From 11 until 12 we listened in to Capital’s broadcast to
analyse its content, record the content and attempt to understand how commercial
radio is different to other radio types like Public Service Radio. Capital is
classed as a contemporary hit radio, this basically means they focus on
playing current hits, pop and chart music. However unlike radio 1 they play
commercials, so we wanted to find out similar things as with Public Radio
Service like, how many and when do they announce the radio station ID or play
their jingle, what do they talk about and what type or genre of music they
played.
In this hour of the broadcast we found like most other radio
station the presenter introduced herself at the start of the broadcast, at this
particular time the presenter was called Pandora. Because the target audience
for Capital is 15 – 24 years old she spoke in an informal way, she seemed very
enthusiastic and happy, similar to Scott Mills. Pandora mostly spoke about
current competitions the listeners can participate in, before playing a song
she would introduce it along with the radio ID. After she spoke about something
she would mention the radio ID to inform and remind everyone what radio station
they are currently listening to. I counted there were 12 jingles/times radio ID
was mentioned throughout the whole hour.
After Pandora had mentioned everything she needed to she
would talk about the song that was about to be played, or if the song had
finished she would mention what that song was called and the artist. I counted
an average of 19 songs played throughout this hour, and found there is around a
60 – 40% percentage of music to speech.
As Capital is a commercial radio station, they play adverts
through their broadcast, around 18 adverts were played during the hour we
listened to, which amounts to about 9 minutes of the whole show. A short news
broadcast was played around every half hour of the show, which included
information about sport, weather, news and traffic information.
Smooth Radio-
We found this radio station plays easy listening, calm music
to suit its target audience which for this radio station is ages 40 years of
age. When we listened we found the presenter spoke in a very calming voice and
spoke very maturely, however also chatty to the listeners. I believe he speaks in
this way especially to cater the audience age range, because majority of 40
(and over) years old are thought of as being mature adults who probably wouldn't particularly enjoy a fast paced loud radio show that plays pop and chart music,
I think this is why he is so calm throughout the hour broadcast. However he
presented similarly to other radio presenters, like the way he would introduce
himself at the beginning of the show, he would also tell the audience who was presenting
after him and what would be happening.
So in some aspects the content of the broadcast was similar to others
but in other ways different.
Smooth Radio-
Another commercial radio station we listened to was Smooth
Radio from 3pm until 4pm, again to try and understand the broadcast and how
this particular commercial radio station works.
We found this radio station plays easy listening, calm music
to suit its target audience which for this radio station is ages 40 years of
age. When we listened we found the presenter spoke in a very calming voice and
spoke very maturely, however also chatty to the listeners. I believe he speaks in
this way especially to cater the audience age range, because majority of 40
(and over) years old are thought of as being mature adults who probably wouldn't particularly enjoy a fast paced loud radio show that plays pop and chart music,
I think this is why he is so calm throughout the hour broadcast. However he
presented similarly to other radio presenters, like the way he would introduce
himself at the beginning of the show, he would also tell the audience who was presenting
after him and what would be happening.
So in some aspects the content of the broadcast was similar to others
but in other ways different.
I recorded how many times throughout the duration of the
hour how many Radio ID’s/jingles were played and how many adverts were
featured. I found they played 16 ID’s or Jingles and a total of 22 adverts,
which amounts to more than on Capital Radio. I calculated that if each advert
lasted approximately 30 seconds each and 22 adverts were played, that would amount
to around 11-12 minutes taken up from the hour broadcast. I also found Smooth
played a total of 12 songs through the whole broadcast, which is less than
Capital who played 19 songs. However I found unlike the other radio stations
they played a news broadcast twice within the hour, and the news report
included more information about travel and traffic than other stations.
I found the adverts that were played throughout this hour to
be focused on topics like retirement plans and life insurance. I think they
specifically chose what they advertise in order to cater for their target
audience. For example, on Capital they advertised mainly about shops and different
university’s around the country, completely different to what they advertise on
Smooth because their target audience is different, Capitals being 15-24 years
old and Smooth being over 40. I think Smooth would only advertise what they
think their audience will be interested in or like to find information on, like
life insurance.