KADUNA POLYTECHNIC LECTURE NOTE 1&2

CASSS
DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION
BROADCAST PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES ND2
TOPIC: TV ORGANOGRAM/TYPES OF BROADCAST PROGRAM

RADIO TELEVISION PRODUCTION

While the structure and nomenclature of radio station departments may vary for each station and company, a
typical radio station will have the following basic departments (or will at least cater to the following functions
under the different name or structure likewise, in the television station):

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF A TYPICAL TELEVISION STATION

GENERAL MANAGER
The general manager supervises the station's management and operations tasks. The general manager
establishes and implements station policy and often has the final word in decisions affecting the station's
programming and production work. If the station is an affiliate of a nationwide network, like Nigerian television
authority (NTA) Or African Independent Television (AIT) the general manager coordinates local programming
schedules with the network to prevent any scheduling conflicts. The general manager also works with the
news, sales and technical staff members to ensure that the station's operations run smoothly.

NEWS DIRECTOR
The news director coordinates the station's news-gathering efforts. The news director may be called on to
write news stories, edit stories from reporters and coordinate schedules for covering breaking news stories. For
stories with nationwide impact, the news director for the local station coordinates efforts with the network
news staff and determines how to cover the story to show its effects on the local community. The news
director is also in charge of activating the Emergency Broadcast System in the event of a natural disaster.

SALES MANAGER
Commercial television stations rely on advertising to generate revenue. The station sales manager works with
the ad sales staff on lead generation, sales techniques and client relations to sell the station's available
commercial time. The sales manager hires and trains new sales staff, finds the best sales opportunities for the
station's programming and creates sales plans and objectives. The sales manager works with the general
manager to determine the station's revenue needs and the best methods to meet those needs.

PRODUCTION MANAGER
The production manager supervises each live local newscast and assigns news stories to anchors. The tasks of
the production manager includes setting the order of stories for each newscast and selecting when and where
any live remote reports occur. The production manager works in the operations booth, alongside the director
and technical staff, to ensure that the lights, camera angles and sound cues all work together to present a
professional and informative program.
ORGANOGRAM OF A TYPICAL TELEVISION STATION

DIFFERENT TYPES OF BROADCAST PROGRAMMES

In broadcasting, a program is seen as a broadcast material created to meet certain specific needs or attain
some set objectives and transmitted to some pre-determined target audience

Duyile (2005) classified programs under two (2) general headings which includes;

• Spoken words broadcasting: They are; talks, discussions, educational broadcasting, programs for special
audiences (women, children, rural listeners), drama, documentary, magazines, news and current affairs
programs and religious broadcasting.

• Music includes programs of cassette recording, live musical performance of all kinds and variety of
entertainment.

He further went to break down the different types of Broadcast Programs which fits into the above
classifications:

• Talk Programs: this is termed straightforward talk, the interview and discussion. A talk program ranges
from a one minute contribution, to a magazine program, to one hour interview program which are audience
participatory in nature. The purpose of the talk program may be to inform, to educate or simply to entertain.
The best talk program is a chat built on one subject. An example of such talk programs is an interview or vox
pop. A Vox pop is radio or television program designed to sample public opinion on an issue that has local,
nation or international significance. The main idea is to sample peoples’ opinion on any issue that affects them
directly or indirectly and by so doing a radio or television station presents divers shades of ideas. As a result,
policy makers can have a pulse of public opinion from the vox-pop. It is however important to note that vox-
pop (usually) does not stand as a program on its own. It is either slotted in the news or discussion or magazine
program.
 • Educational Program: of all the uses to which television and radio have been put, educational programs
have commanded more enthusiasm. No other means of transmitting knowledge broadly whether by text, the
classroom lecture or discussion or magazine articles would seem nearly effective as television and radio, which
allow a single teacher to address thousands of people. For educational program, several unique characteristics
make television and radio especially useful. Among these are easy communication, sense of reality, technical
assets available through the media, timeliness and special motivation. However, a number of shortcomings
have been identified in educational programs. They include general lack of such ingredients as reciprocal
relationship, flexibility, regularity and system as well as limitation in the physical senses.

• Entertainment Programs: Not all broadcast programming is serious or of vital social concern. A great
number of hours are set aside simply for entertainment and these are the hours, which build the popularity of
broadcast media and win as well as hold the audience. Light entertainment is a rather loose term used by many
stations to cover a wide field of programming, book and short story reading, serialized drama, particularly light
and humorous drama; variety of programs featuring light musical entertainment, comics, community singing,
some types of listeners feedback programs, quiz and panel games. The success of these programs is largely
dependent upon the amount of talent available.

• Children Program: No area of television programming is more susceptible to public criticism than that of
children programs.

(Eastman & Ferguson, 2006) added that programmers must also consider several other factors specific to
children’s programming like; Federal Government rules, children’s interest, and packaging that will attract the
kids.

• News Programs: News programs are essential part of programming for any radio or television station.
The broadcast of news is an activity, in which practically every broadcasting organization engages. News
operations range from large scale undertakings involving news editors, film crews and special reporters.
Because of the great audience for news and the public faith in the reliability of broadcast news, it is
essential that news broadcasters have a full sense of responsibility and are intellectually equipped
professionals. News is very important to everybody because it keeps people informed as to what is
happening in their community and other communities. News satisfies people’s curiosity and concern
and it provides basic facts, which enable people to make up their minds and so join the general
discussion that leads to community discussion. The style of writing broadcast news is slightly different
from print. This is because broadcast news is meant for ear and as such it must be hearable. Also
television news must have appropriate visuals to accompany it. The following must therefore be
considered when writing a broadcast script:

NUGGETS OF BROADCAST NEWS WRITING

• It should be simple. Short sentences and paragraphs should be used to facilitate smooth reading.

• Headlines should be written in simple sentences containing a verb, a noun and an adjective

• Also ensure the headline to be picked directly from the lead in not more than six words

• The lead should also be attractive to hold the attention of the audience often in not more than 25words
 • Titles or designations of the news maker should come before the name. e.g Kano state Governor,
Mallam Ibrahim Shekaru.

• Long figures that can easily confuse news caster should be written or mixed to facilitate easy delivery.
E.g 415 billion (four hundred and fifteen billion)

• Words that are difficult to pronounce should be avoided or where it cannot be avoided, the phonetic
spelling should be provided.

• Proper instruction must be given in the case of television for camera man, floor manager and directors.

• Ensure that television news should as much as possible be accompanied by visuals either graphic,
motion or live inserts often called actualities e.g interviews, vox-pop, or comments from professionals.

• Likewise, radio news should ensure to use simple words rich with adjectives and followed by sound bits
and actualities.

• Where necessary, broadcast new should be written in the present tense. Past tense often depicts stale
news.

• Punctuations and pronunciations must also be emphasized in broadcast news presentation.

• Avoid using casters who have mother tongue challenge.

MAGAZINE PROGRAMME
Magazine is a popular broadcast program. It features varieties of segments which range from news in brief
(news highlights or tidbits), discussion, talk, book review, play let, musicals, vox pop e.t.c meant to educate
enlighten and entertain the audience of a radio or television station. This type of program can contain all other
types of program in segments depending on the time allotted to the program by the media house

The program is structured in such a way that an anchor leads the train from the beginning to the end, linking
together all the different segments with good transitions. Sometimes, the anchor could lead other presenters
for the different segments. Examples of magazines programs are Kakaki on AIT, Morning grill on supreme FM.

In summary, according to James and Ward (1998) Programs on radio and television can be classified into four
major categories namely;

• Public Affairs or programs which are made up of News, Interviews programs and Sports programs,
documentaries.

• Entertainment programs which are drama, musicals and talk shows.

• Children’s programs which are moonlight tales, children drama, children educational programs and
cartoons.

• Enlightenment programs, mostly sponsored by government and its agencies.