"Over the past few years in public radio, there's been a push toward what editors like to call 'scenes,'" says Andrea Shea, arts and culture reporter for WBUR, Boston's NPR affiliate. "This is the opportunity for reporters to go somewhere to get sound and interviews that occur with a backdrop. Radio should always have life like that—adding to the overall experience of telling a story."
The lesson for PR: "It's always helpful to be illustrative," she explains. "Pitching sound-rich stories are the key in radio. If there's a strong audio element—that surely helps. This can include concerts, rehearsals, meetings, tours, film clips and music," she explains.
For example: "There was recently an opera in Boston in which the librettist took the exact dialogue from the vice presidential debates and transcribed it into an opera. It was perfect for radio. I recorded a rehearsal, and then he supplied me with experts from the real debates."
Here are more of Shea's tips for scoring public radio air:
• Go beyond "coolness"—offer newsy, thought-provoking angles. "The best PR professionals come with a specific angle, pitch or something that makes the story real news," she says. "It's not enough that something 'cool' or 'interesting' is happening in and aroundyour region. Questions need to be raised. The story has to be illuminating, curious and new. Anything PR people can do to reveal what makes the pitch interesting, remarkable and new helps."
• Tailor to audience demos—put the listener connection up front. "Wrong pitches for me are about stories, events and artists that are not in my station's listening area," she says. "The stories I do have to be relevant to my audience—and pitches need to have a focus on that audience. Unfocused, boring, formulaic information is useless—and make my eyes glaze over. Pitches should never leave you thinking 'so what?'"
• Play up drama, conflict and other narrative elements. "I have a new editor and she's all about tension," Shea says. "We won't just run a feature on some cool new thing. There have to be challenges and controversy along the way," she adds.
Shea offers an example of a PR pitch that instantly got her attention and landed coverage: "The [pitch] came from the artist who was the subject of the story, not a PR firm," she says. "But what she did was to lay out the newsworthy angles about her story and include potential interview subjects. Most important, she brought up the tension that makes her story unique: She broke the rules to get something important done in a city mired in bureaucracy—and that's always fascinating." You can view the final story here: http://www.wbur.org/2009/10/15/chinatown-library.
• Show how your clients are breaking new artistic boundaries or changing the financial paradigm. "I look for anything that's cutting edge, new, different or never happened before," she says. "It should raise issues and bring up several questions. It can't just be the surface of an issue. For example, I'm always looking for contradictions—like some strange convergence of old and new tech. I also like to hear about someone breaking out of the paradigm, which is happening so much in music these days. Artists are creating new ways of reaching and connecting with their audiences, using technology and bucking the system."
In addition: "Editors like dollar signs in their stories," she says. "So I'm always looking for the intersection of art and commerce in new ways." |
