately two seconds of music intro.

In summary of what you’ll need to write: Blurb, promo, timed edited interviews, written copy that includes an intro paragraph, conclusion and sources.

Submissions of text and sound bytes will be subject to final editing by the GDR editing staff and may be re-written, re-worded or re-edited as deemed necessary to achieve conformance with GDR's Mission and format. Changes shall receive approval, either by email or fax, from the author prior to the final production of a story.

A topic may be assigned to a writer by the GDR Board or topics may be initiated by the writer.

The first story submitted by a writer new to the GDR writer's staff shall be considered a 'test run' for both the writer and the GDR staff because, often, much coaching, review and editing is required to help a new writer grasp the format of GDR reports. As such, first 'test run' stories shall not be a paid story unless this first story [hopefully!] does not require intensive GDR staff coaching/editing or unless otherwise agreed. Subsequent story submissions shall be paid by the GDR board at the current rate, $150, as stipulated in the GOOD DIRT RADIO JOURNALISM CONTRACT between the writer and GDR. As we are a growing non-profit organization, it is the hope of the GDR Board to increase writer's compensation to $250 as funding and underwriters are acquired by GDR.

Copyright, use and production rights of writers’ submissions will be specified in this contract. Credit for report will be shown on the GDR website but not spoken on air.

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