An Exercise in Listening

I listened to four reports from today's "All Things Considered" podcast on npr.org. I was surprised at how different they were from what I had expected.

After listening to the examples in class that featured piano movers and a ballgame beer seller, I had expected to hear relatively long interview clips and lots of scene-setting natural sound. I was waiting for the audio pieces that would paint the picture for me, make the story come to life. But those pieces never really came.

Instead, the reports were heavy on anchors' explanations and light on interviews and natural sound--the portions of an audio report I consider most interesting. For example, in a business story called "From Clunker to Cruiser, Ford Posts Quarterly Profit" (2:56), the anchors spoke almost the entire time, pausing briefly every now and then for quick interview sound bytes or the slightest amount of natural sound. But even the natural sound that was used didn't add significantly to the report: When the anchor mentioned trucks, the sound of passing cars played in the background. Similar sound played when the anchor mentioned another type of car.

Another business story I heard, "A Tale of Two Corporate Trends in Today’s Economy" (3:12), was even less like the examples we heard in class. After a brief introduction to the topic, the anchor welcomes his guest and proceeded to interview him for the duration of the report. I would be glad to hear longer portions of an interview, but the interview-in-its-entirety approach seemed less polished than a package combining anchors' reporting, interviews, and natural sound.

"Chairman Mao: An Unlikely Business Guru" (6:13) did a better job of using the different elements of audio reporting. After a short introduction, the anchor moved to a reporter on the scene in China. The background street noise while the reporter was speaking and the sounds of a cheering, chanting crowd helped paint that picture I was waiting to see.

After listening to these three reports, I began to think I was just choosing the wrong type of report. These had all been serious stories that don't necessarily scream "audio." So for the fourth report, I selected a story I thought I could expect to be driven by natural sound: "What Did I Do with My Violin?" (3:48).

But I was disappointed again. The report centered on the anchor interviewing a psychotherapist about the tendency of musicians to lose their instruments. And that nice natural sound I was expecting? It didn't show up until the last few seconds of the report.

Listening to these reports underscored the importance of natural sound in making a story come alive for a radio audience. Like the super-tight shot in still photography and the carefully placed details in a print article, capturing and using good natural sound seems to be the key to producing a compelling audio package.