Production of programs for radio takes place in three stages. They are pre-production, production, and post-production. Pre-production is the planning and developing stage. It includes all the work that is done from the conception of the program till recording or transmitting it live to the audience. It involves the following steps
1. Forming an idea: This phrase shows how a radio program is born as an idea and its conceptualization. The idea for feature, docudrama, documentary, and music programs is formed, to start with. Then the producer further expands the idea. For example, already a producer decided that she/he is going to produce a music program. Is she/he going to have film songs or classical songs? Would it be a phone-in or anchor-based program? Such detailed ideas are needed to form
2. Plan of action: After deciding on the topic, a plan of action is worked out. Here the format of the program is decided, i.e., whether the program is a talk, discussion, interview, etc. Once this is clear, the right person who will write the script and the persons who will perform are decided. The plan of action also decides the outside venue and equipment that is needed for the program.
3. Constructing a budget: It is a matter of organizing essential expenses from the projected cost of production to postproduction
4. Practical viability: The practical viability should be checked out before the actual planning of the program. The budget, time available, resources needed, manual and technical support, etc. for the proposed program should be checked before embarking on the program.
5. Research: Doing research to get in-depth details is a crucial step in the production stage. Without research a radio program is incomplete. For example, before taking an interview of a person, research should be done properly otherwise there is a possibility to get some wrong information about the person.
6. Script: There are certain formats like drama that start with the full fledge script while some other formats have a semi-script. In live broadcasts, the announcement, speech, etc. need to be spontaneous, most of the time. Accordingly, the script needs to be made ready for the production process. The script is examined to make it suitable for broadcast. It is examined according to the principle of writing for radio, in other words, for the ear.
7. Fixing the narratives announces etc.: The narrator, anchors, announcers, etc. need to be fixed for the program.
8. Planning The music: Music must go with the theme of the program. It draws the attention of the listener, creates suspense, and adds speed to the program.
9. Paperwork: f people who are not working in the radio station are involved for writing a providing voice for the program, they should be invited with an agreement to accept the job or assignment. This type of agreement is referred to as a contract. Similarly, permission is often required to interview certain people if the program is based on such interviews. Therefore, one can say that there is a lot of paperwork at the pre-production stage.
10. Fixing the time frame: The time frame for all the stages of the production needs to be fixed to avoid confusion and last-minute hurrying.
11. Checking the ability of the recording studio and booking it: Arranging everything and then finding that the recording studio is not available could be a hazardous situation to avoid such embarrassment recording studio needs to be booked beforehand
10. Rehearsal: The producer should make sure that the rehearsal of the program should be done in this stage.
So these are some steps of pre-production of radio.
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