Characteristics of Radio

1.       Mobile medium

Radio is a mobile or portable medium. A person can have it at home, carry it to somewhere else, listen to it while driving, even can have it on land or sea. Radio is a convenient medium that can accompany the listener anywhere.

2.      Inexpensive medium

Radio sets are really cheap and easily available. Radio production costs much less compared to television production. A television production requires studio with camera and lighting facilities, expensive sets, costumes, artists, technicians and a number of production personnel. But radio only re-quires a sound recording and a radio announcer for production.

3.      Invisible medium

Radio depends on the sense of hearing. It is not supported by the medium of sight. The audience is not really bothered about the presence of a radio unlike a television.

4.      Medium of sound

Radio is an exclusive medium of sound. It is a medium of the ear. There are three major elements of a radio broadcast, spoken words, sound effects and music. All these sound elements should be expressive and pleasant for the listeners. It must be artistically combined to provoke the imagination of the listener.

5.      Medium of Voice

Radio is also a medium of voice. The radio announcer’s or performer’s voice is very important in broadcasting. The performer should use various modulations in the sound to produce effective communication.

6.      Intimate medium

The broadcaster must imagine the listeners sitting by their side. The listener should feel that the announcer is speaking within the radio set. The best subjects for broadcasting are those which intimately concern the listener, like personal and innermost feelings. The listeners receive radio broadcasts mostly in very informal situations. So the communication is informal and intimate.

7.      Simple language

Language used in a radio broadcast will be simple and easily understandable. The audience won’t get time to check the meaning of the words or think about the underlying information in a sentence.

8.     Medium of immediacy

Radio is a medium of immediacy. It can report events as they are happening. It can deliver news instantly. It can report an event faster than the newspapers that would take some time to reach the readers.

9.      Secondary medium

It is a unique feature of radio. A person can listen to the radio while performing other activities. One can listen to radio while cooking, driving, and eating, etc. so radio can be consumed while performing an activity.