Radio Planning Session 8 - Running Order

If you're this far in your plan for your show should be coming together nicely. You now need to give me, as the spec requires, a running order for at least half an hour of the show. A running order is a plan for the show you are doing. Running orders are used throughout the radio industry and differ in format from station to station. The 'running order' might seem a bit daunting but basically - remember when you analysed a half-hour of a show and listed everything that occured? You're going to do similar for the show you're planning, mapping out how half an hour of the show would unfold and adding timings to it so it's tight.

Do this as follows

1. Have a look at the following sites  - there's sample running orders, each different. 

Give yourself a flavour of what running orders contain and what they look like. You're going to create one for a half-hour of YOUR show. As you can see they all contain different things depending on how detailed they are. At a bare minimum they contain a column for timings, and a column for content (i.e what's going to happen at those times)

http://www.connecttransmit.org.uk/having-good-ideas-for-shows/
http://www.centreforjournalism.co.uk/modulenotes/radio-one-sample-radio-news-day-script-and-running-order
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chrismoyles/runningorder_today.shtml
http://eng.smart.radiotraining.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Running-Order.pdf

2. Create your own running order for at least half-an-hour's worth of your show. 
I'm not going to spoonfeed you a running order template. You need to create this yourself. I would make a table in Word/Indesign/Photoshop or simply write it straight into your blogpost (create a new blogpost and call it 'RADIO PLANNING: RUNNING ORDER) 

I would expect any decent running order to contain . . . .

The name, date and timeslot of the programme at the top. 

Space to show the TIMING of each item. 

Space to describe briefly what each item is, whether it's a track or link. 

You DON'T at this stage have to script any of the links, you could just write 'Presenter Link: talk about . . . . '. If you don't KNOW what you might talk about go back over your content-plan for the show - are their any links that could be related to what you've said there (competitions/phone-ins etc)?

A RUNNING ORDER WITHOUT STRICT TIMINGS IS UTTERLY WORTHLESS. PRECISE TIMINGS OF TRACKS YOU'RE GOING TO PLAY IS GOING TO BE IMPORTANT.  REMEMBER - YOUR RUNNING ORDER SHOULD BE FOR AT LEAST A HALF HOUR OF YOUR SHOW. 

What you should end up with

A tight running order that describes at least a half-hour of your show including timings, music used and some indication as to what's happening INBETWEEN the tracks (links etc)