My Radio Station, My Audience

Now that I have completed primary and secondary research into both existing radio stations and audiences, I have decided what type of radio station mine will be, and who my intended target audience is.

I am going to create an imaginary local radio station that targets the Greater London area. The station will include news stories that are local (focusing on incidents that take place within London) but also national and possibly international news stories if they have some relevance to people in the London area.

The London radio stations I have listened to, including Capital and LBC, contain both local and national news stories, even though they are stations that principally serve the London area - this is possibly because London had a border audience in terms of nationality than smaller, more regional stations might do.

Once I have handed my questionaire out, I expect that I will have a better understanding of exactly who my target audience will be. I do, however, already have some ideas about my target audience in terms of age, gender, lifestyle location and their listening habits in terms of genres of music.

My target audience in terms of age is quite broad, running from 15 - 45 years of age and I would expect both men and women to listen to my station - this age range and multi-gendered audience will be reflected in the type of music that would be played on my station but also the types of adverts I will include and the types of news stories that will appear in my bulletin. I would describe the type of music that would dominate my radio station as contemporary chart music.

OFCOM character of service sheets

Looking at the OFCOM website, I noticed a section that included all the current commercial radio licenses for existing radio stations.

Initially, I looked at a number of different licences from a range of completely different radio stations to get and idea of who the audience for that radio station was and the type of music played on each station.

The first character of serives sheet I looked at was for Classic FM. Here, the audience for the station is not defined in terms of ages or gender, but rather is described as 'the listeners interested in the music being played'. The type of music played on the radio station appears to be a mixture of histoical classical music and more contemporary classical music from the theatre and film. This station broadcasts to a national audience. Looking at the figures for Classic FM for RAJAR, I was quite surprised to find how popular Classic FM is with over 5 and a half million listeners for the period between September and December 2013.

KISS, in contrast, identifies the age of its target audience as under 30's and states that the genre of music broadcast on the station is contemporary dance music - within that genre, the station is commited to giving over at least 36 per week to specialist sub-genres of music. The potential audience for KISS is much smaller than Classic FM as it services the London area (with approximately 7 million potential listeners).

Wessex FM is described as a radio station that targets a relatively small, local community and as a station that has a 'strong commitment to local news'. On the character of service sheet, there is no mention of the age of the target audience which immplies that it is aimed at everyone in the Weymouth and Dorchester area. The type of music the station plays is vaguely described as 'broad'. This radio station serves a far smaller population just over 1,00,000 listeners. According to the RAJAR website, nearly 40% of potential listeners tune in to the radio station - this is a far greater percentage than either Classic FM or KISS and reflects just how important local radio stations are to the community they serve.

Absolute Radio serves the whole of the United Kingdom and is described as playing both new and classic music from the rock genre. The target audience in terms of age runs from the mid 20's to the mid 40's and it reflected in the fact that the station is committed to playing older tracks. The figures on the RAJAR website suggests that only 3% of the potential audience listen to Absolute Radio - this is possibly a result of it playing music that only appeals to a niche audience.

The last radio station  I looked at on Ofcom is Gold (London). This radio station targets the audience in the London area and the music that is played on the station is described as 'classic pop'. This genre of music directly influence the age of the target audience who are much older than I have found on other radio stations (35 - 54 years old).

Once I had decided what kind of radio station I wanted to produce, I looked at the character of service sheet for Capital Radio, a station that is similar to mine. Capital, like my station, services the London area and plays modern chart music for people under the age of 40.

Secondary Research into Audience

Alongside my questionnaire, I have looked at the RAJAR and the OFCOM websites, both of which contain infomation about radio audiences in the UK.

Rajar Homepage

RAJAR measures the listening figures for over 300 radio stations in the UK and includes details about how many people listen to a particular station and how often they listen to that station. Looking at RAJAR, I have been able to gather information about radio stations that are similar to mine including Capital or Radio 1 (despite the fact that Radio 1 is not a commercial radio station). The figures suggest that both Radio 1 and Capital radio are among the most popular radio stations in terms of listeners across the UK and this may be because they target audiences from both genders and they target a relatively broar audience in terms of age.

OFCOM Homepage

Looking at the Ofcom website, and particularly the pages relating to radio broardcast licences, helped me get a greater understanding of the type of music played on particular radio stations but also, an idea of the target audience for those radio stations in terms of age and location.

My Questionnaire

Here is my questionnaire that I will hand out to get an idea of people's listening habits.

Primary Research

Alongside the secondary research I have conducted, and the listening  I have done to existing radio stations I am going to conduct some primary research in the form of a questionnaire to help give me a better understanding of audience expectations.

I have created a questionnaire which I intend to distribute to a range of people in the London area to help me understand their listening habits and to get a clearer idea of what the would expect to hear on a local radio station serving the greater London area.

I will include general questions regarding age gender and lifestyle but also questions regarding how frequently the listen to radio, where their listening takes place, and the type of music they would expect to hear. I have also included questions regarding the type of news, the kind of adverts, and the types of presenters they would expect to find on a London based radio station. I hope to combine the information I gather from my questionnaire with the rest of my research to help make my radio extract as authentic as possible and to ensure that it successfully targets my audience.

Representation in News Bulletins

Representation is a key concept in media and there are a number of ways that I'm going to show my understanding of representation throughout the radio show that I produce. When it comes to planning which actors will be playing specific character from my script, I know that I will have to chose my actors carefully so that I get the appropriate representation across to my audience. I will also need to think about the different representations in my adverts, for my news presenter, for voxpop and soundbites and for the presenter of my show. I will even need to consider representation in my jingles.

I am listening to different radio stations to see if there are similarities or differences between the way that the presenters deliver the news in terms of the tone of their voices, the language that they use and whether there is any interaction with the presenters of the show. I suspect that the news presenters on KISS will be much more chatty and informal than the news presenters on Radio 4, who is likely to use more sophisticated language and deliver the news in a more serious tone of voice. I expect the news presenter on talkSPORT to be a male and to deliver the news in more colloquial tone.

The first area of representation I'm going to analyse is the representation of news presenters. I've decided to listen to bulletins from 3 very different radio stations aimed at very different audiences. These stations are KISS, talkSPORT, and Radio 4.

The first area of representation I'm going to analyse is the representation of news presenters. I've decided to listen to bulletins from 3 very different radio stations aimed at very different audiences. These stations are KISS, talkSPORT, and Radio 4.

I first listened to a news bulletin on Radio 4. The presenter sounded like a middle aged man and spoke clearly and slowly. He tended to use mature language no matter what the story. He was very formal. An example of this is how he first addressed the listeners by saying the time and date and then 'good morning'.

I then listened to a news bulletin on KISS radio. The presenter here was also male, however sounded significantly younger than the presenter on Radio 4. He spoke in a much more informal way and seemed to have banter with the other presenters on the show.

I also listened to talkSPORT radio. The present was a woman who sounded middle aged, however not as old as the presenter on Radio 4. She presented the news with a relaxed tone of voice and spoke at quite a fast pace.

Listening to representation with regards to news bulletins has made me realise that news is presented differently, depending on the audience. This is something I will take into consideration once I have decided on what type of radio station I'm going to create and who my target audience is.

Jingles

The listening that I have done so far, even though it has been about news, has drawn attention to the different types of jingles that are used on a radio station.

List of Jingles:

• Station jingle - Played on every show on the station. It contains the stations name, the frequency, a slogan that sums up the radio stations style and hint at the target audience and possible music that reflects the audience/genre.

• Show jingle - Often a show jingle will also include the name of the station and the frequency, but it will mostly make reference to the presenters of the show, or the show itself. Each show is likely to have a slightly different identity and any slogans or music used will reflect either genre of music played on the show or reflect the personalities of the presenters and the tone of the show.

• News jingle - Again, news jingles usually include the name of the station and the frequency, and will include the word 'news' during the slogan. The music used during a news jingle is likely to be more serious in tone, reflecting the serious nature of the news stories that are presented. Many of the news jingles that I have listened to have used music that is uptempo and fast paced.

• Competition jingle - The structure and sound of a competition jingle will depend upon what the competition is for, but this jingle is likely to also include the name of the station and the frequency or the name of the show. The music and the tone of voice of the presenter will be designed to make the prize sound exciting, to encourage listeners to enter the competition.

• Travel jingle - As with other jingles, there will be reference to the station and the frequency and the jingle is likely to include sound effects of traffic and car horns. Any music used is likely to be busy and discordant. There may also be a reference to a sponsor that is likely to be related to transport.

• Weather jingle - Similar to the travel jingle, weather jingles are often sponsored by an appropriate company. Any sound effects are usually weather related (the sound of rainfall or the sun coming out) and any music is likely to be more calming and peaceful than the music used in a travel jingle. Again, this kind of jingle is likely to include the name of the station and the frequency 

• Sport jingle - Some radio stations have a separate sports bulletin after the news and this often has its own jingle. As with other jingles, there is likely to be reference the the station and/or frequency and phrases such as 'sports updates' will be used. The music accompanying this jingle is usually fast paced and uptemto (typically indie or rock music that isn't as serious in tone as the music used for the news jingle).