BBC Essay

BDRC Continental research agency done a research on the whole of the BBC Radio 1 & 2 shows. The research shows only a third (35%) said that BBC Radio informs and educates the public. 36% simply identified the stations with playing the most popular music. Listeners were asked about specific associations and reasons why they listened to Radio 1, which resulted in listeners saying: 6% said that they associated the station with documentaries and social action, 26% said that they associated the station with accurate and impartial news coverage, 25% said that they associated the station with this programming for younger teenagers. The Radio 1 target audience is people aged under 29 years of age, BUT 30% of 35-44 year olds think it is aimed at them. BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show mainly targets a range of young listeners, using a mix of music tracks and speech/talks. This is what entertains and engages the audience to listen. The target audience is 15-29 year olds, sometimes targeted at younger teenagers for the songs played.

Throughout our certain sections that we listened to, we found that a high percentage of the songs were British artists and many of the various competitions such as: Tickets to the FA Cup, Cricket World, hang out with The 1975 and Little Mix. Also on Radio 1 Breakfast Show there are no adverts so it’s non stop tracks and discussions to keep the audience entertained. The BBC Radio 1 website consists of the latest music tracks (a way of listening to them - which are updated frequently). It also includes live music and mixes, such as live lounge, where artists sing covers of other people’s songs; the official chart, Radio 1 playlist, ‘what’s new’, news, sport, weather, iPlayer, sounds etc.

Analysed podcast: “A journey back into fake britain” - Greg James plays a game by ringing lots of callers and firing random questions, in which they have to respond with the first thing that comes into their head without panicking or thinking too much. The idea is that the person on the end of the phone is under pressure, which makes it more entertaining for the listeners. An example of the sort of questions are: what noise does a koala make? Or a happy butterfly? These questions are unusual which engages the audience because Greg James can be known as a fun, younger guy, friendly, like your best mate - very likeable.

Another part of the podcast presents him asking viewers what they listen to, to help them fall asleep. This is effective in receiving more listeners because it shows that the radio presenter has an interest in what their fans like and dislike. People want to get involved because Radio 1 is listened to by a wide target audience. Greg James had been promoted to the Radio presenter for the morning breakfast show. This is due to the fact that Nick Grimshaw's audience figures had dropped whilst he was still the presenter. Radio 1 figured using Greg James in the morning would increase the amount of viewers - which is exactly what happened. He is very popular with the audience and this is consequently shown through his social media…

When researching Greg James’ social media, I had seen that he had posted a screenshot of a BBC news article stating ‘Rajar figures: Greg James boosts Radio 1 breakfast audience by 230,000’. This suggests that people would rather listen to Greg James presenting that when Nick Grimshaw did. He also posts humorous images and tweets across all of his social media. Some posts are duplicated across a few different types of social accounts, such as Instagram and Twitter for example. A reason for this could be if some viewers don't have a certain type of social media due to preferences of how it works or is set out.

This year the event is in Swansea and contains acts such as ;Craig David, Niall Horan, Wolf Alice, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift. These well known artists attract radio’s young audience and also attracts others who are not listeners of radio 1. Therefore, this event can attract new listeners who would be persuaded by the good artists in the line up. This event is said to be as good as Glastonbury since the line up is very popular.