Radio Industriesby Christy Guy

Introduction

Radio industry as a whole – different sectors of the industry.

Commercial radio

Public Service Broadcasting

Non-for-profit radio

Also…

Other areas in the industry.

Commercial Radio

Commercial stations’ income is funded by advertising companies, who buy airtime from different stations.

The main players in the commercial sector, based on Rajar figures are Heart, Galaxy and Magic.

This industry employs 43% of employees in the radio industry.

Listening figures – Commercial Radio

Galaxy Owned by: Global radio Reach: 4,497,000 listeners Actual: 24% Listening time: 7.3 hours a week

Real Radio Owned by: GMG Radio Reach: 2,843,000 listeners Actual: 298,000 Listening time: 8.0 hours a week

Radio Aire Owned by: Bauer Radio Reach: 999,000 listeners Actual: 16% Listening time: 8.4 hours a week

Public Service Broadcasting

Public Service Broadcasting is publicly funded.

All BBC stations are funded by the license fee for television.

Out of all listening figures, the BBC has a share of over half the total listening hours.

The BBC employs nearly 11,000 employees working on the national and local services.

BBC Stations

Station Remit Demographic

Radio 1 ‘Entertain and engage’ a young audience via current music.

Young audience.

Radio 2 Entertaining music programmes and content involving speech from news to comedy.

Appeal to over 35s.

Radio 3 Music featuring jazz, classical and world music/ cultural programmes.

Listeners of all ages who want to further their cultural interest.

Radio 4 News/ programmes/ current affairs/ other speech programmes including radio drama and factual programmes.

Listeners wanting intellectual programmes, which are informative.

Radio 5 Live News programmes/ sports information.

Listeners of any age/ different ethnical backgrounds.

More BBC Stations

Station Remit DemographicBBC 1Xtra Strong focus on live music and

budding UK artists/ modern black music.

Young listeners aged 15-24 , specifically listeners from ethnic nationalities.

BBC 6 Music Featuring music from the 1960s – modern day/ music sound archives from the BBC.

Listeners who enjoy music that is popular.

BBC Radio 7 Features speech entertainment such as comedy and stories.

Children.

BBC Asian Network Features music and speech programming to appeal to those of the British Asian community.

British Asian population under 35.

Listeners who have an interest for topics/ music surrounding the British Asian community.

New Technologies

Both the BBC and commercial stations are using new technology to broadcast to their listeners.

This can be done via the internet: Podcasts/ listen live/ previous shows. The BBC also offers a reduced version of the website for

BBC radio which can be accessed via some mobiles. Radio has become even more accessible it can be accessed

via e.g. iphone app – connect to 60,000 stations.

BBC iplayer

Show’s podcast on Galaxy’s website

Non-for-profit Radio

Communal and voluntary radio stations.Stations which are funded to run but

receive no money at the outcome.Involves communal participation.Examples:

Local radio in Pudsey Grangefield School

Communal station in Farsley

Job Roles

Different roles:

Radio producer: creates content for programmes and control the entire process of production for live programmes and programmes that have been recorded.

Radio presenter: create scripts, research, be able to interview. Reporter: research stories and broadcast them on the radio to

audiences. Gather research – witness and report events/ collect interviews.

During the school’s live broadcast last year I undertook these roles:

Presenter regular basis during broadcast.

Script Writer features of the show.

Professional Bodies

In the radio industry there are many different professional organisations which are designed to for example, regulate programme content etc.

Professional body:

The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) are an organisation that help stations via providing them with different opportunities to benefit their station including ‘NAB Professional Development’, designed to educate and develop employee roles, which will eventually benefit the station.

Professional body:

CRCA (Commercial Radio Companies Association) acts as the information centre for commercial radio.

The organisation deals with enquires from a range of people including the media and advertising companies.

Professional Body:

CMA (Community Media Association) represents the communal media industry and aims to enable access to media for the public and communal groups.

Professional body:

ASA’s (Advertising Standards Authority) role is to regulate all areas of media, ensuring that all advertisements comply with the Advertising codes.

The ASA also deals with complaints via assessing adverts against the codes.

Example code: Children ‘Children must be protected from advertisements that could cause physical, mental or moral harm’.

Professional body:

OFCOM (The Office of Communications) regulates communications including TV and radio, airwaves which wireless products run, mobiles and telecoms (fixed-line).

Uses Broadcasting codes to regulate content.Protects communications from e.g. scams.Example: Crime ‘To ensure that material

likely to incite the commission of crime or lead to disorder is not included in television or radio services’.

Professional body:

PRS (Premium rate services) and MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society).

Both companies formed as an alliance in 1997.

Company that collects and pays members royalties (payment for their music) when their music is exploited to the public, recorded or distributed to the public, broadcast or made available for the public to access online.

Employment in the radio sector

Number employed % of all employment

Producing 1,780 8

Production 2,260 10

Radio Broadcasting 6,390 28

Journalism and Sport 4,710 21

Broadcast Engineering

650 3

Sound 600 3

Studio Operations 250 1

Other Occupation Groups

5,720 26

Base 22,400 100

Majority of employees

Breakdown of roles in the radio industry

Employment in the radio sector – Freelance workers

Freelance workersTo work freelance means employees work

with contracts that are less than a year.Most freelance workers (37%) work in the

Radio Broadcasting occupational group.

Example freelance worker:Radio producer.Majority of work - word of mouth.

The Workforce

Most of the workforce are geographically based in London. • 59% BBC Radio.• 17% Commercial Radio.

Employment in the radio sector – Media Degrees

Media Degrees BBC employees – preference for degrees for not only in

media.

Skillset – Radio Producer – degrees are not always a necessity – employers in radio don’t always expect a degree to be in a subject related to media.

Example: Radio producer – career route

Modern languages degree.

Trained to be a workshop trainer.

Broadcast assistant – different shows on Radio 1 for six months.

Full-time freelance

Future – Radio Industry roles

In order to ‘create and exploit compelling content’, for the future the industry needs a workforce that embody breadth and depth.

Breadth Have ‘knowledge and awareness’ regarding the radio industry. Require industry skills that will offer ‘a multi-skilled approach’.Depth ‘specialism and expertise in particular fields’ – enable employees to offer the best in their

roles.

Roles in the future:

Multi-skilled talent employees Enable flexibility as well as adaptability.Technical and creative specialists Employees who would be able to ‘break new ground’ as well as ‘deliver great content’. A job such as a broadcast engineer will be important, of which an employee would embody

‘specialist skills’, which would be able help the industry through changes.

Reference - Skillset