BBC Radio 2 began in 1967, evolving from the Light Programme and took much of its programming from the former when Radio 1 was launched to house much of the popular music broadcasting. The channel has gone from strength to strength in recent years currently labelling itself as “The Nation’s Favourite” as it has more listeners on average than any other radio station. The audience for BBC Radio 2 for example is 13,682,000 compared to 11,647,000 for Radio 1[1].
Much of its broadcasting can be described as AOR or Adult contemporary, although the station is still well thought of for its broadcasting of other more specialist musical genres such as the programme God’s Jukebox, presented by Mark Lamarr and covering genres as wide ranging as Soul, Ska, Reggae, Country, Gospel and Rap from the last 70 years. Unfortunately the show will be finishing its run by the end of 2010 with Lamarr leaving in protest at the direction in which the station is going.
As a BBC station there are no adverts at any time in the programming so we cannot determine the audience this way, but it is thought to have mainly adult listeners aged 25 and above although it has attracted younger listeners as its playlist contains current chart hits, album and indie music.2 The station is quite hard to position in ABC1C2DE ranges because it has no available data on those statistics, but by listening to its output you could presume that its audience is in the ABC1C2 range although the station does have quite a wide ranging appeal. I put it in this bracket because I believe the combination of presenters are more appealing to an ABC1C2 audience than a DE audience, who may be more likely to listen to Radio 1 or no radio at all.
The news is an integral part of Radio 2’s programming and as such it has a particular news agenda that you cannot ignore whilst listening. As an example, I took a whole day to listen to Radio 2 and took notes on the news of that day; the most interesting thing I found was the difference between 10am and 11am as the stories changed order and items that took precedence in the 10am bulletin were much lower down just an hour later. Even more interestingly, the last story of the 11am bulletin (on the cutting of the number of skilled workers being let in to the country) was the top story by 5pm.
On the station the news is more likely to have an unbiased view than a newspaper such as The Independent or The Daily Mail because it is BBC based and so has a code of conduct to follow which prevents it from bias. Even so, the priority it gives to stories in a bulletin does reveal something about the station and what the BBC terms as important; for example, the day I listened to was the day the Royal Wedding was announced and despite the BBC having a long history with the Royal family, the story was fairly low down. In contrast the Daily Mail included a 16-page pull out and keep section about the Royal Wedding on the day after it was announced.
BBC Radio 2 will probably continue in its popularity with a core audience that has made it the most popular radio station in the country today. It has a good mix of programmes ranging from the usual radio fare with a presenter, some witty banter and some music to more intellectual pieces like Jeremy Vine’s weekday show, which actually includes some fairly hard hitting journalism between the AOR hits and radio jingles.
Sources:
[1] RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research)http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php
[2] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lamarr#Radio
Showing posts with label BBC Radio 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC Radio 2. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Friday, 26 November 2010
Journalism Now Project - The Independent and BBC Radio 2
The Independent and BBC Radio 2 seem to have nothing in common but the audiences of the two media institutions appear, on inspection, to be fairly similar. Although Radio 2 has no rate cards for public viewing, the general consensus is that Radio 2 is the middle of the road alternative to Radio 1. A sort of breeding ground for people who are yet to make the leap (metaphorically speaking) to Radio 4.
The Independent, nicknamed ‘The Indy’, was launched in 1986 and is one of the youngest daily newspapers in the UK. It changed to tabloid format in 2003 retaining broadsheet sensibilities and, despite its lack of affiliation to any particular political party; it is generally thought to lean to the left. It struggles financially though and this affects its news agenda as it cannot afford journalists to go out and collect stories through investigative journalism. This means many of the stories the newspaper contains are analysis or comment pieces as they cannot afford court journalists and stories. Originally it provided a challenge to Murdoch, producing spoofs of The Times and The Telegraph within its pages but once The Times began to reduce prices, the ‘Indy’s’ circulation began to suffer. The Independent’s news agenda tends towards political prisoners, climate change or campaigning. The celebrity based tabloid news does not even get a look in as The Independent places itself in the more serious quarter of newspapers, avoiding the reality TV shows and focusing instead on what it considers more worthy issues.
BBC Radio 2 has become an institution and has recently been named ‘the nation’s favourite’ as it is currently the most listened to radio station in the UK. Although the station has no rate cards which the public can access, it is still possible to get some audience figures. The information I found suggested it has a reach of 13,682,000 out of a possible survey area of 51,618,000[1]. It focuses mainly on the big stories of the day as these do not require comment that the BBC is unable to give as an impartial channel. The news on 19th November followed for most of the day the bailing out of Ireland or the refusal of Ireland to be bailed out by the EU’s monetary fund. It covered other major stories such as the increase in public borrowing and the suspension of two FIFA executives who tried to sell their World Cup bid vote. However, the stories at the end of the bulletins were of most interest to me. At 10am we had a man arrested after stealing a poppy collection box, which was a serious news story, but by 5pm we had the “And finally” story with a court in Germany banning a man from tattooing a horse with the Rolling Stones logo.
To compare the two media institutions is, as I have discovered, quite difficult. This is partly because they are targeted towards their audiences differently. Despite their differences, their commitment to news is unwavering and their dedication to the art of journalism unstoppable.
Footnotes:
[1] BBC Radio 2 audience figures www.mediauk.com
The Independent, nicknamed ‘The Indy’, was launched in 1986 and is one of the youngest daily newspapers in the UK. It changed to tabloid format in 2003 retaining broadsheet sensibilities and, despite its lack of affiliation to any particular political party; it is generally thought to lean to the left. It struggles financially though and this affects its news agenda as it cannot afford journalists to go out and collect stories through investigative journalism. This means many of the stories the newspaper contains are analysis or comment pieces as they cannot afford court journalists and stories. Originally it provided a challenge to Murdoch, producing spoofs of The Times and The Telegraph within its pages but once The Times began to reduce prices, the ‘Indy’s’ circulation began to suffer. The Independent’s news agenda tends towards political prisoners, climate change or campaigning. The celebrity based tabloid news does not even get a look in as The Independent places itself in the more serious quarter of newspapers, avoiding the reality TV shows and focusing instead on what it considers more worthy issues.
BBC Radio 2 has become an institution and has recently been named ‘the nation’s favourite’ as it is currently the most listened to radio station in the UK. Although the station has no rate cards which the public can access, it is still possible to get some audience figures. The information I found suggested it has a reach of 13,682,000 out of a possible survey area of 51,618,000[1]. It focuses mainly on the big stories of the day as these do not require comment that the BBC is unable to give as an impartial channel. The news on 19th November followed for most of the day the bailing out of Ireland or the refusal of Ireland to be bailed out by the EU’s monetary fund. It covered other major stories such as the increase in public borrowing and the suspension of two FIFA executives who tried to sell their World Cup bid vote. However, the stories at the end of the bulletins were of most interest to me. At 10am we had a man arrested after stealing a poppy collection box, which was a serious news story, but by 5pm we had the “And finally” story with a court in Germany banning a man from tattooing a horse with the Rolling Stones logo.
To compare the two media institutions is, as I have discovered, quite difficult. This is partly because they are targeted towards their audiences differently. Despite their differences, their commitment to news is unwavering and their dedication to the art of journalism unstoppable.
Footnotes:
[1] BBC Radio 2 audience figures www.mediauk.com
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