Stop ignoring the newsroom, even if the news is coming from a service from outside your station. They’re on your air, too. One of the most overlooked areas of radio programming is critiquing news and information elements. They’re often treated as a separate department, floating outside a PD’s jurisdiction. Sometimes it’s intentional (“That’s the news director’s problem”). Sometimes it’s avoidance (“I don’t feel qualified to coach news”). Either way, the result is the same: the newscast lives in a bubble while the rest of the show marches in lockstep. And that creates a disconnect. When is the last time you set a time to aircheck news segments?
How To Aircheck News Segments
Here’s the reality: news is programming. And if it’s on your air, it reflects your brand, whether it’s the perfect fit or not. So, how do you aircheck news segments? You don’t need a degree in journalism. You just need to know what listeners hear, and hold it to the same standard as the rest of your show.
Start by listening to an entire segment, uninterrupted. Structure is best judged as an experience before it is dissected as a sequence of parts.
You want to hear the segment the way a listener would hear it. Did it flow? Did the tease pull you in? Were the short stories (Jabs) tight enough? Did the feature story (Punch) feel like a payoff? Did the end tease create forward motion? Or did the segment feel overloaded, too equal, too long, or too shapeless?
The first uninterrupted listen tells you whether the architecture held.
Then, on the second pass, you can stop and analyze the mechanics.
Essence, Importance, Impact
Here’s a dead-simple exercise that’s also brutally revealing.
Gather 3–5 people who aren’t in programming. If you can recruit actual listeners from your database, even better. If not, grab coworkers from sales, traffic, or promotions. Play 3–4 short segments from your station. Make sure one is a newscast.
Afterward, ask them: What do you remember from the first story? What stuck with you? Now ask them to recall as many stories as possible from the newscast.
The results are often sobering. If nobody remembers a thing (even after prompting with specific questions about the information segment), the newscast failed. Period. You might as well remove it. Take it off the air if it’s not making an impact. or fix it.
Point: news must meet the same criteria as any other segment: memorable, engaging, and relevant. Otherwise, it’s just wallpaper.
Presentation
Now, listen closely to the news delivery itself. Does it flow naturally, or get bogged down in run-on sentences? Is it short, sharp, colorful bursts that paint a picture? Or is it packed with complicated words and bureaucratic phrasing? Does it sound like came from a wire service?
Pro Tip: If writing is an issue (and it probably is), get Radio Content Pro. You get instant access to every breaking story 24/7/365, and each is rewritten in a style to be spoken on the air, not read online.
Now, back to presentation: Does the presenter sound like a real human with perspective or a hardened journalist droning through copy?
Today’s news voice shouldn’t feel like “Nightly Network News at 6.” It should feel like it belongs on your station, in your show, with a tone that matches your brand.
