intro to radio

 

1) Read the first two pages of the factsheet. How does the Factsheet argue that radio still has cultural significance in the digital age? 

Radio accompanies us in our cars, on commutes through mobile devices and can be found in our homes through television, radio, and voice activated speakers. You can now ‘go beyond radio’ with hardware such as the Amazon Echo Auto which uses Bluetooth to enable you to access radio stations from all over the world in your car via your phone. Radio is a global medium.

2) Look at the page 4 section on media theories. Briefly summarise the ideas of Curran and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh and Livingstone and Lunt.

Curran and Seaton - newspapers are vanishing at an alarming rate, the loss of a radio station leaves a community with another cultural and informational deficit. Communities are diminished when they lose their local radio stations’.

The horizontal integration of companies and buying up smaller stations leads to the concentration of ownership in the hands of large conglomerates. This can lead to the reduction of other radio broadcasters being able to reach audiences. Radio stations can be set-up cheaply but they still need advertising revenue to survive.

David Hesmondalgh  - The media put profit before creativity. - 

 Music can uniquely reflect an identity to a listener and smaller stations do not have to make money for shareholders. For example, Mark Lucke who ran the KHIL station in Willcox, Arizona, personally looks for records that his listeners ask for, he will repair scratched records and play them and also scours e-bay and the internet to find the music they want.

Livingstone and Lunt Media regulation should have a consumer-based approach.

The deregulation of radio businesses with the 1996 Telecommunications Act changed the radio landscape dramatically and led to the rapid consolidation of the industry. In the months after the act’s passage, Reed

Hundt, then the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) Chair, spoke before Congress about “fostering innovation and competition in radio” and “[promoting] diversity in programming and diversity in the viewpoints

expressed on this powerful medium that so shapes our culture.”

3) What is the definition of public service broadcasting?

broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests.

4) Look at the list of eight key principles for BBC Radio on page 6 of the factsheet. Choose the three you think are most significant and explain why.

Universal geographic accessibility – you can listen to radio anywhere in the country creating a geographically diverse audience 

Universal appeal – across the board the programming will have something for all an everyone so everyone can gain something from listening BBC radio

Attention to minorities – more inclusive so no one feels left out creating a ethically diverse listener base 

5) What does the Factsheet suggest is the future of PSB radio? Do you agree?

As it stands the BBC is surviving but its future is looking more and more precarious, especially it cannot convince the young that it is worth paying for - I agree as young people are consuming their music on apps like spotify and entertainment on TikTok and theyll see highlights from radio shows on there anyway so whats the point of tuning in However with the BBc sounds app Radio could have a revival amoungst young people as there were people their who are recognisable and worth listening in for