Inside Broadcasting

Julian Newby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781134746866
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Inside Broadcasting provides a comprehensive introduction to a highly rewarding yet competitive industry. It analyses the day-to-day running of both television and radio organisations and examines the jobs involved and how to get them.
Inside Broadcasting begins with an informative history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It traces the invention of radio and television, from the founding of the BBC and ITV networks through to the end of the terrestrial monopoly and the advent of satellite and pay-per-view television.
Julian Newby explains what skills, experience and professional qualifications are required for entry into this profession. He provides detailed job descriptions and explains how each job fits into the industry as a whole. Practical careers advice together with a comprehensive list of training and educational bodies, companies and professional publications ensure Inside Broadcasting is an essential introduction to a career in radio and television.

1
INTRODUCTION

Few days go by during which you don’t come into contact with the world of broadcasting. Even as you read the first words of this book for the first time, you will probably have already heard something on the radio, or seen something on the television. You might not have turned on that radio or that television yourself; it mig ht not have been yours at all. The television might have been one that was on in a shop as you walked past; the radio might have been playing on a building site, in a shop or someone else’s car. And whatever you heard or saw might well not have registered with you – but it was there, and you did not escape it.

That is the power of broadcasting. It creates events which affect us all, whether or not it is our intention to experience them. To take an obvious example, the interview with the Princess of Wales which was broad cast as part of the BBC’s Panorama series in November 1995 had become a worldwide event some weeks before it was broadcast. Whether or not it was your intention to watch it, it was hard to escape press speculation as the broadcast date approached. And even those who weren’t among the 22 million or so British people who watched the interview as it was broadcast would have had problems escaping the repeated post mortem it went through in the weeks which followed. I was not in the UK when the interview went out on air, and thought I had escaped the whole event when, while I was on an aeroplane heading for Hong Kong two weeks after the broadcast, it turned up on the in-flight video programme.

The Princess of Wales interview is, of course, an extreme case, but nonetheless serves to illustrate the extent to which radio and television broadcasts have become almost as important to our lives as the water that comes out of the tap.

This is the principal reason why jobs in broadcasting are considered so appealing – and are therefore quite hard to come by. With a job in broadcasting you could become famous – or at least work with the famous. With a job in broadcasting your work could be heard or seen by millions. As a television scriptwriter or broadcast journalist your words would reach many more people than those of an author or news paper reporter. As a hard-nosed radio or television interviewer you could bring down the government; as a documentary film maker you could change the world. Get a job on a late-night television chat show and you too could become one of the beautiful people who get photographed with the rich and famous; get a job on a daytime chat show and you could become a household name.

All these thoughts go through the minds of all those who at whatever stage in their lives – consider working in broadcasting. Except for the privileged few, however, they are idle thoughts. Because for every highprofile talk show host there are a thousand people who want that job; for every award-winning documentary film director there are a thousand others whose job it is to direct the less significant but nonetheless essential pieces of film which fill the remaining 23 hours of the day’s schedule; for every earth-shattering piece of investigative journalism there are a thousand weather reports, programme links and introductions to be written; and for every person who appears on camera or behind a microphone there are tens and even hundreds of people working behind the scenes to ensure they stay there.

This book exists for everyone wishing to enter the broadcasting industry, in whatever job and at whatever level. For it matters not which job you initially aim for in broadcasting, as the chances are you’ll end up with a different one. British television presenter and disc jockey Chris Evans was a studio assistant and then a radio producer before making it to the seat behind the microphone and then on to the television screen; many television and radio sports commentators were sporting stars first – Ian Botham and Sue Barker, for example. Many actors, writers or presenters become producers – John Cleese, Jonathan Ross; many writers end up fronting their own programmes – Melvyn Bragg, Ben Elton.

What this book will do is inform you what the many jobs in broadcasting are and, as important, how they inter-link with each other. It will also explain the possible career paths – and make it clear where and when those paths are likely to end or turn a sharp corner.

This book will also make it clear that most jobs in broadcasting won’t make you famous or particularly rich; that extreme wealth and fame are not what broadcasting is all about; and that, often, the jobs can be as rewarding – if not more so – without the extreme wealth and fame.

The many thousands working in the British broadcasting industry staff five national terrestrial television stations, 23 BBC and independent regional stations, around 90 cable and satellite television services, eight BBC and independent national terrestrial radio stations, 38 BBC local radio stations, 157 independent local radio stations, 14 satellite radio stations and nine cable radio stations.

The number of people working in the British broadcasting industry is almost impossible to calculate because over 60 per cent of them are freelance and there is now no union closed shop, so the number of BECTU members – around 30,000 – is not an effective guide. But those 30,000, and the many others who are not union members, include everyone from electricians to musicians; from producers to presenters; from make-up artists to set designers; from accountants to lawyers; from studio hands to continuity announcers and from newsreaders to script editors. The extremely rich and famous make up a fraction of Britains’ broadcasting workforce, and most of them started in exactly the same way as you – with enthusiasm, a passion for broadcasting, but struggling to know the best way to adapt your talents to it.

This book will help you with that struggle. Maintaining the enthusiasm or passion, on the other hand, is entirely up to you.

2
BROADCASTING: THE BACKGROUND

SO MUCH HAS CHANGED

Almost daily, the media bring into sharp focus the communications revolution we have experienced in recent years, are experiencing today, and will continue to experience for some time. Everywhere we look and listen, we are reminded of the information technology explosion which has touched the lives of everyone living in the 1990s.

For example: it wasn’t long ago that The Sunday Times was little more than just another daily newspaper with a colour magazine thrown in as a weekend treat. Today, that Sunday paper, like many others in the UK, is now thicker than a week’s worth of its daily sister paper put together. New technology and the weakening of the print unions are the principal causes of that.

For another example: in most parts of the UK, you can now receive five national BBC radio channels, at least one local BBC radio channel, the BBC’s World Service, two or three national independent radio channels and a handful of community radio channels. New – and cheaper – broadcasting technology, the deregulation of the airwaves and the weakening of the broadcasting unions are the principal causes of that.

And for another example: the minimum number of terrestrial television channels you can receive in the UK today is five; you might also be able to receive a further 20–30 cable and/or satellite channels, depending upon how well-wired you are; and you probably have at least one VCR and maybe a multimedia PC with CD-ROM or Video CD drive – and/or a CD-I player. The reasons for this increased availability of audiovisual entertainment in the home are the relaxation of broadcasting regulations, new – and cheaper – technology, and the weakening of the broadcasting and artist’s Unions.

And it’s important to note how recent these changes are. Only seven years ago there was no satellite television in the UK; 15 years ago there was no Channel 4; 25 years ago there was no independent (non-state-run) radio in the UK; 30 years ago there was no BBC2; and 42 years ago there was no independent television in the UK – and the only television channel available was broadcast by the BBC – the channel now known as BBC1.

Twenty years ago there were almost no domestic VCRs.Six years ago there was no CD-I and only two years ago was the technology sufficient to enable video (full-motion video) to be encoded on to CD-ROM disks. The world’s big electronics companies have only just decided on the standard for the new films-on-CD format, or digital video disc (DVD).

SO MUCH HAS CHANGED – SO MUCH REMAINS THE SAME

Yes, there’s more television, radio and newsprint out there than ever before, but how much of what we see and hear is very different from the early days?

In Back to the Future II, Steven Spielberg presents us with a nightmare scenario where, in the year 2015, a young man watching a seemingly still image of flowers, trees and fields on a wall-mounted screen is reminded by a television presenter that‘ You are tuned to The Scenery Channel.’

Spielberg’s vision of the future (that film was made in 1985) was frighteningly accurate. Multichannel technology has moved so fast that broadcasters today find it increasingly difficult to fill the ever-growing number of channels. Today, it seems almost as though the channels come first, and then we try to find something to fill them with – a reason for their existence. To use Marshall McLuhan’s well-worn observation of 1962, the medium is the message. (‘The Medium ÙIs The Message is the muchquoted title of Chapter 1 of the book Understanding Media (1964) by Marshall McLuhan.) No longer is it enough to be guided by a simple maxim such as that used by John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith of Stonehaven (better known as plain Lord Reith – appointed the first general manager of the BBC back in 1922, and director-general between 1927 and 1938), who decreed that the primary goal of all the Corporation’s output was ‘to inform, educate and entertain’. Today, most channel bosses would love to be guided only by those Reithian objectives. The problem is, they now have others to add to the list, like: fill the airtime on a limited budget; win a bigger audience than the ever-growing opposition; provide programming which pleases the advertisers and sponsors; make sure the channel gets regular publicity in the tabloid press; and provide a reasonable return to the shareholders.

THE BROADCASTING ACT 1990

In November 1990, the Broadcasting Act 1990 received royal assent. This Act, inextricably linked to the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, changed the face of British broadcasting for ever – at least, it changed the structure of the industry for ever, if not for better. In brief, the Act forced the auctioning of the ITV companies to the highest bidder. This sent damaging shock waves through the industry as companies had to shed jobs and cut production in order to remain in operation. The subsequent change in ownership rules also meant that today far. fewer people own and run ITV than before the Act; in effect it has become a less democratic organisation, with power – and resulting wealth – concentrated into far fewer hands.

The Act also paved the way for satellite and cable in the UK, and Channel 5. It also introduced the law stipulating that both ITV and the BBC should commission at least 25 per cent of their productions from independent producers. The television business in the UK was never the same again.

BUT HOW DIFFERENT ARE THE PROGRAMMES?

Yes, the media landscape has changed radically. But so much of radio and television’s output hasn’t. Television newsreaders in the UK still wear suits and, if male (and most still are), ties. Only since the arrival of Channel 4’s live weekday morning show The Big Breakfast in 1993 have we seen newsreaders in shirt sleeves. Most newsreaders in the UK, still, are white and pronounce with middle-class accents.

The top-rated programmes are still costume dramas, news bulletins and soap operas. In 1995, the most-watched television drama series was the BBC’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice which captured the public imagination, regularly topping the ratings and making the headlines. Almost 30 years ago, back in the late 1960s, the BBC’s adaptation of John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga similarly captured the hearts and the headlines – of the nation.

Much current affairs programming today relies on formulae established in the early years of broadcasting; many documentaries still echo the styles and techniques developed by the great pre-television documentary film makers of the 1930s and 1940s like John Grierson and Lindsay Anderson. It is a paradox that while television and radio have been at the heart of a continuing communications revolution which has enabled live and prerecorded sound and images to be beamed instantly into pretty well every home in every country in the civilised world, their output has always been restricted by, in television’s case, the size of the screen and the time limit imposed on a given broadcast; and in radio’s case, the inability to project images and, again, time limits.

To expand, fairly early on in the evolution of television and radio, the die was cast. In the interests of variety, budget and the limited attention span of the average person, a number of general – and often unwritten – rules were established from the very beginning, for example:

• That a one-off television drama should rarely last longer than 90 minutes – 115 at the most.
• That the episodes of a television drama series should generally last between 45 and 55 minutes.
• That the episodes of a television comedy series/soap opera should – other than in exceptional circumstances – last around 25 minutes.
• That a television news broadcast should last around 15 minutes – Or 25– 30 minutes if shown in peak time. That (almost) all radio stations should broadcast news and weather bulletins hourly or half-hourly.
• That music radio should be punctuated with talk, news, announcements and the occasional discussion.

These and other long-established ‘rules’ still apply, in spite of the many technological changes which have occurred.

The ways in which such rules came about are complex. Drama was always restricted by studio space or, in the case of exterior shots, travel, cost, light and weather. News bulletins have always been determined by a number of elements, not least how much ‘real’ news there is around in any given day; how quickly it can be reported and verified; and how, in the case of television, it can be represented visually. Comedy works best in short bursts – hence the fact that most sitcoms are never longer than 25 minutes, and the development of the short comedy sketch.

Much of radio output is determined by the movements of its audience on any given day. Unlike television, which knows that, in general, its audience is sitting down, watching and listening to that which comes out of the box in the corner and doing little else, radio has to plan for an audience which may be cooking, driving, dozing in bed, reading, working in an office or factory, sitting in a hairdressing salon or, more recently, jogging while plugged into a personal stereo. Hence the development of such radio concepts as the ‘drive-time’ hours at the beginning and end of each weekday; the‘ after the kids (and husband?) have gone to school/ work discussion programme’ after 9 a.m.; the lunchtime news (when the male listenership increases again); and the afternoon play. Hence, too, the crucial‘ breakfast show’, which, in both talk and music radio, is where most of the money is invested. Grab your listeners first thing in the morning – when most people are doing their own thing and speaking very little to anyone else – and you’ve got them for life. Or so the theory goes.

Genres and styles in radio and television differ from country to country, but much of the look or sound of any given country’s television and radio was similarly culturally or socially determined pretty early on in the evolution of broadcasting.

American television has always looked different from British television. The Americans have always liked their car chases, while the British have always preferred their dramas in the drawing room. This can be put down to the fact that American television has its roots in sunny Hollywood, the country’s film capital, chosen for its year-round sunshine (hence lots of light and warmth for outdoor filming), while British television has its roots in its highly prized theatre – and to some extent, in radio.

GETTING WORK IN BROADCASTING

So, with all the technological advances which are changing and expanding the broadcasting industry worldwide, what of the jobs available? Does the growth in satellite and cable and new video formats mean more jobs? Well, look at the new channels that have been launched in recent years – for example the UK’s retro-cult channel Bravo (showing predominantly old series) and American broadcasting mogul Ted Turner’s TNT/Cartoon Channel (showing Hanna–Barbera cartoons and old MGM movies). In the case of these two channels, most of the programmes have already been made, so any new jobs will be in the transmission or management areas, rather than on the typically more attractive production side.

The production sector of the industry has not grown as fast as those sectors which have had to sustain its growth through new technology – primarily the business side of the industry – although deregulation and a change in the role of the unions have made some of broadcasting’s more creative jobs more accessible. Many still complain that, in the UK particularly, it’s who you know rather than what you know that will get you into this business. Occasional surveys continue to reveal a high proportion of graduates from Oxford and Cambridge working at the BBC, and establishing a more realistic racial mix among broadcasting staff at both radio and television stations throughout the UK continues to prove difficult.

Sex discrimination remains a problem too. Camera operators are still more often referred to as cameramen. This is because, in the early days film and television camera equipment was big and heavy and traditionally the operation of heavy machinery has always been entrusted to men. Television directors, too, have almost always been male, while production assistants – with their eternal calm and extraordinary organisational skills (See chapter 11) have traditionally always been women. Things are changing, but not quickly, and the sexual divides in broadcasting will be dealt with again elsewhere in this book.

AN OVER-CROWDED PROFESSION

The most persistent problem facing those wishing to work in broadcasting, however, is that it appeals to so many people. The work is exciting, whether you’re behind the scenes or in the public eye. Therefore, every job advertised – and even those which arent is always heavily over-subscribed. This makes the job of selecting the right person extremely difficult.

This is where word-of-mouth comes into play. Recommendation of a person by a trusted employee is a gift to an employer, and hence so many positions in broadcasting are still filled via the grapevine – whether the jobs are advertised or not. I have held numerous positions in radio and television and all but one came by word-of-mouth.

The situation is changing as more media courses come into being (See Appendix A), as they can bring to employers’ attention those people who are showing particular flair or enthusiam in specific areas.

The situation is changing, also, as the media generally expand and cross-fertilise. The 1980s explosion in style magazines, for example (The Face, I-D, etc.), brought a number of young people to the attention of radio and television produ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• CAREER BUILDERS GUIDES
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• 1: INTRODUCTION
• 2: BROADCASTING: THE BACKGROUND
• 3: RADIO: PAST AND PRESENT
• 4: RADIO: THE PEOPLE
• 5: RADIO: THE JOBS
• 6: RADIO NEWS
• 7: TELEVISION: FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT DAY
• 8: TELEVISION: THE PEOPLE
• 9: TELEVISION: THE PRODUCER
• 10: TELEVISION: THE DIRECTOR
• 11: THE PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
• 12: THE FLOOR MANAGER
• 13: THE CAMERA OPERATOR
• 14: LOCATION, COSTUMES, MAKE-UP
• 15: THE RESEARCHER
• 16: THE SCRIPTWRITER
• 17: THE DESIGNERS
• 18: THE TECHNICIANS
• 19: THE EDITOR AND THE VISION MIXER
• 20: TELEVISION: THE PERSONALITIES
• 21: FREELANCING
• 22: AND HERE IS THE NEWS
• 23: TELEVISION: THE INDEPENDENTS
• 24: FUNDING PROGRAMMES
• 25: BROADCASTING: THE FUTURE
• 26: CONCLUSION: I’D LOVE TO GET INTO BROADCASTING
• APPENDIX A: TRAINING AND EDUCATION BODIES AND COURSES
• APPENDIX B: COMPANIES, ORGANISATIONS, INDUSTRY BODIES AND PUBLICATIONS