The Beauty of Good Goals

Posted by Daniel Hirschler on July 6, 2009 under Radio, View all | Be the First to Comment

The objective of this first phase of our project here in Savannakhet is to get a new, daily program on air. While so far national and provincial radio either featured top-down information, “protocol” news or plain entertainment, the new program should get peoples voices on air, their views, their concerns.

Working towards that one goal

Working towards such a concrete objective makes things both very easy – and sometimes very hard: If things we do are not about launching that program, we don’t need to do it. If there’s an obstacle that will stop us from reaching our goal, we have to sort out what it is and find a solution. Finding that solution takes sometimes all kind of different skills: psychology, sensitive inter-cultural communications, linguistics, counselling, consulting.

Today was the day when a, after weeks of sowing and growing, it seemed as if all the toil was finally bearing fruit: A first realistic radio or format clock was established among the production group of the future program. We had been working on preparing packaged reports, finding topics, creating the right questions. Digging into the “Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why? and How?” of those topics. Coming up with people to talk to. Talking to this people. Creating the stories. How would it all fit together?

Getting the clock right

A debate started. It was, at the end, the old against the new: Little information, lots of talk, more music? Or: Packaged, dense storytelling including everyday peoples’ voices on air? Important things first. The group voted for the new way: One hour it shall be now for the first pilot program. One hour, with three packaged reports of approx. 7 minutes, news and information, spots and announcements and of course “Lao song”, the ubiquitous music of this country.

Once that was clear, the rest was all downhill: If you want such a program, the necessary steps to create it could easily be derived. An agreement was reached: who would be in charge of organising the program and how. Off the group went: Editing, writing, recording. That’s the part that makes working towards a set goal so easy: Everything you do can be derived from it. Backwards planning: If this is what we want, this is what we have to do. Simple, yet powerful. It will be exiting to hear what comes out of it.