WRITING FOR RADIO

Rosemary Horstmann
3rd edition - published 1997 by A & C Black
Paperback, £8:99
ISBN 0-7136-4649-7

Review by Jean Currie

As a past producer and broadcaster, Rosemary Horstmann has a wealth of experience to offer those wishing to write for this medium.

She opens with a brief history of radio in Britain, from the days of the cat's whisker more than three quarters of a century ago when the listener was restricted by the need for a big receiver full of wires and glass valves leading to an aerial on a pole in the garden, to the present, when programmes can be heard untrammelled by such encumbrances.

Despite the coming of television, which many thought would oust radio, millions listen - in cars on the way to work, as they do household chores or in remote places. It is a means of entertaining insomniacs or informing people in countries where news is scarce. It must be remembered, though, that even if thousands are listening, they are thousands of individuals. It is a one to one connection. The person at the microphone is speaking to one individual. The style needs to be intimate, the words carefully chosen so that they are easy to speak and to understand and so that they convey a clear picture, bearing in mind that everything transmitted goes through the ears and only the ears.

This book covers every aspect of broadcasting, different types of stations from Radio 1 to the World Service to commercial stations and their output. There is also detailed advice for writers who wish to try drama, serials, short stories, documentaries, comedy, panel games and programmes in the educational and information field. There is even a section which includes the Open University, religious broadcasting and writing commercials. A chapter covers markets, fees and copyright and another is devoted to radio for children.

There is a comprehensive index, a book list and useful addresses, BBC national, regional and local stations, independent radio stations and those further afield in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

It may be thought that this book is of most use to the writer in Britain but it contains so much advice on the principles of writing for the spoken word, structure of plays, effective use of music and sound effects etc. that it is invaluable for anyone interested in writing for radio wherever they are.