RESEARCH JOURNAL

SECTION B-Investigating media industries and audiences

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING: Public service broadcasting involves radio, television , and other electronic media outlets. Their primary mission is to provide for the audience and public services for example The BBC. Public service broadcasting are funded by the licence free and the public. The public is to be entertained and educated.

RADIO STATIONS–station profiles

STATION PROFILES: Each Radio Station has a strong and district profile and identity, that appeals too different audiences.This is evident in the way the present the programmes that the radio stations produce, the producers and the way in which they market themselves to the audience. Each radio stations has a logo that is a visual signifer of the station that is incorporated into cross platform marketing. Overtime the identity is built up and audiences have expectations of paticular stations.

• KISS RADIO STATION-Broadcasts nationally on digital radio, as well as FM in London, Bristol. Kiss plays contemporary hits with an urban and dance music during the day, while focusing on more specialized shows in the evening. The audience age range for Kiss Radio is between 15-24.An average listener , listens to kiss radio 4.6 hours per week and 1.8% of listeners share their music.Kiss radio station comes under the conglomerate the Bauer group, also kiss radio is male dominated broadcaster as the majority of presenters are male.
• BBC RADIO 1– Is a public service broadcaster that is publicly funded by licences free and does not air commercials. BBC radio is both national and regional and has over 40 stations all over that attract more than nine million listeners each week, however the numbers have been steadily declining due to the production and competition of other radio stations. The demographic is slightly different as the audience are more female than male and 58% of the audience is ABC1 and 90% of the audience are white. Typically the target age range for the audience is between 15-29, however many people over 30 are most likely to tune into the radio.BBC radio predominantly play the top of the charts such as R&B,POP. People aged above 15 listen to Radio 1 for 5 minuets a day.
• TALK SPORT RADIO- Is a Sport radio station and the Global Audio Partner of the Premier League. Talk Sport is the only national radio station broadcasting sporting discussions and commentaries; they include live coverage of sporting events, interviews with player/leading names and they also include phone-ins and discussions. Talk Sports presenters are prominently male leading to a larger audience of men. The audience age range for talksport is 18-40 year old and their average usage/listening is 6.2 hours. Talk Sport has an increase of listeners each year with a reach of 3.1 million listeners,it has seen a 9% increase of ABC1 men year-on-year, the station has also had it’s highest rate of male listeners at 84%. It is also known that 1.2 million listeners tune in ever week.

CASE STUDY-BBC RADIO 4

BBC radio 4 is owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Radio 4 has a wide variety of spoken- word programmed such as the news,drama, comedy and science.It also occasionally broadcasts concerts, and documentaries related to various forms of both classical and popular music.

It is the second most popular domestic radio station in the UK.

On average the age range for BBC radio 4 listener is 56 years old and leans towards an older audience. Their target audience is between 35-54 ABC1 which makes up for 24% of the audience.The radio station has had a upmarket bias 75% of those fall into the ABC1 demographic. Radio 4 reaches 11.55 million listeners each week, 221.2% of population; the average listener tunes in for 11 hours each week. However online radio 4 attracts 1.8 million unique browsers to its site each week, its the biggest of any BBC Radio stations.

Radio 4 is different from other BBC Radio stations because it’s for viewers who are interested in intelligent speech, also its schedule is packed with journalism, comedy, feature and drama also reading anywhere in the UK radio. You can also access radio 4 on line anywhere in the world. Radio 4 also has one of the oldest age rangers out of the BBC radios following behind BBC 3.