one Understand how BBC and commercial radio stations are funded and how this affects
their schedules and content
two Understand how music, speech and sound effects are
used by radio stations to
create a house style
three Understand how radio stations research their
target audiences
four Understand how
technology is changing the
radio industry
over 90% of the UK adult
population tune in to the
radio each week.
On average a person spends
3 hours 3 minutes listening to radio each day.
37% of listener hours are
through a digital platform.
The uk radio market is split
roughly 50/50 between
stations owned and operated by
the bbc and commercial
groups.
the bBC is primarily funded
by the tv licence fee, while
commercial stations are
funded through advertising revenue.
Of the monthly £12 it earns
from each licence fee, the
bbc spends £2 on radio.
Most commercial stations serve a local or regional area and are owned by one of
three big groups which
dominate the sector.
There are over 200 community radio stations now operating
under ofcom licenses for the
benefit of local communities
and interest groups.
Compared with television, radio is really simple to
produce.
There are only three ingredients that programme
producers can mix together:
speech, music and sound effects.
Those three simple ingredients
can be made to sound very
different and thus create a
house style for a radio
station.
house style is radio
station’s preferred manner of presentation
which appeals to their
audience.
radio is no different from
any other media form when
it comes to thinking about
audiences. It needs to know clearly who it is talking to.
Bbc radio stations have to
prove that enough people listen to them to justify
public funding.
commercial radio stations
only exist if they can
persuade businesses to
buy time to advertise.
Even though radio stations have a clear idea about the
types of people they think are
listening, they constantly need
to check on their audience share.
audience share is the
number of listeners a radio station attracts
compared to its competitors.
radio and technology
56.4% radio listening is
done through fm/am.
37.8% of radio listening is through digital platforms.
digital transmissions via
dab are growing in
popularity with 24.5% listening using this platform.
6.4% of radio listeners
tuning in online and via
radio apps.
While 5% of listeners use
digital television to listen
to their chosen radio stations.