Case Study: BBC Radio One

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specializing in current popular and chart hits throughout the day. This station was launched and first aired at 7:00-am on 30th september 1967.


The first DJ to broadcast on the new station was Tony Blackburn, whose cheery style, first heard on Radio Caroline and Radio London, won him the prime slot on what became known as the "Radio 1 Breakfast Show". On the other hand, Annie Nightingale, who joined in 1970, was effectively Britain's first female DJ, and is now the longest serving presenter, having constantly evolved her musical tastes with the times.


Initially, it was unpopular with the target audience of a younger generation, on of the reason being that certain DJs were in their 40s . In january 1975, it suffered disproportionately when the BBC had to make financial cutbacks, strengthening a growing impression that it was regarded as a lower priority by senior BBC executives. Despite this, it gained massive audiences, becoming the most listened to station in the world with audiences of over 10 million claimed for some of its shows (up to 20 million for Blackburn's Breakfast Show). This is due to the fact that in the early-mid 1970s Radio 1 presenters were rarely out of the British tabloids, thanks to the Publicity Department's high profile work.

Defamination

efamination is a story written in the media, that leads the audience under false pretence, or is untrue altogether.

There are two types of Defamination:
Libel - Which is done through print

Slander - Which done through mouth (speaking)
                                                                 
                                                              

OFCOM

OFCOM is an organisation which regulates the radio industry. The media has a lot of power to influence people, so therfore OFCOM is necessery so that it can control that power the media has, and make sure they regulate the moral and ethical issues.

Radio History

The narrator discussed about they momentus changes that have taken place in the history of radio, mainly during it's first 25 years. Guglielmo Marconi was an italian inventor who was known for inenting the radio telegraph system, in his aim to create a wireless version of the telegraph and the telephone.

The way in which it was explored, packaged and marketed ti big institution fueled the publics fascination with the radio. Then the invention crystal radio sets opened up the airwaves to the public. Radio enthusiasts, then went on to learn about the radio, listened to radio messages and ultimately went onto broadcast on radio live.

These enthusiasts were mainly white, middle-class males, until the 1920's where women became listeners, performers and for brief period announcers. 1912 Radio Act,  required liscensing of all radio operators, and seperated the radio into seperate sections for different types of users, which meant that amatures wereonly allowed to broadcast on shprtwave radio.

When WW1 came about, the goverenment were prompted by security concerns, to nationalised radio, and limit it to war time commuications.

After WW1, the amatures bradcasting was more appreciated, and Radio then became an opportunity to make money from, as people went onto sell radio. Opportunities, such as commercial activities, keeping up to date on live sport or events taking place, were available by the 1930's.

Then the desire to own and operate radio became passion for the American people. By 1921, the nation had fewer than 20 commercial stations; a year later it had 690 liscensed commercial station. The radio station owners were very diversed expanding from radio manufactires and newspaper publisher to universities and colleges; from department stores and car dealers to churches municiplaities.

Radio allowed people to listen to radio stations in far away cities and local stations too. Howveer, not too long later, competition for audience listener became apparant. Because of cluttered airwaves, this prompted the 1927 Radio Act. This legislation roclaimed that the radio stations belonged the nation as a whole, and were going to now be favouring stations who act on the best interest of the nation.

Commercial stations ultimately succeeded above the rest, who had poorer frequencies, lower powers and were forced to timeshare. Many stations closed down. Attention was back on attracting the listeners, and stations were particularly inerested in the programming schedules and timing patterns of the different audiences. By the 1940's, the programming schedule was such, that it still remain the same 75 years later. The programming tastes have changed but the programming and the structire of radio remains the same.

BBC Radio One Newscast Review

This newcast that i'll be reviewing, is one from BBC Radio One, on March 1st 2011, at 10:30am.

The headline news was about how the european court judges have announced that it will be illegal to charge young men with higher premiums for car insurance just because they are seen as more dangerous on the roads. It is said that this will mean that men will have car insurance decreased by 10%, but women will have it increased by 25%. There are also worries that this law would mean that the overall car insaurance value will just go up overall. It ends with a a female member of public just saying that this whole issue will only benefit the insurers and no one else. This was leading news because of familiarity/proximity. This newscast is mainly targeted at drivers in their cars, and therefore all will relate to the issue of car insurance and will have an impact in all of them - which is another reason why it is first - Impact. In additon, it is an event that has taken place recently, so it has timelessness aswell.

The second story is about how liya's leader, gaghafi, has claimed, ina an exclusive BBC interview, that there is no anti-government protest in libiya and that the libiyan people love him as their leader, despite their being clear violence over the previous 10 days. He also claims that any anti governmant feeling is due to Al-Qaeda's influence. This is next in the newscast as it is a story based on conflict and Currency. The violence/protests has been major news for 10 days and it is an update on what is a negative story, that has international interests. Furthermore, there was update on how britsh citizen/epats are trying to get out of libiya and how it is now being seen as an emergency. This story is based on what's happening internationally, but adds more familiarity to the audience as they find out how it is effecting people of their own native, which is very newsworthy, and is cerdible to be early on in the order of the stories being reported.

Next in line, is a story based on a murder of a 14 year old male briton, in washington and how the police have started a murder inquiry over there. Plus that a man has also been arrested. This is a story pf human interest and of familiarity to britsh audience as it is based on something negative that has happened  on their own native and on someone so young. It is a story which can play with human emotions and is about an odinary person, which can make it newsworthy.

Then, it is a story based on, how a charity called alcahol concern, calls for there to be a resriction in where shops in england display alcahol. This is because they claim that if alcahol is displayed so openly, it encourages people to drink more. This is a human interest story, on how alcahol can impact on humans. Plus, it also os based on familarity on the mainly adults based audience that will be listening to it at that time.(1030 am). However, it is lower down in the priority list in the newscast, as it doesn't have as strong on an impact on the audience and doesn't have any "timelessness" factor in the story.

Th final story of this newscast, is about Carlos Ancellotti's confirmation that both Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba will have an involvement in the clash against Manchester United in the evening. This is a sports story and adds prominence as it is about famous footballers and a high profile Premier League clash.

Pop Filter

A Pop Filter is used on a microphone to help avoid plosive sounds (Bs/Ps) become too dominant in the audio recording

Types of News Stories

Threshold/Impact/Amplitude:

Have the greatest impact on the audience

Negative:

Conmstructive event are less likely to feature than cotrastrophe/violence

Timelessness: Events that have happened recently

Familiarity/Proximity: News related to the audience/region

Prominence:  People who are in the public eye are more newsworthy

Conflict: Events/People that feature conflict tend to be more newsworthy

Currency: Sometimes a story is more newsworthy because it's about an issue in the public consciousness at that particular time

Oddity:  Weird/Unusual people, place or event

Human Interest: Stories that play with human emotions can be very newsworthy - it's about ordinary people