Radio C1

     03/12/24

L/O: To explore the content and structure of the unit

Component 1 - The Radio Industry

DO NOW:    

• Paper 1 is 1h 30 minutes
• Section B includes industry and audiences
• Media language & representation
• Aim for a mark a minute
• A 'how far' question is asking you to agree or disagree

Public Service Broadcaster:

A radio organisation that is independent of government, financed by public money provides content that is in benefit and service of the public, trusted, and in the public interest.

Commercial Radio:

Radio stations that is funded through advertisement.

Community Radio:

A non-profit radio service that is owned, operated and influenced by the community it serves.

Podcast:

A digital audio file made available by the internet that is downloadable

DAB Radio:

DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) is digital radio standard.    

RAJAR:

RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) is the official body in the UK that measures and publishes radio audience statistics for all UK radio stations, including the BBC and commercial stations. 

Licence Fee:

An annual fee used to finance the BBC, which is payable by each household in which television programmes are watched. 

Royal Charter:

A formal document that grants an organisation independent legal status, defines its powers and objectives. 

Remit:

Outlines a broadcasters area of responsibility.

Convergence:

The coming together of previously separate media industries and r platforms often the result of advances in technology where one device or platform contains a range of different features.

In the UK, radio falls into three categories: public services, commercial & community radio

BBC RADIO: BBC is a public service broadcaster that operates several national stations (Radio 1) and many local radio stations (Radio Cornwall). Each of these has a distinct identity and targets a specific audience. The BBC is publicly funded by the licence fee.

COMMUNITY RADIO: often not for profit, these tend to cover small areas and serve the interests of a particular social group, E.g. Hospital radio. They can be funded from a variety of sources such as grants, advertising, fundraising etc.

COMMERCIAL RADIO: these are funded by advertising. The UK has many of these - they are often focused on particular genres of music (Classic PM) and are very popular.

Ofcom regulate radio in the UK

1. BBC Radio 1: Aimed at 15-29 year olds, plays popular music from a variety of genres BBC Radio 2: Aimed at 35-54 year olds, plays all music and entertainment shows      BBC Radio 3: Aimed at 35-54 year olds, plays classical music, jazz and cultural program BBC Radio 4: Aimed at 55+ year olds, plays news, current affairs and cultural programs BBC Radio 5: Aimed at 25-54 year olds, plays various alternative and independent genre

     2. The BBC Remit is to inform, educate and entertain

     3. The UK licence fee for a year is £169.50

     4. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news, drama, current affairs and cultural programming

     5. The BBC Radio 4 target audience is 55 and over

     6. Newquay Radio is a local community station

     7. Ofcom regulate radio in the UK

 

  06/12/24

L/O: To explore the content and structure of the unit

The Radio Industry

DO NOW:

• Public service broadcasters are a radio organisation independent of the government and for public interest only financed by the public
• Commercial radios are funded by advertisement
• BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news, drama, current affairs and cultural programmings mixed speech
• Ofcom regulate radio in the UK
• Development of streaming services has affected radio popularity in recent years

Why DAB radio?

• Digital radio is widely used due to better quality sound and wider access to more stations.
• Digital technology allows media organisations to offer audiences many ways to experience to a programme in addition to listening on a radio:
• Streaming live
• Listening again on a catch-up service
• Downloading a podcast
• Accessing content on social media platforms - e.g. YouTube
• All this content across a range of platforms offers audiences the opportunity to choose where and when they listen to radio.

Podcasts

• Podcasts are now regularly produced by radio broadcasters, offering the chance to download a programme
• Many offer additional content or edited highlights from the original programme
• Increasingly, podcasts are produced independently of a radio broadcaster: these include drama series, comedies and factual shows

2023 RAJAR statistics:

• 88% of the UK's adult population, or 49.8 million people, listened to the radio each week.
• Commercial radio's share of listening was 54.1%, up from 50.9% in 2023
• 17% of total listening was on smart speakers, a 22% increase from the previous year
• Total combined digital listening is now 72% of all radio listening. This is predominantly DAB which is 42.7% and online which is 25.6%
• Some BBC Radio stations saw a decline in listeners, including
• BBC Radio 1: Down from 7.7m to 7.3m
• BBC Radio 3: Down from 2m to 1.8m
• BBC Radio 4: Down slightly from 9.3m to 9.1m
• BBC Radio 5 Live: Down slightly from 5.5m to 5.25m
• BBC Radio 6 Music: Down from 2.75m to 2.5m

Audience Appeals

• Radio fulfils a range of Uses & Gratifications for audiences
• Information: Radio stations such as BBC Radio 4 are news, mixed speech and current affairs based rather than music, granting listeners with information
• Entertainment: Music based radio stations provide entertainment through spoken words, preferred DJ's and music genres

• There are different pleasures associated with different genres of radio, such as speech or music programmes, but some of the main appeals are:
• Companionship & background sound
• Relaxation, entertainment and escapism
• Information & education

The Archers

L/O: To explore the context and production of a radio drama

What is The Archers?

• The Archers is the world's longest running radio soap opera
• Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting"
• One of the original intentions of the programme was to communicate information about modern farming methods to increase food production, as food was still being rationed after WW2
• Today, it is very carefully researched and is informative about many issues to do with farming, rural issues and wider contemporary social issues
• It is a slow-moving, gentle and subtle drama
• It is set in the fictional village of Ambleside
• Storylines are sometimes serious - e.g. rape in marriage, racism, drug addictions, family breakups etc.
• More commonly, stories focus on daily rural life - e.g. caring for animals, marmalade making competitions, harvesting crops

Soap Opera Conventions?

• Fast-paced
• Melodramatic
• Multi-strand narratives to reflect real life
• Ensemble casts
• Dialogue centred rather than action - drama arises out of conflict between characters
• Often have cliffhangers
• The traditional target audience for soap operas is females and so they often feature strong female characters or matriarchs
• Stories often focused on family / work / relationships
• Designed for regular listening (e.g. daily)
• Ongoing stories to keep viewers 'hooked' (open-ended narratives)
• Set in specific locations where characters come together (pubs, café, workplaces, etc.)

How can you listen to The Archers?

• BBC Radio 4 Extra and BBC iPlayer Radio
• Weekly omnibus every Sunday morning
• Short running time - 13 mins
• Broadcast on the radio in regular time slots - 7pm every day except Saturday, repeated at 2pm the following say
• Also available online on-demand for 30 days after broadcast
• Weekly podcast of the omnibus available to download
• Available on BBC Sounds app internationally

How do the listening options offer flexibility to a wide target audience?

The listening options offer flexibility to a wide target audience as the different time slots that the programme is broadcasted allows for more people to listen to the podcast, due to availability and work considering that the programme is aimed at an older target audience. More to this, the fact that the programme is downloadable allows for increased listener counts as people can listen to the podcast on their phones due to technological convergence, meaning people can listen during daily activities along with when out of the house with earphones. Furthermore, people can listen to the programme all at once listening to the omnibus on Sunday mornings, as they may be busy throughout the week due to the fact that people are more likely to book work off on the weekend rather than throughout the weekdays. Finally, the fact that this omnibus is downloadable allows for listeners to listen with more ease as each individual programme doesn't need to be downloaded.

  10/12/24

L/O: To explore a specific episode of the set text & the larger audience

Set Episode

DO NOW:

• The Archers was first broadcasted in 1951
• The Archers is broadcasted on BBC Radio 4
• Ensemble casts and melodramatics are soap opera conventions 
• The Archers is broadcasted at 7pm every day except Saturdays and repeated at 2pm the following day
• The BBC's remit is to inform, educate and entertain

How can you listen to The Archers?

• The Archers is aired on BBC Radio 4, the BBC's main spoken word channel
• This means it is funded by the licence fee
• Although one original function of the show was to educate farmers ( linking to the BBC's public service remit ), it soon gained a large audience and a source of entertainment for a wider audience not just people from the rural communities
• However, the show still prides itself on the quality of its research and its ability to portray real rural life.

Listeners

• The Archers has approximately 5 million listeners - PLUS, 1 million online
• Historically, radio soap operas have always focused primarily on women's lives, particularly family relationships, domesticity and marriage. Therefore, the target audience was traditionally females who looked after the home
• Target audience: Adult and older British women.

The Archers is a radio soap opera that was founded in 1951 and is broadcasted on BBC Radio 4; it is broadcasted at 7pm every day except Saturdays and repeated at 2pm the following day, along with an omnibus where all of the episodes of the week (13 minutes each)are played on Sunday mornings. Because The Archers is broadcasted on BBC Radio 4, it is funded by the licence fee rather than public service broadcasting, however it is aimed at rural communities and highlights how life is like for those in rural places; the radio often focuses on daily life for farmers, though occasionally addresses more serious topics. The target audience for The Archers has historically been adult, British women due to being founded during the aftermath of World War 2, where women were typically housewives and therefore had the radio to listen to all day whereas men didn't have access to this, however now the radio has transformed into a more contemporary soap opera aimed at both women and men. The Archers can also be interesting to younger and older audiences as it contains a wide range of topics within the episodes, and the fact that it is set in a fictional town may interest younger audiences more.

Production

• The programme is produced at the BBC studios in Birmingham
• The producers consult specialist advisors when developing storylines
• Different scenes are recorded in different areas to ensure that the sounds match the scenes
• The authenticity of the Ambridge world is very important - from the sound of walking right down to which birdsong you'd hear at different times of the year
• Just like life, there's usually one big storyline going on all the time, and smaller domestic ones running alongside. Family feuds, violent relationships and affairs co-exist with cake baking and the Village Show.

Episode Task

• Storylines
• Explosion at great gables
• Gavin was in prison
• Kirsty and Gavin were together
• Rule breaking - being a parish counsellor
• Gavin was in hospital
• Gavin reported his father for modern day slavery
• Village trip to see a pantomime

• Main characters
• Helen
• Joy
• Mick
• Gavin
• Phillip
• Kirsty
• Emma
• Alan
• Linda
• Jordan
• Kenzie
• Jolene

• Genre conventions
• Fast-paced
• Multi-strand narratives
• Dialogue centred

• Audience appeals
• British accents
• Multi-strand narratives

• How does it "inform, educate or entertain"?
• Comedic elements
• Contains serious contexts

• How does it show the impacts of social / cultural contexts?
• Religion - Christianity
• Prison
• Modern day slavery

The Archers Target Audience

• Female (76%)
• 55+ (62%)
• ABC1 (middle/upper class)
• White British (81%)
• Right-wing (e.g. votes Conservative)
• High 'disposable income'
• Midlands location

The producers of the show have their main audience, but also want to tackle secondary (smaller, different) audience segments:

• Young people
• Audiences from abroad
• City dwellers
• Multiple races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, classes