RadioAsia2014: Storytelling ‘vital’ for great radio

A workshop on Storytelling in Radio kicked off this year’s RadioAsia conference in Colombo Sri Lanka.

Delegates were told great storytelling is ‘vital’ to engage and hold audience attention in a competitive media landscape, Asia Radio Today reports from the conference.

Bringing several examples of great radio from around the world, German radio consultant Wolfram Tech demonstrated how the biggest radio personalities were really just great storytellers.

Stories that were relevant to the audience, topical and had emotional or cultural ‘closeness’ worked best, Tech said. He challenged attendees to pick topics that would create ‘talkability’ among fans of their stations.

Radio presenters and producers were encouraged to use a variety of tools to help them tell their stories more effectively, including music, sound effects, listeners vox pops and co-hosts/sidekicks.

Tech’s storytelling tips included finding a story that captures hearts and minds; ensuring that story has a beginning, middle and end; creating a visual story in the audience’s head; using emotion to make the story stick; getting the listeners’ sympathy; and telling the listeners why they should care.