public service announcements
So, you want to make a PSA?
Great! There are a few things that you have to do first:
1. Figure out exactly what people need to know. An important first step is to make sure you actually have some sort of event or message that you need to get out to the campus, the Meadville community, or both. Then, get all the information necessary. Think of the 6 W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. (okay, one is an 'H.')
2. Write the PSA. Don’t worry, it’s not actually hard, there’s just a few guidelines you have to follow (I’ll bold them for easy reference):
These are (mostly) FCC Regulations that WARC, as a non-commercial radio station, has to follow. If you don’t follow them, your PSA might be rewritten or rejected. If this sounds daunting, the WARC PSA Director can help you write your PSA if you like.
3. Now that you’ve got your PSA written, you can get it on the air. Usually, PSAs from a specific group are simply read on-air by the DJs, but if you wish, it’s certainly possible to burn a CD to be played. Anyway, to get your PSA on-air, get in contact with the PSA Director for the year. The easy way to do this is just to email him/her. Alternatively, you can email warc@allegheny.edu, with a subject containing "PSA Submission."
Simple enough, right? Good! Go out and write your PSAs.
(Our current PSA Director is Grace Rohaley (rohaleyg@alleghen.edu))
Great! There are a few things that you have to do first:
1. Figure out exactly what people need to know. An important first step is to make sure you actually have some sort of event or message that you need to get out to the campus, the Meadville community, or both. Then, get all the information necessary. Think of the 6 W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. (okay, one is an 'H.')
2. Write the PSA. Don’t worry, it’s not actually hard, there’s just a few guidelines you have to follow (I’ll bold them for easy reference):
- You can’t mention prices or sales, or things like that. You can say tickets are available, or something like that, but that’s about it.
- You can’t say your event/whatever is the best. Don’t compare your thing to another thing, just say what it is.
- Make sure that if something benefits a specific organization or charity, you mention that. This isn’t necessary, but it is definitely helpful in getting people to respond. Also, if you have some sort of corporate sponsor, you can’t say that.
- Finally, you can’t make any calls to action. Basically what this means is that you can’t actually tell people what to do. The easy way to do this is just use a passive voice, or don’t say anything like “go here, do this”, etc. Instead, just give people information.
These are (mostly) FCC Regulations that WARC, as a non-commercial radio station, has to follow. If you don’t follow them, your PSA might be rewritten or rejected. If this sounds daunting, the WARC PSA Director can help you write your PSA if you like.
3. Now that you’ve got your PSA written, you can get it on the air. Usually, PSAs from a specific group are simply read on-air by the DJs, but if you wish, it’s certainly possible to burn a CD to be played. Anyway, to get your PSA on-air, get in contact with the PSA Director for the year. The easy way to do this is just to email him/her. Alternatively, you can email warc@allegheny.edu, with a subject containing "PSA Submission."
Simple enough, right? Good! Go out and write your PSAs.
(Our current PSA Director is Grace Rohaley (rohaleyg@alleghen.edu))