Using audio documentaries as a teaching technique can serve two purposes: provide students with information on any subject and, in the process of producing tapes, introduce writing, listening, research, interviewing, and extemporaneous speaking experiences--all skills that students can later apply to other situations. The live-on-tape format requires a minimum of time, experience, equipment, and money. It can include field recordings that are usually location tapings of interviews, concerns, or sounds unique to a person, place, or animal. Field recordings not only help "interviewees" relax in their own environments and offer an opportunity to use natural sound, but also provide descriptions of locations that can themselves become part of the audio image. Live-on-tape productions require a minimum of one turntable, cassette deck, reel-to-reel recorder, microphone, amplifier, and pair of headphones. Field recording requires one or two cassette recorders with separate microphones. Once the recordings are made, a script can be written, narration recorded, and elements edited and interrecorded or spliced together. Writing for audio requires careful attention to punctuation and style to enhance the sense of conversation. If needed, local noncommercial radio stations may provide professional help and, when appropriate, may even broadcast the finished documentary. (Examples of audio documentary scripts are included.) (HTH)