A VOSOT is one of the most common formats in local news — and one of the most time-consuming to write from scratch. Paste your source material and get a complete, formatted package in seconds.
Open VOSOT GeneratorIf you're new to the business — or you wandered in from the digital side — here's the fastest broadcast lesson you'll ever get. A VOSOT is a story format with two moving parts: the anchor reads over video (that's the VO — voice over), then we stop talking and let someone else talk (that's the SOT — sound on tape, a soundbite). The anchor sets up the bite, the bite plays, and the anchor comes back out with a tag — the closing line that lands the story. VO, setup, sound, tag. That's the whole thing. It takes maybe forty-five to ninety seconds on air, and it carries more weight than a plain reader because the viewer hears a real person — not just the anchor — telling part of the story.
Here's a truth every producer learns fast: the VOSOT is simple to describe and endless to produce. Any given show might carry eight, ten, twelve of them — and every single one needs the same structural work. Write the VO. Set up the sound. Pick the bite. Time it. Write the tag that gets the anchor back out clean. None of it is hard. All of it takes time, multiplied by everything else in the rundown.
The VOSOT Generator does the structural work in seconds. Feed it a press release, wire copy, your raw notes — or drop in a URL and let it fetch the story itself. What comes back isn't a blob of text. It's a formatted VOSOT, built the way a rundown expects it: the VO intro, the SOT setup line, the suggested soundbite with timing, and the tag. It even suggests b-roll — the shots an editor would naturally pull to cover the VO — which is a small thing until it's 4:40 and small things are everything.
Notice what it does with the soundbite specifically, because this is where the tool earns its keep. When your source material contains a quote — and press releases almost always do — it identifies the strongest bite, writes the setup that leads into it without stepping on it, and formats it so your editor knows exactly what to pull. The setup line is its own craft: a good one hands the viewer to the speaker; a bad one repeats what the speaker's about to say. The tool is built to know the difference.
So who lives in this tool? Producers, obviously — this is show-stacking fuel, and on a heavy news day it can turn an hour of formatting into minutes of editing. But I'll tell you the user I didn't expect when I built it: the EP. Executive producers reviewing a stack of scripts can run a weak story through the Generator and hand back a restructured version instead of a margin note that says "fix this" — coaching by example, at deadline speed. Fill-in producers inherit shows with no context; the Generator gives them a starting point that's already structured correctly. MMJs filing three stories before noon use it to build the second and third while they're still in the field on the first.
The judgment stays where it belongs. The tool doesn't know which bite your market will feel, whether the mayor's quote is news or spin, or if the story deserves more than forty-five seconds. That's you. It just makes sure that while you're making the decisions that matter, the formatting isn't eating the clock.
County press release: MILLBROOK COUNTY — The Millbrook County Department of Public Works is responding to a significant water main rupture that occurred at approximately 4:40 a.m. Tuesday beneath Route 9, resulting in the closure of a three-mile stretch of the roadway between Ashford Road and the county line. Approximately 4,200 residential and commercial customers are experiencing service interruptions, and a boil-water advisory has been issued for affected areas as a precautionary measure. Repairs are expected to be completed by Thursday.
Logged interview — Marcus Webb, Public Works Director (break site, 11:20 a.m.): :14 — "This is a sixty-year-old cast iron main. When they fail, they don't fail small." :52 — "We've got to excavate, replace the section, pressure-test it, and then the water itself has to be tested before we can tell anybody it's safe. That's why this runs to Thursday." 1:37 — "My crews will be out here around the clock. Nobody's going home until this is fixed."
Logged interview — Denise Calloway, homeowner (her kitchen, 12:45 p.m.): :22 — "First I knew about it was no pressure in the shower. Then the alert on my phone." 1:05 — "I've got a pot going pretty much all day now. Boil it, let it cool, fill the jugs. Do it again. It's like camping, except I'm in my own kitchen." 1:48 — "My mother's ninety-one and she lives with us. So no — I'm not taking any chances."
Nat sound: excavator at break site • water in trench • kettle whistling • county alert on phone • traffic at detour. Reporter notes: detour adds ~15 min • two restaurants closed • Denise's mom detail feels like the heart of this.
VO: FIREFIGHTERS IN MILLBROOK COUNTY ARE GOING DOOR TO DOOR — WITH FREE SMOKE ALARMS. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT LAUNCHED A NEW PROGRAM TODAY... INSTALLING THE ALARMS AT NO COST IN NEIGHBORHOODS THAT NEED THEM MOST. CREWS PLAN TO KNOCK ON DOORS OVER THE NEXT SIX MONTHS. SOT SETUP: FIRE CHIEF DANIEL REYES SAYS TOO MANY OF THE HOMES HIS CREWS RESPOND TO... HAVE NO ALARMS AT ALL. SOT: (Chief Daniel Reyes / Millbrook County Fire — runs :08) "This initiative is about meeting our residents where they live — literally at their front doors — before tragedy has a chance to arrive." TAG: TO FIND OUT IF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD QUALIFIES — WE'VE PUT A LINK ON OUR WEBSITE. B-roll: firefighters at a front door • smoke alarm installation close-up • fire engine in residential neighborhood • hands testing an alarm
What if there's no soundbite in my source material?
Then the tool does what a good producer does: it builds the story anyway and marks the hole. You'll get the full structure with a SOT placeholder — including a suggested setup based on who the logical speaker would be, so you know exactly what sound to chase. "SOT: [Chief, on why the program matters]" isn't a finished story, but it's a story with a shopping list — and when the bite comes in from the field, it drops into a slot that's already built. The tool never invents a quote. It flags the gap and gives you the frame.
Does it pick the soundbite for me?
It suggests one — the strongest bite in your material by broadcast logic: short, human, and saying something the VO can't say better. But you're the editor. If you'd rather use a different cut, swap it. And a note from thirty years of listening to sound: the best bite is almost never the one with the most facts. It's the one with the most person in it. The tool leans that way on purpose — facts belong in the VO; feeling belongs in the SOT.
How is this different from the Script Simplifier?
Same family, different jobs. The Simplifier is a rewriter — it takes copy and makes it sound like television. The VOSOT Generator is a builder — it takes source material and constructs a formatted story with parts: VO, setup, sound, tag, b-roll. Rule of thumb: if your story is just the anchor talking, use the Simplifier. The moment someone else's voice enters the story, you're in VOSOT territory. Plenty of producers use both on the same rundown — and yes, they play nicely together.