P1: Describe the different radio industry operations
P2: Describe the focus of a chosen radio station
I will focus on the difference between a local commercial radio station and a national radio station - Star Radio and BBC Radio 4. A local radio station is one that is only broadcasted in a certain county or city area, a commercial station is one which makes most of its money from adverts and promos, and is for-profit. A national radio station is one that can be listened to across the whole country, and since the BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster, Radio 4 has no adverts, and is funded by the TV licence, the BBC Trust and the government. A community radio station is for a local community, and is often run by volunteers who have an interest they want to talk about on air (e.g. a hospital radio). A non-profit radio station includes radio run by schools and hospitals, and is similar to a community radio station, so money they earn won't go into presenters' wages, it will go back into the organisation.
On BBC Radio 4, their type of content is talk radio, and a lot of their output is radio dramas, documentaries, comedy programmes, audio books, news and weather forecasts. Their target age is 35-54, so this content suits their target audience well as they don't necessarily want a very fast-paced, upbeat radio show with lots of popular music; they prefer more informative programmes. I think their audience enjoy this content because it has been a longer time since they've been in education, so they might want to start learning new things again, whereas a younger target audience (e.g. 15-20) would want an escape from learning in the media they consume, since they are still in education.
On Star Radio, their content is a lot more music-based, and their output consists of local news, travel updates for the Cambridge area, and music. They describe the music they play as 'Cool Classics', suggesting they don't play the most recent chart music, instead they play popular songs from past decades. There are also a lot of adverts, since Star is a commercial radio station so they make most of their money from advertising local businesses. Their website claims they have a target audience of "35-64 year old, upmarket adults with a core target audience of 45-54". Therefore, I think the content they put out suits this target audience because this age range will know a lot of the 70's, 80's and 90's music they play, and they also would live in the area that they operate - which Star claims to span between Ely, Cambridge and Saffron Walden.
Star Radio's team is fairly small compared to the BBC's, since their difference in budget is so large. From looking at their website, I found out that they have a manager of the entire station, a news team, at least two presenters and a sales and advertising team - but there are many more roles that are not listed. These include a broadcast assistant, a studio manager, a production assistant and a traffic reporter. On the other hand, BBC Radio 4 have dozens of presenters, and there may be many presenters who work in rotation on the same programme. They will also have a lot more behind-the-scenes staff than local commercial radio stations - like scriptwriters, a marketing team, editors, sound engineers, HR managers and music directors. I think the main difference between staff at these two different types of radio station is that the national station has a lot more staff than the local station. This is partly because at the local station, multiple roles can be fulfilled by one person, and also because the commercial station is always live, so there is no need for scripts or editing.
At BBC Radio 4, their target audience is people aged 35-54 and in the ABC1 socio-economic bracket. This information was found on the second page of this document: downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio/commissioning/R4_44_Minute_Drama_Audience_Pack.pdf To appeal to this audience, they provide lots of content that is mostly spoken word, with a mixture of pre-recorded and live content. Some of their most popular programmes (e.g. Woman's Hour, The Archers, You & Yours, Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Desert Island Discs) are broadcasted every day or every other day. This helps the audience to build a relationship with the radio station, as they know which times their favourite shows are always on and can base their daily routines around getting to listen to these programmes. Some of their most popular shows also have repeats, so if listeners miss an episode they can catch up on it before the next one comes out - a good example of this is The Archers.
I think a large reason why Radio 4 are so successful with their target audience is because they make informative content that their audience would find interesting. A lot of their programmes also have guests/presenters of a similar age to the target audience, so they are likely to have a similar sense of humour, and the target audience can relate to them as those in the same age bracket share similar experiences. A guest or host could make a reference to a song that was popular when they were growing up, and the more mature target audience would most likely know it too. I think their lack of current music sets them apart from other BBC Radio stations, and directs all listeners who aren't interested in the typical Radio 1 Drivetime content to Radio 4. I think they, as a station, are able to pick a genre (speech radio) and stick to it, but also allow themselves to branch out within that genre and have different styles of content including comedy, drama, documentary and consumer.
Radio 4 also has a lot of interaction-based programmes (e.g. You & Yours, Feedback, Gardener's Question Time, Any Questions?, etc.), this is called event radio, which can also help the target audience build a relationship with the radio station as they can send in their questions to get advice from experts. These types of programme encourage the audience to interact with the show on social media, or via phone call or email, which in turn helps the show gain popularity and gets more people talking about it.
M1: Analyse the structure and content of a programme broadcast by a chosen radio station
The purpose of The Archers is to entertain the audience since it is a radio drama, so it is designed to be an exciting story that listeners can follow over the days and weeks. Since the BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster, all of their content is funded by the British public paying a TV licence fee, so this is how The Archers get their income for creating the show. The Archers is on air every weekday evening at 7pm, as this is when their target audience will be at home for the evening, and many regular listeners will schedule their evening around being able to listen to The Archers since missing an episode can mean the next episode won't make sense. The content of this programme is all spoken word, but there is theme music at the beginning and end of the episode, and a lot of sound effects are included to make the scenes more immersive. I found that The Archers does very well at creating an immersive product because they use different techniques to make it feel like you are a fly on the wall sat between the two characters who are speaking. They create this effect by having an actor stand further away from the microphone when they are entering or leaving a room, and also by having one character's voice come from the left headphone and the other character's voice from the right. These techniques make the listener feel like they are really in the room with those characters, and this draws them into the story more. For a radio drama, I feel that The Archers has a fairly small team, there are around 70 characters on The Archers website currently, but only around 5 characters speak per episode. Every episode needs a scriptwriter, foley artist, studio manager, producer and assistant producer as well as the actors to create the programme, so their staff cost will be fairly low, but the actor cost will be high in the long run.
Below are some notes I took while I was listening to the episode.
I feel that the audience of The Archers is similar to the target audience of Radio 4 - 35-54 and in the ABC1 socio-economic bracket. Since the characters in The Archers span a large range of ages, I think listeners of The Archers are a wider age range than Radio 4 (for example age 20-60) since this range of characters make the programme relatable to a more mainstream audience - and I enjoyed listening to the episode even though there were no characters of my age in this episode. I think listeners of The Archers would have a more relaxed lifestyles with a set routine, so they can make time to listen to the new episode every day - they may also have school-aged children, so scheduling the show for the evening is a good idea as parents won't have many responsibilities in the evenings. According to RAJAR, for the first quarter of 2019, BBC Radio 4 had an audience reach of just over 11 million listeners per week, making up 20% of the reach percent. www.rajar.co.uk/docs/2019_03/2019_Q1_Quarterly_Summary_Figures.pdf
The delivery of The Archers is fitting for a radio drama because it is performed in a dramatic way by professional actors to keep the audience engaged. This particular episode had a lot of serious moments, but there were some lighthearted moments when Adam and Ian go for a picnic and swim in the river together, this breaks up the tension and prevents the episode from being too intense. The actors' professional delivery of the lines makes the audience more immersed in the programme, and their emotions sound very believable and therefore have more impact on the listener as they can empathise with the characters. There are also foley sounds that the actors can react to, for example the car crash, so their reactions are more realistic and they can deliver their lines with worry in their voice. I feel that if the actors weren't as professional, this would ruin the programme, as I think the ability to escape into the world of The Archers is one of the main appealing factors of the episodes.