Radio language

Radio broadcasting

The radio language is the language used on the radio. Due to the limitations of the medium, it is based exclusively on sound (music, words, etc.), in only one direction (from the transmitter to the listening radio, which is the consent of the program

Sonic expression

The sounds that are used in the radio are divided into different segments

• Music
• Sound atmosphere in a recording, connection or direct, in which the natural background is translated into sound effects, which place and accompany the action. It can include both music and human voice, which act as effects.

The three elements already mentioned in the previous paragraphs; they enter into function through the planes. The voice and music can be the protagonists by themselves. The ambient sound only makes it circumstantial and isolated.

Finally, silence (absence of sound, be it speech, music or noise) gives value to sounds before and after it, so it has enormous expressive potential, which should be used wisely.

Music

Radio music could be classified as follows:

• Objective music: makes its own sense, regardless of feelings and ideas. It exposes a concrete fact, where only an interpretation is given; and it clearly serves gender, age, style, etc.
• Subjective music your function is to express and support anamic situations, creating an emotional environment.
• Descriptive music: it places us in a space or in a specific environment (epoca, country, region, nature, interiors, among others); it usually gives a cold vision, devoid of anímic sense.

In addition, the music can be an accompaniment, accompanying the voice. On other occasions, it fulfills the function of punctuation marks (resolved with bursts, musical beats, etc.).

The special effects, also called noise, can perform the same functions or be of the same kinds as music, although sometimes subliminal effects are also used, as background (for example) of a foreground music.

The Blueprints

The shots determine the situation, be it temporary, physical or intentional, of the different sounds.

There are several types of plans such as:

• Spatial narrative plans. These are situations in space: where the action and the changes that affect it occur.
• Presence plans. It is the relation of closeness or distance from the main plane. The main plane is the plane with which the program is being produced, regardless of the fact that at the time of that sound (in a second, third or fourth plane) there is nothing in the foreground. Ideally, the listener is placed on that main plane or foreground. The closer the sound comes to us, the closer the plane will be.
• Temporary narrative plans. They take the time when the action is produced/n: past, present, future, timeless (undefined time), timeless (out of time).
• Plans of intent. They mark introspection, incursion into sleep or fantasy, complicity, etc.

To achieve these planes we need presence, in the sense of physical approach or distance from the main plane; the intention in the interpretation; the intention in the text; the quality of those sounds; the environment or background. Combining these resources with each other, the story comes to life. Since resources are necessarily limited, we must not waste any of them.

The silence

It is normally used with a psychological, dramatic intent. Even when it fulfills an orthographic function, an emotional response is sought in the listener. Can be:

• Target silence: is the absence of music and noise. No more connotations.
• Subjective silence: is the silence used with an environmental or dramatic intentionality.

Another possible classification is:

• The narrative silence, which counts actions in time.
• The descriptive silence, which shows the appearance of beings and things, and expresses feelings.
• The rhythmic silence, which supports the pace of action.
• Silence as an expressive resource, which can bring ambiguity, dramatism, etc.
• Silence as a pause.
• Silence as a mistake.
• Reflective silence, to help value the message.

The sound setting

Ambient is the sound environment where the action takes place:

• The musical accompaniment to our voice.
• The noise of the street where we perform the interview, the scene develops, etc. (and that will identify that scenario).
• The absence of referent sound (not confusing with silence), which places us within a sound study, etc.

When it comes to dramatizations, the environment is what gives body and life to the scene. It already reveals the place where it occurs; and to the global intention; and to the subjectivity of one character or another; and the set of all of it or the part that you want. Music, voice and special effects can be used to set the mood. The setting can be:

• Objective: the one that reproduces what would really be heard in the field where the scene takes place.
• Representative: the one that illustrates the scene with sounds that don't have to match those that actually occur, and through which we narrate that scene.
• Subjective: the one that looks at the subjectivity of one or another of the characters and does not develop but is in the action of the scene.

Related links

• Radiophonic script
• Clock
• Radiophonic journalism