Airwaves & Liberty

Greetings FSRN Contributors,

The FSRN editorial collective is writing to share with you a few new ways you can contribute to the newscast, by submitting raw tape and by pitching us “vox pops” for our new regular segment, Street Beat. Guidelines and rates are summarized below.

New Segment — Street Beat

Street Beat is FSRN’s new regular vox pop segment in which we feature a montage of voices all responding to the same question. Contributors can suggest a question to producers[at]fsrn.org or we may assign various Street Beat producers a question based on the hot news topics of the week. Rate for commissioned vox pops: $50.

This is a great opportunity for news directors to engage new radio producers, or for experienced producers to get out on the streets and try something different. Because there is no fact-gathering or script writing, production should be straight-forward and take 1-3 hours of work.

Street Beat production guidelines: Street Beat should run 2-3 minutes long and include 6-10 different voices, ideally representing a diversity of ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, economic classes, etc. There is no reporter narration in this segment, just a series of short (10-30 second) responses to your question, edited together in one file. To make sure the segment flows, we’d like to limit the number of clips needing translations. Please use 2 English clips for every 1 clip in a non-English language.

Please include a proposed anchor lede that ties the issue to something in the news and introduces the question you asked and where you asked it (downtown Seattle library, DC airport, San Diego burrito stand, Atlanta supermarket, etc). You should also send us the names of the people you interviewed — we will “back announce” who listeners just heard at the end of the segment.

Questions should be crafted in an open-ended way that provokes a thoughtful response. Questions can be general, for example, “What are you doing differently in the face of rising gas (or food) costs?” Or, questions can look at a specific local issue that would be of interest to a national audience, for example,
“The Richmond, CA city council is debating a controversial request from Chevron to expand its oil refinery in the city. Why do you support or oppose Chevron’s attempt to expand the refinery?”

The first question could be posed in any public place, in any US city. The second would need to come from Richmond, CA, perhaps outside of a council meeting. Choosing your location to find people is important — usually public places in downtown areas will give you access to a steady stream of different people: students, business people, working class, homeless, etc. If people decline your request to be interviewed, don’t despair! Keep asking — you will come across those who have an opinion and want to talk.

Election Unpsun

November’s right around the corner and election issues are everywhere. Don’t forget to pitch your ideas to Election Unspun, a collaboration between FSRN and Pacifica. Please send us your ideas about the local, state and national candidates, as well as other election issues, like ballot initiatives and voter access. Contact Leigh Ann Caldwell with your pitches at leighann.caldwell[at]gmail.com

Raw Tape/Unedited Recordings

FSRN will consider purchasing raw tape from reporters and producers, including speeches, press conferences, demonstrations/rallies, and panels/forums. A written summary of the who, what, where, and when is also required. If your tape has multiple voices, we’ll need to know who’s speaking and when. If we use the tape, we’ll pay a flat rate of $30.

This is ideal for people who may be recording for other reasons, but who can’t produce a feature story for FSRN. News directors, this could be another way for new producers to get their feet wet.

Interview/Q&A Segments

FSRN will also consider using excerpts from interviews/Q&As you’ve already done for other radio programs. If you’re a reporter or public affairs host and you’ve recorded an interview with an expert, community member, lawmaker, analyst, author, professor, etc. and think there’s some material we could connect to a current or on-going news issue, let us know. We can’t pay you for these segments, but we will credit you and/or plug your radio program.

If you have any questions, please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Catherine Komp
On Behalf of the FSRN Editorial Team
freespeechradionews[at]gmail.com