Assignment Eight: Radio Station
ID, Format and Promo

You have been hired to develop the image and market a new radio station in your community. In order to do this, you need to know the purpose of the station, its market, its content, and its funding source.

1. Primary Purpose: To inform, entertain, persuade or make money?

2. Audience: How would you describe your listeners? What is their age-range? Gender? Socio-economic factors, such as ethnicity, income and education level? What do you think their interests are?

3. Content: If you are a music station,  clearly state your format, listing at least five songs you would play and explaining your choices. If you are a talk station, list at least three talk shows (i.e., Howard Stern, Dr. Laura) and why you would offer them. If you are predominately a news station, tell me if you will be focusing on local, regional, state, national or international news and why.

Song and show titles are proper names and should be capitalized and in quotes. When you present your marketing plan, feel free to bring a CD to play a representative song.

4. News Line-up: Of a given list of news stories, which would your station run or not run during its regularly-scheduled broadcast? Why? In what order would you run these stories. Select at least five of these stories. Don't say, "My station won't run news."

5. Income Source: List at least five products or companies you would approach to buy commercial air time. If you are a public radio station, list at least three corporations (or foundations) you would approach to serve as station sponsors.

6. Identity: Make up a frequency and call letters for your station.

7. Promo: Write a Station ID of 10 seconds or less and a longer Promo of less than one minute for the radio station of your dreams. Your promo should accomplish the following goals:

Note: The promo is to promote your station and its format. It is not to publicize a "promotion"--a contest or activity to hype your station and its personalities. Thus, I do NOT want to hear about any "Free Bud" nights at a local bar! You are only promoting your station content.

If you would like more information about station formats in the United States, you can go to:

http://www.newsgeneration.com                 http://www.nyradioguide.com/formats.htm

Make sure you follow the guidelines on technical writing that were handed out the first day. If you use phrases, rather than complete sentences to describe your station attributes, ensure that they are written in a "bullet" format. Otherwise, you will be marked off for having sentence fragments.

Story Line-Up for Spring 2007 (Some stories are hypothetical; assume that all are timely.)

He's Not Gay!
Leaders of Colorado's New Life Church have essentially kicked fallen minister Ted Haggard out of the congregation after the recent controversy involving a gay male prostitute. The Rev. Tim Ralph said that Haggard "received a lot of good tools and wisdom to embrace completely the heterosexual man he is. We all know he has some problems. He's on the road to recovery." Church leaders admitted they had found "multiple" examples of  "sordid conversations and improper relationships."Haggard, a nationally known Evangelical leader, has served as one of Bush's key advisers on faith-based initiatives.

Protesters Target Turning Stone Casino
Members of Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE) are organizing a protest against Turning Stone Casino and the Oneida Nation, which kicked off today along Route 365 near the New York State Thruway. More than 500 area residents picketed, showing disapproval of the Oneida Nation's proposal to put 17,370 acres in the two counties into federal land trust. UCE President David Vickers said the demonstration is part of the group's ongoing fight to get the Indian nation to pay property taxes on the $1 billion casino complex. "We'll have to follow the legal channels. We live in a modern society. These people can't be shot, so we have to try to do what we can legally," Vickers said.

World Trade Center Memorial to Contain Body Parts
The unidentified remains of more than 1,000 victims of the World Trade Center attacks in New York are to be kept at the site's memorial until science can identify them, according to the New York Times newspaper. More than 12,000 body parts will be interred at the rebuilt site at the request of many of the victims' relatives, the newspaper said. The remains are to be slowly dried and when free of moisture they will be vacuum-sealed in opaque white pouches. The procedure will relieve the memorial designers of having to include a refrigeration or freezer system in their plans and will also preserve the remains for future study.

Tapeworm Museum is Popular Date Location
The Meguro Parasitological Museum in Japan is a rare storehouse devoted entirely to tapeworms, bloodsuckers and other organisms that feed off their hosts. The ghoulish gallery in central Tokyo has amazed and alarmed millions of students, researchers and veterinarians for nearly half a century. Lately, it has become popular as a romantic date spot for young couple.

U.S. "Iran attack plans" revealed
U.S.contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned and reported early today. It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centers. The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment. The UN has urged Iran to stop the program or face economic sanctions. But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

Nottingham Student Charged with Felony Rape
A 16-year-old Nottingham High School student was charged with raping another pupil he left campus with during lunch last month, Syracuse police said. Byron Felton, of 501 Mountainview Ave., Syracuse, was arrested on the charge of first-degree rape, a felony. He is being charged as an adult. The 16-year-old girl , a special needs student at the school, was treated at University Hospital and needed several stitches to close wounds, police reports said.

Own Some of Brad and Angelina's Air
On the eBay website an enterprising celebrity spotter is selling a jar of fresh air allegedly breathed by stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, for $15,000. "Be the first to own this jar of Celebrity air, which may contain air molecules that came in direct contact with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt!!" read the seller's announcement on online auctioneer eBay. The starting bid was just $9.99 and since Friday there have been 53 bets, who had pushed the price of the jar to $15,099.

Rash of Thefts in Southern DeWitt
DeWitt police are investigating a series of night-time car thefts, larcenies and garage burglaries in the central and southern parts of town. In the past week, four cars have been reported stolen and there have been 15 larcenies or attempted thefts from vehicles parked in driveways, police said today. These are crimes of opportunity, said DeWitt Sgt. Jim Hildmann. Every vehicle that was taken had the keys left in it. The targeted areas, all hit between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., include: Maple Drive, Brockway Lane and Leverett Lane; Bradford Heights, the Hamlet and Royal Birkdale Drive near Randall Road, and Newfield Road and Lansdowne Road in DeWitt Heights.

Supreme Court Decision: The Nativity is Out 
The Supreme Court will not accept an appeal from a mother who sued the New York City school district in an effort to force it to display Nativity scenes in public schools. This means that a lower court ruling that disallows Nativity scenes will stand. The court concluded that Santa Claus and symbols like the Jewish menorah and the Islamic star and crescent can be displayed, but that the Nativity strayed into the area of the separation of church and state and, thus, was unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Candy Prize Looks Like Osama bin Laden
In Miami, a wholesaler has announced that his company will recall 14,000 bags of candy. The bags contain a toy that looks like a plane flying into a building and a second toy that looks like Osama Bin Laden suspended between the two buildings. "Importers didn't realize what they were buying. They were buying assortments of authentic Mexican candies. Nobody caught it and it went out into the stores," explains Lisy Corporation manager Luis Pardon.

Woman Again Faces Fake Money Charges
A Van Buren woman who was arrested last month by Syracuse police with five other people for using fake $20 bills was charged with the same crime this morning by Clay police. She has used $15,000 in 10 stores within  the past three days.

Citizens Help Nab Suspect in Purse Snatching
Passers-by helped Syracuse police apprehend a man whom they say snatched one woman's purse, threw her to the ground and beat her yesterday. Vinnie Chertow, 23, of 401  Delaware Ave. was arrested on a felony robbery charge at 1:25 p.m. yesterday and accused of grabbing a purse from Rosemary Woods, 61, outside Wegmans at 4722 Onondaga Blvd. She is hospitalized in serious condition. Four shoppers chased Chertow and pinned him against the display window of the Fashion Bug.

Women Gave Sex for Meat
Leonard Shlain, a surgeon, alleges in his new book, Sex, Time and Power, that women and their need for the mineral iron is the key to understanding our past. Women need high stores of iron, Shlain says, because they menstruate every month, become pregnant and nurse. In our evolutionary past the best way to restore depleted iron was to eat meat. But women were probably not hunters, and so they must have manipulated men with sexual favors to bringing home a blood-soaked dinner. This manipulative move, Dr. Shlain suggests, then set into motion just about every aspect of human behavior.

Oil Prices Continue to Fall
Oil prices fell for a third straight day yesterday as U.S. inventories of crude rose and OPEC was expected to maintain its output for the time being. The nation's inventories of gasoline and distillate, which includes heating oil and diesel, also grew. Oil prices settled at a seven-month low as traders shrugged off calls by some OPEC members for output cuts.Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. said he did not expect the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to hold an emergency meeting to discuss prices ahead of its scheduled meeting on April 14, Dow Jones Newswires reported

U.S. Welfare Funds Are At Risk
The state's top welfare official said he believes the recent budget stalemate in Albany could cost the state this year when Congress is due to revise the federal welfare laws. Federal lawmakers may view the state's austere budget - a $79.6 billion spending plan that left out $1.5 billion in welfare programs - as a sign that New York needs less money to pay for welfare programs.

"Tomcat" Kittens
Tom Cruise land his wife, Katie Holmes, have announced they are expecting triplets, due in the fall of this year. Holmes gave birth to their daughter, Suri, on April 18, 2006. Suri's picture wasn't revealed for five months, leading to sensational speculation about the celebrity birth and marriage.

Infant Killed By Bear
State conservation officers say a bear snatched a five-month-old baby girl this past weekend from the porch of her cabin in a Catskill mountain compound of vacation sites of Orthodox Jews who regularly use this rural region as a retreat from New York City. The officers said the bear was probably hungry, bit her by the head, but dropped her nearby.

Iraq Death Toll Increases
Twenty-nine United States soldiers were killed yesterday in Baghdad, the United States military said, an unprecedented number of deaths in a single day . Four of the soldiers died in a roadside bomb attack,  five died in a helicopter crash and the remaining were killed by small-arms fire in separate incidents. At the same time, 130 Iraqis were killed in Sunni-Shite conflicts.

And You Thought Lamb Guts Sandwiches Were Bad
A Midwestern U.S. delicacy rivals the famed Turkish lamb guts sandwich for the most disgusting meal on record. Residents of Indiana say they will continue to eat their beloved deep-fried cow-brain sandwiches. The brains, coated with egg, seasoning and flour, puff up when cooked. They are served hot, heaping outside the bun. Patrons at an Evansville restaurant said they don't fear mad cow disease, saying the high cholesterol of the dish is probably more of a health threat.

Britney Spears Seen With Panties 
Britney Spears, vowing to turn over a new leaf and serve as "a positive role model for young women," was photographed for the seventh day in a row wearing underwear.  All eyes, however, weren't on her derriere, as people continue to be perplexed at Spears' decision to shave off all her own hair. Spears just completed a brief stint in rehab, which her publicist says was "successful and enriching." Photographed climbing in and out her car by paparazzi, Spears visited an elementary school, got coffee from Starbucks and shopped with her mother, among other outings.

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