A news bulletin is the main news item on a radio station. It can be five minutes long and should feature a mix of different stories. A news bulletin should be informative, but also entertaining. Putting together a good news bulletin requires careful planning and the ability to judge which stories are most important. Having too many long complicated stories can slow the bulletin down, while having too few stories will make it sound unstructured and disjointed. It is important to rank your stories according to their importance and look at them afresh each time you produce one, in order to get the balance right.
It is vital that your lead story grabs listeners and encourages them to stay tuned. If it is dull or badly written you will lose listeners and the other stories in your bulletin will be ignored. If you have a choice between two stories which are of equal importance, always pick the more dramatic and interesting story to ensure it grabs listeners attention.
Towards the end of your bulletin you will need to include a few light or funny stories. These are known as tail-enders and can help to increase the pace of the bulletin. They should be shorter than the other stories, and may contain a play on words or some other type of entertainment. Some stations use a special theme to announce the bulletin, which is often used as a link between different segments of the bulletin. This is called a stab and is often produced by a separate record company.