Radio Touches Your Imagination
Radio can swiftly take you to the outer reaches of your imagination.
It can put a circus, the Super Bowl or a music festival between your ears.
Radio provides the sounds, and you provide the rest. Consider this: A
team of experts would need months to create the following commercial
for television. Two people in a radio studio could do it in minutes:
“Fred, we’re here today on the shores of Lake Michigan to witness
an incredible demonstration.”
“Yes, that’s right, Frank. A team of scientists is about to create the
world’s largest cup of hot chocolate.”
“It looks like they have just begun. Let’s listen.”
(sounds of Lake Michigan being emptied—water sucked down the drain)
“Amazing, isn’t it? Look at that mud!”
(sounds of someone stepping in and out of mud.)
“Catch this, Frank. Hundreds of tankers are pulling up to the
shore.”
“If I don’t miss my guess, Fred, they’re loaded with hot choco-
late.”
(sounds of tankers rolling to a stop, then pumping liquid)
“Look at the steam rise. And hey, what’s that?”
“We’re scheduled to have a fleet of crop-dusting planes fly over
next, and they’re loaded with whipped topping. Here they come.”
(sounds of planes flying over and then sound of a whipped cream can
shooting out cream)
“That’s incredible! A mountain of cream on top of a lake of
steaming hot chocolate.”
“Well, there you have it. I thought I’d seen it all. Looks like
another world first for radio.”Radio’s sound effects, simple and yet completely convincing, give radio
a special kind of intimacy—the kind that gives listeners a feeling of
being at the heart of the action.
Radio is probably a vital part of your life. It brings you the latest
in music and keeps you up-to-date on local and national news. Radio
is also a constant companion, staying with you while you wash your
car, do the laundry
or struggle with your
homework. What you
may not realize is that
radio also offers some
of the best opportuni-
ties to enter a broad-
casting career. Many
young people have
found that a part-time
job at a radio station
can eventually lead to
full-time work as a dee-
jay or to a position in
television.
BROADCAST NEWS 441
OutTake
Images Overwhelm Words
Former President Ronald
Reagan’s “media handlers”
understood the power of images.
When the government cut its
support for nursing homes, for
example, Reagan was filmed
visiting a nursing home. The
film appeared on television, and
the bad news faded. The image
was so much more powerful
than the words being spoken
that people—over 50 percent
of the viewers, according to the
television network’s own sur-
vey—still believed that Reagan
supported nursing homes.
Source: Adapted from Larry Gonick,
Cartoon Guide to (Non) Communi-
cation (New York: HarperCollins).This deejay might be reading
a fanciful script just like the one on
this page.