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KUNM Commentary Guidelines

Do you have something to say about an issue affecting your community? KUNM welcomes your commentaries! See the guidelines below and then send a draft to commentary@kunm.org.

KUNM Commentary Guidelines
KUNM welcomes commentaries on many subjects. If you focus on a particular event or issue, your commentary is more likely to be selected for broadcast. We also like to hear commentaries that are connected to broader state or national issues. Some examples include current congressional debates, an issue that is receiving a lot of local or national attention, or new information on news or issues of the day.
SUBJECTS: Your commentary should be personal and should not be confused with a news report. Commentaries should reflect your opinions and ideas about an issue or event. Please use simple language, with declarative sentences, in a narrative style. Statements should be based in fact, but you don't need to include an exhaustive list of numbers and data.
STATISTICS: Numbers are very difficult to use in radio stories and commentaries. Pick one or two stats (if you feel they are integral to your opinion) that most effectively communicate what you feel is important.
EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE: News staff will edit commentaries for effectiveness in a radio broadcast. Commentators must be able to support all statements. News staff will fact check any numbers or statistics that you use, so please be prepared to provide sources to back up your data. Feel free to ask for feedback about how to summarize numbers and facts in your submission. Avoid jargon or complex language that might not be understood by a broad audience.
LEGAL REQUIREMENTS: KUNM must follow very specific legal guidelines in our programming. We can not air content that includes profanity or statements that could be considered libel or slander. You also cannot make a specific call to action (ie. vote for a certain candidate or go to a particular event). If you have questions about our legal guidelines, please contact a KUNM news department staff member at news@kunm.org or call 505-277-8016.
LENGTH: Your commentary must be less than 3 and a half minutes long. A good measure of length is 2 pages in double-spaced 12 point, Times New Roman font.
DELIVERY: After you are finished writing your commentary, we suggest reading it a few times out loud at a relaxed pace - as if you were talking to a friend. Some people will need to have a shorter script to have a commentary that is less than 3 and a half minutes. Include your name, contact number, city where you live and profession. We will work with you to write a host intro that will be read before your commentary.
WHERE TO FIND YOUR COMMENTARY: We do not provide studio-produced copies of commentaries to commentators or to the public, due to the additional material/studio/staff costs incurred. Commentaries will be posted on our website.
News Staff have full authority to edit the piece before airing and/or to reject it for broadcast, based on their judgment of what is in the best interest of the station.