Radio Editing and Proofreading Services

Radio copy is written to be heard once, by someone driving, cooking or half-listening, who cannot go back. Every device print journalism relies on is unavailable: no subordinate clauses the eye can untangle, no parenthesis, no figure the reader can stare at, no way to reread the sentence that introduced three names at once. Writing for the ear is a distinct craft, and the most common failure in newsrooms that produce for both is copy that was written for the page and is being read aloud.

We edit what radio stations, networks and audio newsrooms produce — news bulletins and headline sequences, cues and links for presenters, package and voice piece scripts, interview briefs and question sets, live coverage and continuity scripts, travel, weather and service announcements, trailers and promotional copy, station style guides and pronunciation policies, presenter guidance and handover conventions, community and access programming material, emergency and public information broadcasts, sponsorship and commercial disclosure copy, and complaints and regulatory correspondence. Our editors read everything aloud, because that is the only way this material can be assessed.

Writing for the ear comes down to a set of specific, learnable rules that most copy breaks. Attribution goes first, because a listener who hears the claim before the source has already believed it — "The union says talks have collapsed", never the reverse. Numbers are rounded to what the ear can hold: nearly four in ten, not 38.7 per cent. Names come with their identifier before the name, since a listener cannot use a name they have not yet been told the significance of. Sentences carry one idea, in the order it happened, and anything requiring a subordinate clause becomes two sentences. Pronouns are avoided wherever a second person has been mentioned. And the copy is checked for tongue-twisting adjacencies, because a presenter stumbling on a hard consonant cluster loses the sentence and the listener with it. We apply these systematically and mark the copy for breath, which is the part writers most often forget they are responsible for.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including unbroadcast scripts, source material and complaints correspondence. We are editors rather than broadcasters, lawyers or compliance advisers, and we offer no view on editorial decisions, regulatory obligations or legal risk. What we can do is make copy that works at the speed of speech, first time, for a listener who is doing something else.