How We Make South Today Radio: Behind the Audio

The first rule of field recording is to stand still and listen. Before any microphone is switched on, a producer walks into a room, a porch or a market and spends a few minutes simply hearing it: the hum of a refrigerator, a distant mower, a kettle starting to tick. That small act of attention shapes everything that follows, and it is the center of how South Today Radio plans to work.

This piece describes our intended workflow. It is a plan, not a report on a finished production line. South Today Radio's audio is not yet released, and nothing here should be read as saying that recordings, a podcast feed or an app currently exist.

What exists today

Right now, the radio section of the site offers reading editions: essays and episode notes written as companions to planned episodes. Each reading edition has a Listen button, which uses your browser's own voice to read the page aloud. The stories are illustrative launch-edition pieces. They are a way to test tone and structure before real recording begins.

The planned workflow

Here is the sequence we intend to follow once audio production starts:

1. Pitch and research. A story idea is discussed, and we identify who needs to be heard.
2. Consent before the microphone. We explain, in plain language, what will be recorded and how it may be used.
3. Field recording. We record conversations and ambient sound, taking time to capture room tone.
4. Review and consent again. Where possible, contributors hear how their words will be used.
5. Editing and mixing. Producers shape the material without altering meaning.
6. Transcript and checks. A full transcript is prepared and facts are checked.
7. Publication. Audio and text are published together.

Field recording with care

We plan to use modest, portable equipment so the process stays unobtrusive. We are not endorsing any particular brand. The more important tools are habits: wearing headphones to monitor sound, asking people to repeat a phrase if a truck passes, and recording a minute of silence in every place. Room tone gives editors something to stitch with, and it also captures what a place feels like.

Wherever possible, we prefer to record in the spaces people already use, whether a kitchen, a church hall or a shop floor, rather than bringing them to a studio. People speak differently when they are comfortable.

Ethics and consent

Consent is not a signature on a form; it is an ongoing conversation. Our principles are simple:

• People should know why they are being recorded and where the audio might appear.
• Contributors can pause, redo an answer or ask not to be included.
• We avoid editing in ways that change what someone meant.
• We treat communities and heritage with respect, and do not reduce people to accents or stereotypes.
• Children and vulnerable people receive extra care and appropriate permission.

Accessibility from the start

Audio shuts some people out, so we plan to treat transcripts as a core part of every episode, not a late addition. A transcript should capture speakers, meaningful sounds and pauses. Reading editions already serve this purpose today. We also want pages to work with screen readers and keyboard navigation, and we welcome feedback if something does not.

What we do not yet know

There is plenty we have not decided: release schedules, episode lengths, which listening platforms we will use, and how often we can publish. Planned workflows tend to change on contact with reality. We may find that some steps are too slow, or that some stories belong in text rather than audio. We will say so when that happens, and we would rather launch late than launch carelessly.

Editing without distorting

Editing is where trust is most easily kept or lost. We plan to cut for clarity and length, never to change meaning. That means keeping a person's pauses where they carry feeling, leaving in the occasional laugh, and resisting the urge to smooth every rough edge. If a quote needs context, we plan to add it in narration rather than by splicing sentences together. Producers will keep notes on every significant cut, so another editor can check the work.

Sound design is held to the same standard. Ambient sound should come from the place being described, not from a library of convincing substitutes. If a sound was not there, it should not be in the piece.

The bottom line

South Today Radio is an intention with a method. Until recordings exist, the reading editions and the read-aloud button are the way to experience the project, and the workflow described here is a promise about how we will behave. If you have ideas, questions or concerns about how stories should be recorded, write to [email protected]. We are listening, in the old-fashioned sense.