THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE

• Listeners will not necessarily stay with the programme unless their attention is engaged at the beginning and held continuously throughout.
• Compared with books, radio inhibits the imagination to some extent by imposing its own soundscape (so that the voices and sounds in a radio adaptation of a book, for example, may supplant the readers’ previous imagining of them).
• Conversely, radio engages the imagination more effectively than media such as film or television, insofar as listeners are free to create their own visual imagery. Arguably, the “three-dimensional” nature of the radio sound world may act as a stimulus to the imagination which, for some readers at least, may not be so readily provided by books.
• Radio is the only medium that enables its audience to enjoy the full benefits of the broadcast while continuing with tasks that make relatively modest demands on brainpower.
• Radio enables writers and listeners alike to evoke vivid characters, soundscapes and even landscapes that might be impractical or even impossible in other media.
• Music is a natural component of the radio listening experience.
• Radio listening may be a more solitary, one-way experience than, say, going to the theatre.
• The coincidence of 'the golden age of radio' with times of major change in the twentieth century means that many significant radio moments are extremely widely known. This increases the range of opportunities for evocative writing.

TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS

• Unlike readers, listeners cannot linger over sentences or look back, so the writer must ensure that everything may be understood immediately in the given context.
• Radio writers must make provision for clear differentiation of voices, in terms of both the physical sound of the voice and the characters’ idiosyncrasies of speech and style. Whereas theatregoers, for example, are quick to recognise familiar characters on a crowded stage, radio listeners may become confused on hearing too many characters in rapid succession.
• Radio scripts must conform to more exacting standards than, say, theatre scripts, in order to facilitate the relatively compressed production process. In particular, sound effects must be described clearly and concisely.
• Radio writers must work to the specific timing constraints of the target programme slot.
• In contrast to theatre, radical changes in time and place and characters may be achieved within seconds.
• Music may be used more freely than in other non-visual media.

PROGRAMMING CONSIDERATIONS

• The sheer range of radio programming — current affairs, sport, drama, etc — offers opportunities for many types of creative writing.
• The largely live nature of radio programming enables writers to blur the lines between rehearsed and improvised materials and between fact and fiction.
• Radio programming, like that of television, is conducive to serialisation. Insofar as episodes tend to have to be of equal length, however, radio writers cannot be as free with series structure as, say, authors, who are free to change chapter length at will.

MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS

• The market for radio writing is much narrower than for other media. Accordingly, writers must be willing to conform to the standards and predilections of the BBC in particular, if they are to have a reasonable chance of placing their work.
• Radio writers must be exceptionally aware of their target audience. Broadcasters have very clear views of the sorts of people likely to be listening at particular times of the day, week or year, and are accordingly extremely selective in their programming choices.