Technical Difficulties

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Two of the most dreaded words in broadcast news are "technical difficulties." Equipment problems can never be entirely eliminated. There will always be carts that malfunction, phone lines that go dead, and computer terminals that freeze up. With a little preparation and organization, you'll be able to handle those "technical difficulties" and get through your cast with minimal disruption.

Prevention is the best medicine

Many on-air snafus are due to the carelessness that accompanies haste. Perhaps the most prevalent mistake involves playing the wrong cut. At stations that still use tape, this problem is easily prevented by properly labeling and stacking your carts. I was always amazed when visiting newsrooms at how often I saw carts lying around with only the tiniest of illegible scrawls to identify them. Carts should be marked with the name of the speaker (the newsmaker for an actuality, the reporter for a voicer or wrap), the number of seconds the cut runs, a slug (story title) that matches a story title on the script, and perhaps even the outcue and a further identifying number that matches a number written at the top of the script.

For example, you have a 10-second actuality of Middleville Mayor Jane Smith discussing plans for the city to build a downtown parking garage. The cut runs as follows:

IT'S NOT WASTING TAX MONEY. IT'S SAVING DOWNTOWN. IT'S EXPENSIVE BUT IT'S MONEY WELL SPENT. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP BUSINESSES DOWNTOWN.

The label you put on the cart might read like this:

#4 PARKING 0:10

SMITH OQ:"...DOWNTOWN."

Similar information should also appear on the hardcopy of the script. The script should have a line break to indicate when a cart is to be played, and information on the speaker, the outcue and the duration should be given. Here's an example of what the script accompanying the previous cut might look like:

.... CRITICS SAY THE PROPOSAL IS A WASTE OF TAX MONEY, BUT SMITH DISAGREES.

#4 PARKING
OQ: "...DOWNTOWN."
CART RUNS 0:10

CITY COUNCIL WILL DISCUSS THE MAYOR'S PLAN AT TONIGHT'S MEETING.

Having this information on the cart label and in your script will help ensure you play the right cart at the right time.

Sound ideas for the digital newsroom

Many newsrooms are now tapeless, using digital sound files for actualities, voicers and wraps. Most computer audio-editing programs automatically assign a file number to each sound file, but the file still requires a slug for further identification. The slug should contain a word immediately followed by a number indicating which particular story uses that file.

For the story about the proposed parking garage, let's say this actuality is the second of three actualities taken from the interview with the mayor. One of the actualities will be used by the reporter in a wrap, the other two in scripts to be read by an anchor. So there are three scripts to be created from this story, and this particular script and its accompanying actuality should be slugged parking02 to distinguish it from the other scripts and sound files (which would be slugged parking01 and parking03).

Computer programs may allow further identifying information, such as outcue and length of cut, to mark each sound file. The more information in your script, the better. This will help ensure that the sound file you select to accompany the story is the correct one.

Cart-astrophies and other glitches

Another common snafu in newsrooms that still use tape involves not having the cart properly cued. This often happens during the second airing of a cut. The anchor during the first airing may have had to stop the cart immediately after the actuality or wrap finished (and before the cart could recue) because the cart machine was needed to play another cart during that cast. It is the responsibility of the anchor about to go on the air, or the anchor's producer, that carts be properly cued prior to broadcast. Carts should be played in the newsroom before the next airing to ensure the carts are cued. (Anchors between broadcasts should be playing and listening to these carts anyway to aid in the rewriting of the accompanying scripts.)

If a cart is not properly cued, or if the cart machine malfunctions (such as playing the actuality very s l o w l y), stop the cart and say a sentence that summarizes to listeners what they would have heard without the "technical difficulties." Then return to your script and finish the story.

When I worked as a writer in Detroit, I was expected to type a few bare phrases summarizing a cart's contents, and that summary appeared at the bottom of the script, separated from the on-air story by a double line. This summary was provided in case problems arose playing the cart. The anchors (who, in an all-news format, had 5-hour air shifts and may not have heard the tape before it was brought into the studio) needed that summary to ad lib when the cart failed.

In the tapeless newsroom, anchors often read their stories off computer screens. If the computers fail, neither the scripts nor the sound files will be available. It is crucial that a printout of all the scripts for the cast be taken into the studio. A frozen computer screen won't then lead to a frozen newscast.

Snap, crackle, pop

Telephone connections also fail, or the quality of the connection may be too poor for broadcast. Poor quality connections are becoming more prevalent as more and more stations send reporters out with cellular telephones, whose quirks can at times be maddening. If you in the studio have a hard time understanding the words of the speaker on the other end of the line (be it a newsmaker or a reporter in a live shot), your listeners...many of whom are in automobiles...won't fare any better. End the telephone interview or report immediately with a graceful apology to the listeners about sound quality and "technical difficulties," and move on to the next story. No matter how important the story may be, if the sound is incomprehensible, the value for radio news is worthless.

The possibility of "technical difficulties" in a cast should remind anchors always to bring into the studio more stories than they would normally need. If you're giving a cast that runs 3:30, bring in 5 minutes of copy and sound. If you have a 5-minute cast, bring in 8. A problem with a computer screen, cart machine or telephone line could easily cut a full minute or two from your cast. You need to be prepared to get through the cast in a professional manner, and it is far more professional to complete with confidence a variety of different news stories than to try to return to a tape or a phone report that failed the first time around.

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