S

Understanding the Radio Industry

Joseph Scaife

Contents

Section 1 Ownership of radio in Britain

Section 2 PSB Broadcasting

Section 3 New technology

Section 4 Non-profit radio

Section 5 Job roles in radio

Section 6 Professional bodies in radio

S

Ownership of Radio in Britain

Major radio conglomerates

Several media companies own most of the radio stations in Britain, not including the BBC.

emap is one of the largest radio conglomerates, as it owns in excess of 70+ radio stations in Britain

The other groups included here: Gcap plc, GMG, UKRD and Tindle radio own the vast majority of regional and some national radio stations.

Regional radio

Regional radio forms the basis for all radio in Britain, as only the BBC and few others actually broadcast to the nation, therefore. The nation depends on its regional radio for its radio news and entertainment

I will include some data on these three regional radio stations including their popularity and reach in terms of population

Basic listening figures

As you can see form these graphs, Galaxy radio Yorkshire is by for the most popular, in terms of reach percentage, population and reach in the thousands.

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

4,000,000

4,500,000

5,000,000

Series1

0 5 10 15 20 25

Series1

0 200 400 600 800 1,0001,200

Series1

S

PSB Broadcasting in Britain

Explanation of PSB Broadcasting

PSB or Public service broadcasting is what the BBC has done since its founding. the actual broadcasting is done not for profit, but is paid for by the licensing taxes paid by the entire population, therefore it is able to broadcast to the nation throughout the year, without and commercial costs whatsoever.

S

New technologies in radio

Mobile radio

An important step forward in radio technologies is the invention of mobile radio, allowing people to listen to radio on their phones, or handheld FM radios.

As phones become more advanced, the technology allows for a more range in the radio they can access, be it through digital or internet radio

Internet radio

Through the BBC’s iPlayer feature, people can listen to radio shows up to a week after their original broadcast, as well as being able to listen to radio live via the website

Other radio stations also allow people to listen to radio live of the internet via their websites, a few examples include galaxy radio and radio aire.

S

Non-Profit radio

Examples of non-profit radio

Including the list of non profit radio stations, our own PGFM broadcasts locally for no profit, it is run by the students who create and present all of the shows on the schedule.

S

Job roles in radio

Roles of a broadcast team

Presenter

Floor manager

Researcher

Audio technician

Guest

Producer

The main voice of the show,

Makes sure the show runs smoothly

Brings in guests for the show

Controls the sound levels of the show

Is interviewed on the show

Runs the show as a whole

My roles in PGFM

In PGFM I acted as an audio technician as well as one of the presenters of an afternoon show called hot topics.

S

Professional bodies in radio

Roles of these bodies

The role of Ofcom is to regulate the content of TV and radio in Britain, this includes making sure that none of the content is overly offensive and prejudices against anyone, or intends to upset or cause distress to the people.

MCPS collects and distributes the royalty fees from commercial music around the world, almost every song played on the radio requires payments to the MCPS.