Or how to get your charity or Third Sector story on air.

I’ve not been back home in Cornwall three weeks and already half a dozen fabulous Third Sector orgs have beckoned me back to the fold. Tempting as it might be, I have to stay strong focus on my studies at the National Film & Television School.

So, how can concentrate on my screenwriting and film and TV pitches?
Well, by dusting off some of the wisdom I gained from my previous work in this sector posting it here.

In this post I’m going pass on to you some useful pointers about getting a radio news editor to take notice of your charity press release.

They’re not my ideas but come from a lecture I attended many many moons ago with former Pirate FM news editor Tristan Hunkin. He calls it TRAPS and it goes a bit like this.

T is for TIMELY. Tristan tells us that if the first word of a press release is “recently” that’s the last word he’ll be reading. If you want to feature in one of his news bulletins you need to be telling him about something that’s happening today or tomorrow and certainly no less recently than yesterday. Now, remember these are tips for getting your story on radio so if you’re targeting a different media you need to adjust your timescale accordingly – What we have to do a different press release for each type? Yes, we all know generic text when we see it and it’s extra easy to ignore.

R is for RELATABLE. This is a slight variation on the first lesson you’ll get in any writing class anywhere — know your audience! The audience for your press release is a radio news editor – knowing this audience means you also know this radio news editor’s listeners.  But different radio stations have different listeners, does that mean we have to write a different press release for each type of station?  Yes, we all know generic text when we see it and it’s extra easy to ignore.  Your news story may stay the same, however the way you present the facts will be very different depending on whether you’re pitching it to the editor of Classic FM or Radio 1 (They’re both national stations, so if you’re aiming to get on a local or regional station you’ll need to tweak it again).

A is for ASSERTIVE. Now this is easier said than done and I’d suggest to Tristan that it’s more of a challenge than a tip. You’ve got to assert yourself as a writer if you want to grab Tristan’s attention. Some of the ways he says you can do this is by being witty, making it clever, memorable, avoiding waffle but above all making it real. So that could be making it real by writing in the voice of your charity’s service users – this could get your hip hop project tackling gang violence onto Radio 1’s Newsbeat but a different real voice (about the same story) might be required to catch the attention of the editor of Radio 4’s Today program. So for you, Feargal Sharkey, down there in Hampshire, to get on regional radio you might write “Local singer-songwriter’s sewage rant set to make a stink at tonight’s Council meeting” ?  Yes, we all know generic text when we see it and… just kidding. Seriously though, if your charity’s spokesperson is Feargal Sharkey, you probably don’t need to resort to the dubious gamble of using tabloid cliches of sewage making a stink to capture the news editor’s attention. Though, if you’re not Feargal Sharkey, cleverly corrupting a cliche might just work.

P is for PRIMAL. To stand out among the background noise of tweets, tiktoks, and instas from all and sundry (not to mention emails from professional PR consultants with a direct line to the news editor), your press release needs to provoke a primal emotion.
Anger – this isn’t right, this shouldn’t be allowed to happen (queuing round the block to register at an NHS dentist – sorry I got toothache, hence this being posted in the small hours. I can’t sleep because the pain is so bad).
Caring – that’s awful, what can I do to help.
Fear – Danger words make us take notice. E.g. Trap? That sounds dangerous, I better read this so I don’t fall into that trap.
But be careful not to overuse your power words. Remember how the attention grabbing “Wolf!” soon lost its power to grab the villagers attention in the fable of the boy who cried wolf.
Nostalgia – your charity promotes organ donation and your new campaign features former crooner Feargal Sharkey’s 80s hit “A Good Heart [these days is hard to find]”
Lust – now I’m not sure how you relate that to radio. Tristan didn’t elaborate. But, hey, maybe you’re lucky and your charity’s celebrity patron is Feargal Sharkey considered particularly attractive – in this context think Hugh Bonneville or Joanna Lumley for their exquisite voice work. Other creative ideas for provoking lust will likely reduce the readership of this article as it would render it unsafe for work. So, I’ll leave you to ponder this suggestion in the privacy of your own homes.

S is for SIMPLE. This one isn’t so far removed from knowing your audience, if you bamboozle an editor with too much Third sector jargon they’ll move on to something easier to read and that means someone else’s news will be on the news. So, despite being a journalist and having a degree or at the very least an A level in English, the following will be Dutch to most news editors. “Archbishop pledges to end exponential interest rate tyranny by leveraging innovative, community capital asset scheme to reduce market share of tertiary lenders”. Whereas the same story but in different words is much more likely to be understood by a broader range of news editors “Klarna about to be buried by Archbishop’s ethical alternative to the buy now, pay later interest rate trap”.

PS. Did anyone spot how many times I used the word trap in the article?

Well I hope there was something in there you might find useful. Or perhaps you’ve already got your charity on air in which case why not post a comment below and tell us how you did it.