Writing for Radio

Finding romance in a second choice
Writing for radio
Melbe S. Estonilo

NEVER dreamed of becoming a radio broadcaster, much less a radio news writer.  When I took up Mass Communication in college, all I wanted was to be a teacher.  I did contribute to our college paper, and even became an editor.  But the articles I turned in were features and short stories, not straight news stories.
You see, I used to be a romantic nut (well, I still am, sometimes), and news writing for me was not romantic.  I learned early on that news should be accurate, fair, objective, straight to the point, and, especially for radio, short.  How cold, I thought.
So it was with alacrity that after seven years of teaching in college (I started teaching right after graduation), I applied for the position of news writer at dzBB, the AM station of GMA-7. Actually, the station was looking not only for a news writer, but a news reader as well. So notwithstanding my dislike for news writing, I felt excited about the prospect of actually being heard on radio!
There were about a hundred of us who turned up for the audition.  Each of us was asked to read two news items, one in English and another in Filipino.  Those who passed the oral test went on to the news writing test. Those who did not make the oral test got a curt “Thank you” from the audition master.
From then on, my life has never been the same again.

Midnight blues
I never imagined that the time would come when I would be pounding the typewriter (we did not have computers back then yet), writing stories starting at midnight for a one-hour newscast while most of mankind were sound asleep, ensconced with their loved ones in soft pillows and feathery blankets (or so I imagined them to be).
How guilty I felt about having to leave my own family, especially my two-month-old baby girl and her one-year-old brother at such an ungodly hour, Mondays to Saturdays, to produce a news program.
At any rate, coffee, which up until then I shunned like the plague even when I burned the midnight oil in my student days, helped me survive the graveyard shift.
Time enslaved me like no other when I was in radio. Every second was a deadline.  I had to keep an eye on the clock, literally, to make sure there were stories for the hourly news bulletin which aired in between the major newscasts.
Trying to make my 20- to 25- second news stories make sense was only half of the challenge of radio news production. The other half was producing sound bites, and news was simply not radiogenic without them.  I had to choose the best cuts from interviews and edit them until I got neat and clear actualities that went for about 10 seconds.
As I did all these things, I also had to answer the phones (there were several of them and they would tease me most of the time by ringing simulta-neously!), attend to the queries of the announcer-on-board, put reporters who shouted their news advisories over the two-way radio on-standby, cue taped reports, and keep my other ear tuned in to rival radio stations for breaking stories … just in case.
There were times, too, when I had to stop in the middle of writing a story to follow up on some details and do interviews through the phone.

Slow days
And how can I forget the times when an announcer called in sick or simply wanted to be absent and there was no one to substitute for him or her?  When that happened, I had to stop writing, usually for an hour or more, until help arrived.  Meantime, the next newscast was due in 10 minutes and I was still more or less 20 stories short of  the number of items needed to complete a one-hour news program.
Lest I be mistaken for doing a one-woman show, I must acknowledge the presence of a partner who was himself trying his best to keep his sanity intact while we both made a heroic act (well, that was how we felt, anyway) of coming up with a coherent newscast against all odds (forgive the cliché, please).
Interviews.  These were what I usually prayed for to save me from news scripts shortages or slow news days.  Right after handing to the news anchor the scripts, I would usually dash to the phones and feverishly get in touch with persons to be interviewed by the anchor.  If the anchor was familiar with the issue, it meant I could leave him/her to his/her own devices, heave a sigh of relief, maybe grab a cup of coffee, and pray that the interview would last for at least 15 minutes before I resumed working the phones and  calling up people again and coaxing them to grant an interview even in the middle of their morning bath or even if they had just gotten out of bed.  If the anchor was not very familiar with the issue (read: just did not care and did not keep himself/herself updated when he/she should be for after all he’s/she’s a news anchor!) I was expected to feed him/her  with questions.
Getting the newsmakers on the phone was a test of determination, tenacity, and the will to survive given that morning primetime on radio meant getting ahead of the competition  in dragging newsmakers from their beds for precious sound bites.
I liked writing my own stories better than rewriting the reporters’ aired stories.  So if I could avoid it, I did. Bless my partner whose patience for such a mind-boggling task was admirable.
It was only when the next shift took over that I could call it a day, hoping that there would be no breaking stories. For like any other news person, I was on call 24/7.

Not just a job
I have a thousand and other stories to tell covering the two stations I worked for, the other being dwIZ. I’d be more than glad to recall them to anyone who would care to listen. But as I look back to those days, I can’t help but smile and be grateful.
Thanks to radio for the wealth of experience it gave me.  What I initially thought to be an unromantic and boring job turned out to be a most colorful, exciting, challenging, and fulfilling, albeit exacting, experience for me. And to me, that was where the romance lay.  Beyond the hustle and bustle of it all, I realized something wonderful about my job as a news producer. It was not just a job.  It was a rare opportunity to serve, in my own way, the people out there who wanted and needed information.
I am now back to my first love which is teaching. But radio, my second love, will always have a special place in my heart. These days, I consider it a great privilege to share with my students what I have gained from my radio stint. And whenever I do so, the classroom becomes a radio newsroom all over again. n

Melba S. Estonilo teaches broadcasting at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

Comments are closed.