Wednesday 15 December 2010

evaluation

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe that our radio show would be best distributed on Jack FM or Heart FM as these are both localised radio stations that cover both local and national news stories which was present in our show. I believe that these kinds of radio stations rely heavily on delivering what the audience wants to hear which is what inspired us in our work as we wanted to deliver a piece that would create almost a community between us and the listeners much like Bolton FM has with its listeners.
This is important because it will keep the listener coming back from more and even subconsciously they will listen to our show through the Social Cognitive Theory (1941 miller and Dollard) which explains how the media can change the audiences behavioural patterns for example when driving in the car our audiences that have been affected by our shows will automatically and sometime even unknowingly tune there radio to listen to our show.

I also believe that these radio stations would want to distribute our media product because of the potential advertising increase, what i mean is that with any new show there comes several chances to market the product for example with a broadcast such as ours it applies to a range of differnt niches with the main focus on the younger adult groups this could potentially give rise to an increase in advertisers such as various phone companies and clothing companies as they coud see the value in advertising during our show as many of there target audience will be listening.

Who would be the audience for your media product? And how does it represent particular social groups?

Our target audience will be teenagers to young adults, 15 to 24. Most of which I assume will be local to Oxfordshire. We represent young Oxfordians by being them ourselves. this will be important as it creates a bond between us and our isteners as they will feel they can relate to us.
A lot of our stories, such as the John Terry affair are light hearted and relevant to popular culture, This story in particular represents people of all social groups and ages and will give us the opportunity to attracrt new audience through the Arguementation Theory which is best shown in the book 'principles of arguementation' (Pierce 1895) this theory states that our radio station would get more attention because of the people hearing our show will hve there own beliefs about this story and will argue with others and through this the news will spread through the area.
This story is followed by serious stories that interest and challenge our audience’s views such as our Haiti coverage.
Despite this, as a news segment we would hope to have a large variety of audience to address
due to most people wanting the news to keep up to date with the world. This is proven by ‘The news at Ten’ being one of the most viewed programs in history and that news has spread to more niche markets such as children with ‘News Round’ and music lovers with ‘Kerrang News’. The Cultivation Theory(Gerbner 1965) tells us how the media is such an important source of information that consumers find it ultimately impossible to escape it's gradual encroachment on their everyday lives- this again will increase our viewing figures as the radio is located in several areas of everyday live such as radio alarm clocks and stereos in the car this products gradually introduce the radio into our lives.

How did you attract/address your audience?

If our radio broadcast was a daily showthen we would attract our audience through local mediated advertisement. Since we would not be able to get the massive industrial comapnies involved we would look to the local buisness and sports teams following in the footsteps of Bolton FM so since we would be broadcasting in the oxfordshire area we could get oxford united football club to invest in return for advertising there games and creating phone ins with the prizes being tickets to football matches.
Our Jingle will also attract our audiences, It has been theorised that a person can become attracted to a jingle if they hear it enough time though the mediated Syringe Theory. An example of this would be an individual recognising the theme music to Eastenders or corination street since these are two of the most sunonamous jingles to date and when the audience hear these they feel the urge to go watch.
Our jingle would work in a similar way for our audience, if they are browsing through radio stations and get a blast of our jingle, they will stop and listen. This will fundamentally raise our profile.
Furthermore I would attract audience through advertising, especially through the Syringe Theory of playing our adverts locally over and over and the Two Step Flow Theory of allowing our media consumers to discuss our show amongst themselves and hopefully attract new consumers to tune in.
finally i woud use the increasing intrest of our target audience in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to further raise our profile by making fan groups in which we can provide updates about what is happening, what listeners can expect to hear and chances for them to get involved in competions this will raise the shows ratings through the Social Network Theory in which in our case states that the more of an online presence we have in these networks then the more people will recieve our piece through both this theory and the Two Step Flow Theory.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through the construction of our radio piece we came into contact with many new technologies and media instruments. The key program we used was the computer program ‘Audacity’. Created by Dominic Mazzoni, this simple yet effective program recorded our voices through microphones and then allowed us to edit. As i already posted earlier i reviewed this technology and looked at other peoples comments although i found some limitations with this technologies the positivies easily made this the best editing choice software. The editing process consisted to cutting and lengthening voice segments and overlapping them with backing sounds such as quieter music or ‘buzzing and disjointed' effect used in our Haiti story to represent technical problems that would occur while broadcasting a piece of news from another country. Over the course of our project I have learnt to master Audacity. This was helped by before we started on our piece i looked into how to use audacity by viewing tutorial on
www.youtube.com which made the editing process alot easier as i did not have to learn through trial and error however as well as audacity i learned to use other instruments such as the microphones and handheld voice recorders when filming an evaluation video.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Me and the group have come a long way since our preliminary. In our preliminary we were still learning how to use programs such as Audacity and had technical difficulties in the editing phases. While speaking into the microphone we were too loud and didn’t do enough to stop disturbances or at differnt time we would be too quiet which would mean audacity could not pick up our voices properly. We looked to stop this in our radio broadcast through using a microphone stand which meant that we could keep the microphone in the same place which meant that it would not be a problem with use being either too close or too far away from the microphone.

I think as a learning curve the preliminary can still be seen as a success as it did teach us the basics and pushed us to achieve and do better for our final piece. Our final piece is much better flowing with many more technical skills such as an improved jingle, sound effects between headlines and our disrupting effect in our Haiti voxpop.
My presenting skills are also much improved, through watching various news shows to give myself an idea of what my voice shoud sound like for my speaking sections. My time management excelled from the preliminary, as we all met up frequently in own free time to record and edit. I think the progress we made can be put down to our excelled effort and understanding of preparation as we shared ideas, researched stories and scripted; our recording as we were more experienced and progressed through trial and error and finally our postproduction, spending a lot of time editing on Audacity to achieve our final piece.

Wednesday 31 March 2010


This video will be followed up of my written evaluation where i have gone into more depth about the good and bad of our media project.

Monday 22 February 2010

planning and research stages

research and Planning
Due to lots of recording and helping ruhul with the technical side i have neglected my blog so i thought i would write a review summing up our research and planning.

As a group our task was produce a 5-8 minute News piece for radio, we had previously used the radio equipment during our preliminary task and so were used to the equipment such as the mike and knew the computer program: Audacity we were also lucky enough to have Audacity on ruhul's laptop which meant we could work from home aswell

For our initial research we listened too and analysed some established radio stations se we could see how they did it. we decided to do our analysis a little different to other groups as we chose a more diverse group of radio stations instead of all local and london stations. the radio stations we chose were Heart FM, Radio 1 and Bolton FM in this research we focused on the language used to influence our piece for example we didnt use slang in our news piece as during the news segments on these stations we used formal and direct language

some up of radio stations(check blog for more detail)

Heart is the local station for London but also goes national, this made it very interesting. It played popular music and has a memorable jingle ‘This is Heart’ which is a very recognisable jingle. The news segment was sharp and included all the top headlines, but also featured a section of local news to the capital. As a listener I enjoyed Heart and found it easy to listen too although locally I thought it could have been more in depth.

BBC Radio 1 is a national station and one I had listened too before. They play chart music and have celebrity presenters such as Chris Moyles, Veron Kay and Fearne Cotton. Although many of the presenters on Radio 1 are very good it became apparent that being a television celebrity does not make you natural at radio, and many would trail off with uninteresting tales of their own lives. The news section covered the main stories but the shows were generally centred around music and light hearted ‘banter’.

96.5 Bolton FM is the local station for Bolton in Lancashire. The initial sound sounded less professional then the previous two sections but understandably they’d have a cheaper recording system. This station was very local and the news consisted of information about the local market and what the people of Bolton were up too. We needed to learn from this for when we presented our local news section.


From this point on me alex and ruhul had a brain storm about our radio news segment. We targeted it to be around 4 – 6 minutes long and include both local and nation stories, also including weather and sports, possibly ending with a light hearted story. In our preliminary piece we had branded ourselves as a light hearted team; this was backed up by our name ‘The Coconut Lounge’, and through our presenting we joked around and gave each other silly nicknames. All though there was nothing wrong with this in the right context, we felt as news presenters our final piece needed to be more serious and constructive. We ditched the nicknames and decided upon our 1st basic timeline which was as followed:



Jingle -30 seconds

Headlines – 1 minute

Main Story – 2 minutes

Vox-Pop (weather) – 30 seconds

Sports – 1 minute

Light Story to end on (interview) – 1 minute

This basic plan gave us bones to work on so that we could build our piece. The idea behind this that we wanted to include as much as possible such as vox-pops and a jingle without overdoing it and rushing our show. We were definitely in the planning stage of our final piece.

We began to choose the news stories we wished to present.

Headlines were to be up to date and researched on the day as we didn’t need to practise talking about them, this was also to be true of weather, we would report on how it was at the time.

Our Main Story was to be the earthquake in Haiti and the aftermath of that.

Sports would include the John Terry affair and up to date scores.

The light hearted story would be a man with a large crocodile collection.

We chose real life stories because we wanted to relate to our audience and allow them to feel emotion for the news. We also chose the stories we did because they interested us and so any excitement or sorrow in our voices would be real and there for better. We began to script sections:

Alex: A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The extent of the devastation is still unclear but there are fears thousands of people may have died.
Haiti's worst quake in two centuries hit south of the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, wrecking the presidential palace, UN HQ and other buildings.

Liam: A "large number" of UN personnel were reported missing by the organisation. Many people have spent the night outside amid fears of more aftershocks

Once we had planned and scripted it all our Time Line changed and looked more like this:

Jingle 20-30 seconds
News headlines 20-30 seconds
Main story in depth 1 minute
Vox pop 30 seconds to be carried out on location
Funny news stories 20-30 seconds
Football news 20-30 seconds
Weather 20-30 seconds
Local weather
Vox pop 30 seconds on location
Jingle 20-30 seconds
This change showed our piece was progressing all the time and we knew we were moving forwards.

news stories

Main News Story:
Earthquake in Hati
‘A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The extent of the devastation is still unclear but there are fears thousands of people may have died.
Haiti's worst quake in two centuries hit south of the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, wrecking the presidential palace, UN HQ and other buildings.
A "large number" of UN personnel were reported missing by the organisation. Many people have spent the night outside amid fears of more aftershocks.
The Red Cross says up to three million people have been affected.
Describing the earthquake as a "catastrophe", Haiti's envoy to the US said the cost of the damage could run into billions.
A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send aid.’

Sports Story:
John Terry Affair + Football Scores

England boss Fabio Capello will name defenders Wayne Bridge and John Terry in the squad for the friendly against Egypt on 3 March. Terry is alleged to have had an affair with Bridge's former partner but Capello has warned both defenders not to bring any personal tensions with them.

Up to date scores at the time if recording

Weather:

Up to date at the time of recording

Light-Hearted Story:

Man tries to make Britain’s largest crocodile collection
-possible interview

Monday 8 February 2010

problems faced this past week

we faced 3 main problems when recording this week
the first was the lack of recording time we had as we share the room with the other 2groups.
the second was illness as ruhul came down with tonsilitious which meant we couldnt record his vox pops or his various other segments.
the final problem was conflicting schedules as when one of us had a free others would be in lesson vise versa which has caused a few problems.

update 2

updated time plan 5 mins estimate time recored 2 minutes 12 seconds so far.

jingle 20-30 seconds RECORDED
news headlines 20-30 RECORDED seconds to be read by me and alex
main story in depth RECORDED 1 minute to be read by alex
vox pop 30 seconds to be carried out on location by ruhul
funny news stories 20-30 seconds to be read by me
football news RECORDED 20-30 seconds to be read by me
weather 20-30 RECORDED read by alex
local weather read by ruhul
vox pop 30 seconds RECORDED on location read by ruhul
jingle 20-30 seconds RECORDED

Radio update and audacity

I thought this would be a good time to give an update and abit of an analysis of the software we are using. Firstly in our last couple of lessons we have managed to record our national headlines,the main story(minus vox pop due to illness) and the sports section and all together we have roughly 2 minutes of our broadcast done still left to do is vox pops, weather and local headlines. i am confident we can get all these aspects of the show recorded and edited by our deadline.

Audacity:

Audacity is a free software, cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD.
Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni while he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University.
Mazzoni now works at Google, but is still the main developer and maintainer of Audacity, with help from many others around the world.
The latest release of Audacity is 1.3.12, a beta, released on 1 April 2010.[8] As of 29 October 2010, it was the 10th most popular download from SourceForge.net, with 72 million downloads. Audacity won the SourceForge.net 2007 Community Choice Award for Best Project for Multimedia.

features of audacity:

  • Importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3 (via the LAME encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, all file formats supported by libsndfile library
  • Versions 1.2.5 and 1.3.2 and later also support Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)[11]
  • Version 1.3.6 and later also support additional formats such as WMA, AAC, AMR and AC3 via the optional FFmpeg library
  • Recording and playing sounds
  • Editing via Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo)
  • Multitrack mixing
  • A large array of digital effects and plug-ins. Additional effects can be written with Nyquist
  • Amplitude envelope editing
  • Noise removal
  • Audio spectrum analysis using the Fourier transformation algorithm
  • The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio's speed while maintaining pitch (Audacity calls it changing tempo), in order to synchronize it with video, run for the right length of time, etc
  • The ability to change the audio's pitch without changing the speed
  • Contains major features of modern multi-track audio software[12] including navigation controls, zoom and single track edit, project pane and XY project navigation, non-destructive and destructive effect processing, audio file manipulation (cut, copy, paste)
  • Converting cassette tapes or records into digital tracks by automatically splitting one track into multiple tracks based on silences in the track and the export multiple option
  • Multi-platform: works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix-like systems (including Linux and BSD), among others
  • The latest stable version supports Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, but Windows 95 and NT are not supported. Windows 7 support is still provisional. For Windows 7, the developers recommend the latest 1.3.x Beta[13]
  • Audacity uses the wxWidgets software library to provide a similar graphical user interface on several different operating systems.
  • Audacity can also be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts. It can be used for finishing podcasts by adding effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out.

It is currently used in the OCR National Level 2 ICT course for the sound creation unit.

Despite its positives i have discovered 3 weeknesses:

  • Audacity lacks dynamic equalizer controls, real time effects and support for scrubbing
  • A plug-in is required for VST plug-ins in Audacity 1.2.x
  • MIDI files can only be displayed


Here are some reviews from users these were found on http://www.snapfiles.com/


Interface: 5 Features: 5 Ease of use: 5 Value: 5 Overall: 5 out of 5
Amazingly powerful audio file editor. ... Supports input/output of WAV, Ogg, FLAC, MP3, MP2, AC3 and about a dozen others, plus allows writing audio tags with each file. ... Excellent list of plug-ins and filters. Very powerful, easy-to-use, supports virtually unlimited number of tracks. The best audio editor I've seen, not that I've seen every single piece of software in existence, but this is awfully hard to beat !

Interface: 1 Features: 3 Ease of use: 1 Value: 5 Overall: 2 out of 5
I know by far this is a good program, but lacks too much on help and guidance. Sound issues are not easy, and the programs doesn't helps too mucho. I.E.: after installing, no sound recording device were detected. No info on website, confusing info in forums, confusing screen captures (using same version!) menus just disappear (apart from the old looking GUI) It would be nice to have some contextual help and recommendations, i.e. frequency rate? how do I know which settings are good for the job I'm doing? (some hours googling it...)Some other issues, wav files does not behave like normal wav files. A lot of good intentions, there's a lot of people enjoying this program, but any time I use it, I have a lot of troubles. You may need a PhD in Audacity... I do not get the point.

Interface: 3 Features: 4 Ease of use: 3 Value: 5 Overall: 4 out 5
Although it's not listed as working under Vista, it has performed very well on my Compaq while editing very large mp3 files. I tried other editing software, some were shareware with free trial time, and their asking prices were from $29 to $99 and they did not perform as well as Audacity! Thank you for such a great program!

These range of reviews led me to decide to write my own review on the website:


Interface: 4 Features: 4 Ease of use: 4 Value: 5 Overall:4.5 out of 5
Have been using this for a while without too many problems. It does have limitations when playing back edited portions of music in that it plays such a small section of your changes you don't get a feel for how the changes will come out. Thank goodness for the undo function. I still use this as a main tool for editing wav files, In particular the editing of wave files taken from records. I have found it useful for this due to the click removal tool which is quite effective. For a free program this is a nice piece of software. I would highly recommend this to anyone who needs to do some wave editing and converting.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

what i have done for the radio show so far

as it stands at the moment i have done 5 main things these are:
1)researched differnt radio stations indepth.
2)helped script the weather piece.
3)helped edit and put together the jingle for our broadcast.
4) written out time plans and worked out roughly how long the broadcast will take at the moment it stands at 6:00 minutes.
5)researched for local news storys and countrywide stories.

in the next couple of lessons i will be hoping to
1) script and preform headlines
2) script and preform footballing headlines
3) search the web for clip that we could your to edit our weather pieces e.g rain falling, heavy winds etc

aims for our next lesson and script

for our next lesson we aim to script out out headlines and main headline and record them
for this we will have me and alex reading the headlines and then have alex go into an indepth report followed by ruhul having an interview to get the publics reactions.

I have now edited this post to include the first draft of our script.

This is a scripted version of our radio show as a group we sat down and wrote up. This gives us something to read as we record so we get the stories right.


Jingle

Alex: Our headlines today:

Liam: A nineteen year old part time shop assistant has been found murdered in Reading

A: Relatives of Vincent Van Gough has launched a major exhibition of the artists work in London

L: Children’s Sectary, Ed Balls has caused for the urgent upheaval of a loop hole that allows corporal punishment in part-time schools

A: Finally, ‘all you can drink’ offers in pubs may be banned, and ID checks made compulsory under a planned code in England and Wales – Our main story today:

L: Thousands are feared dead after a massive earthquake that struck Haiti

A: The seven magnitude quake which hit the Haiti capital of Port-au-Prince on the 12th of January is the worst earthquake to have hit the country in two-hundred years.
We now go to our correspondent Hooli who is in Haiti getting local reaction:

Hooli: (Voxpop) Hooli will talk to local villagers who are shook up after the disaster, and then he will discuss way to help with a disaster coordinator.

L: Thank you Hooli. Listeners you may have experienced some audio disruption

Sports Jingle

A: Now the sports news

L: In transfer news, Wigan has secured the signature of Victor Moses from Crystal Palace who have gone into administration

A: Egypt beat Ghana 1 – 0 in the African Cup of Nations Final

L: SPL league champions, Celtic, have acquired Robbie Keane on a yearlong loan from Tottenham Hotspur. Now to our main story:

A: John Terry’s captaincy is now is question after his alleged affair with the wife of Wayne Bridge. And now some local news:

L: There has been a rise in ethnic minority students

A: Just over one in ten students at Oxford University were from an ethnic minority background

L: Oxford United back health scheme:

A: The scheme that allows fans to get a health check at the Kassam Stadium has been backed by the squad

L: The world’s largest private crocodile collection has been found in Whitney

A: Shaun Bogart from Whitney keeps crocodiles in his back garden and now wants to create the countries first ever crocodile conservation

L: We had a chance to catch up with Shaun today, and here’s what happened:

Insert interview with ‘Shaun Bogart’. I will play Shaun while Liam will conduct the interview.

A: To Hooli with the weather

H: Thanks guys, and now today’s weather. On the local side we have temperatures as high as 11 degrees in Oxford with slight winds at up to 14mph. With the national weather, we have rain in parts of Scotland, temperatures as low as 3 degrees. As we move south of Scotland to the north of England, we have rain in the Newcastle area, low winds and temperatures as low as 2 degrees. In the midlands area with Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield we have patches of cloud but were not expecting any rain. Still temperatures are low at 2 to 3 degrees. Down with Birmingham, Leicester, Northampton and Coventry they’re luckier with some sunshine but it’s still quite cold. Lows of 5 degrees, highs of 10, throughout the day cloud will move in. Towards London we’re going to have a few showers today and tomorrow but will clear up for the weekend. And that’s the weather.

Thank you for listening to the news, we will be back with more headlines today.

convention of Radio

Conventions of Radio:

This is what I learned from my research into other radio stations, specifically Heart FM, Bolton FM and BBC Radio 1.

Pauses/slang/catch phrase:
Slang and pauses are more common on Local radio such as Bolton FM due to smaller audiences who feel more like a community or even a family. Nation radio such as Kerrang or Heart FM use better English as they speak to a more unknown audience as they are reaching people from all over the UK instead of a smaller area, despite this one of the main catch phrases of 1Xtra, a London based radio station, is ‘get funky’. This is because both national and local stations use catch phrases to attract audiences’ and appear ‘down to earth’. The more informal the station the more informal the catch phrase.

DJ talks about him/herself:
Usually DJ’s will talk about stories or music, but on occasions they will discuss their own lives. This will usually happen on a Monday morning while the presenters discuss their weekends. I researched and analysed this as I listened to Kerrang Radio where the presenter reported on a music festival he’d visited at the weekend. One thing i did pick up on from listening to both national and local radio station was that the audince are more intrested in hearing about someone like Chris Moyles than hearing about an alomst unknown presenter this is because of the influence the media has on our everyday lives through the Medium theory McLuhan (1964) the main idea of this is that the media has affected our preseption of what is intresting and what is not so through Chris Moyles new found stardom the audience now want to learn more about who he is and what he gets up to this has allowed the station to give a larger subject of the topics discussed on his show to be based around him.

DJ talks about the record:
The discussion of records and music comprises mostly of phattic utterances (small talk) which is pleasant to listen too. They will normally talk about the artist and how well the track is doing in the charts. As our course work will be a news show we won’t be focusing too strongly on this, but can use some of these skills while discussing news stories by giving our own opinions in short sentances as with a news show you are meant to stay impartial.

DJ talks about or to the listener:
On most radio stations, local and national, listeners can phone in to give opinions, such as sport opinions on Radio 5 Live, or answers quizzes on BBC Radio 1. This gives the listener an opportunity to be part of the radio experience and hopefully keep audiences’ listening and phoning in (often there are chances to win prizes). Obviously listeners are more likely to get through to the station on local radio as there are less people ringing in, yet less people will hear what they have to say in this instance. however a more intresting way to look at this is using the Dependancy Theory Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976) in which its discussed that the media depends on the social context and through using interviews and phone ins the broadcaster get valuble knowledge about what people in the audience are thinking on a whole and can then shape there shows to appeal to the modern day audience

DJ digresses to another subject:
Topic shift is frequent during radio shows as it keeps stories fresh and listeners interested and listening. Within our news piece we will discuss different news stories to meet the large variety of interests.

DJ promotes another show:
Usually DJs will promote other shows on the same station, for example Chris Moyles from Radio 1 may promote Reggie Yates who does a later show. Promoting shows form the station in an obvious business technique to boost audience ratings. They will not normally promote other stations, and they are the competition This is a key example of the gatekeeper theory (Lewin 1947) in radio as the gatekeeper as it were is who decides what shall be put out on the radio so in this case a radio show such as BBC Radio 1 will not advertise for a kerrange so the gatekeeper only allows for the adverts about other shows to be BBC shows and broadcasts so to keep the audience intrested in what the BBC has to offer.


Jingles:
Jingles are used to attract audiences’, they are catchy and if a listener hears a snippet of your jingle while scrolling through radio stations they will stay and listen. Both national and local stations use this tactic, and example is Kerrangs jingle and slogan ‘Kerrang: Live Life Loud’ to a snappy tune.

Vox-Pop:
A Vox-pop is an on location report made outside of the station, such as an ‘on-location’ news report. They are recorded using handheld recorders. we will try to use two Vox Pops one in a local news report and one in our global affairs section.

Although not particululary a convention of media i decided i wanted to touch on how the radio has embrassed the changes in modern day technolgies and social changes through the Modernization theory (Giddens 1991) a key example that i picked up on when listening to all of these radio shows was the idea of mentioning the latest technologies such as the blackberry and i-phones thus connecting with the audience as these technologies are sweeping the globe however more importantly was the use of the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as during the shows the presenters are constantly asking for peope to join Facebook groups and to add the 'follow' the presenter themselves on Twitter this shows how media have recognized the potential marketing value of these sites in what is fast becoming a social networking society with these webpages no longer being just aimed at young teenagers.

time plan and update

time plan 5 mins estimate time

jingle 20-30 seconds RECORDED
news headlines 20-30 seconds to be read by me and alex
main story in depth 1 minute to be read by alex
vox pop 30 seconds to be carried out on location by ruhul
funny news stories 20-30 seconds to be read by me
football news 20-30 seconds to be read by me
weather 20-30 RECORDED read by alex
vox pop 30 seconds RECORDED on location read by ruhul
jingle 20-30 seconds RECORDED

plan for news headlines to be read by me and alex
1)19 year old part time shop assistant has been found murdered on a riverside footpath in reading.
2)relatives of vincent van gogh launch a major exhibition of the artists work and correspondance in london.
3) children's secretary ed balls has called for the urgent scruting of a loophole which allows corporal punishment in part time schools.
4)all you can drink bar offers could be banned and ID checks made compulsory under a planned code for England and Wales.

Monday 18 January 2010

breif planning

Brief planning

Main task: A five minute news bulletin (local radio) to include title music, presenter, specialist reporters, OBs, recorded interview, a vox pop and appropriate sound fx and structure.

Jingle (to capture listeners attention)
Introduce lexo and the lamb on the coconut lounge (as picked up on radio 1 with the DJ's presenting themselves and the show)
Round up of big news headlines (as shown on tv and radio to tell the audience what will be on this means some audience members will stay tuned in just to listen to one particular piece)
Cut to ruhul with the outside broadcast ( shows a differnt technique we can use in our piece)
followed by interviews with the public ( this happens on most radio shows as the presenters go out to the streets to get the audiences view on the news topics of the time)
sports round up ( we have included this because you need to broadcast to differnt audience niches as we hope to get high listning figures)
Weather (another conventional section of an news piece is the weather as it allows us to keep the listner informed of what weather is ahead as most of the listners will be in cars driving to various locations)
Ending jingle (to symbolise the end of the show)

creating the jingle and exploring vox pop

Recently during our time in the Recording-Room we worked on creating our new jingle.This change has come about as although the jingle was succesful in our preliminary task as it reached the youth radio listeners through its upbeat and comical values, We believed that for our news broadcast to be taken seriously we needed a more hard hitting jingle that would eventually signify our news show and alert the listner though the jingle. We also felt that since we were no longer just looking to focus on the youth sociolect that we need to create a jingle that would attract all differnt types of audience niches not just one in particular. To achieve this we created a powerful 'theme-tune' that mimicked the music of a news show and introduced the name of our program at the end rather than during the music; this technique was inspired by 'The News at 10' when a deep voice announces the name of the show after the famous chime of Big Ben and their music.


For our radio piece we intend to use a Vox Pop as we are trying to fit as many different radio techniques into our work as possible whilst still working effectively. A Vox Pop is an ‘on location’ report used frequently on news shows. Vox Pop comes from the latin phrase Vox Populi which translates as the voice of the people as a reporter will get the local opinions whilst on location. An example of this would be on ITV news when the report was in a local town reporting on the recent snowfall in the area and he was interviewing several of the young children and asking them what they thought of the recent snowfall.

We are yet to decide what story we will use our Vox Pop on, but have decide we may use a media-effect to give it a disrupt the sound as there are frequently audio interferences when broadcasting from far away from the studio. A key exam of this was a GMTV broadcast when they had there corrispondent in afganistan when a bomb exploded in the distance causing various technical problems as the statilite transmitter had been jolted.

Monday 7 December 2009

radio prehistory

Radio's prehistory (19th century)
• 1820: Hans Christian Ørsted discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism in a very simple experiment. He demonstrated that a wire carrying a current was able to deflect a magnetized compass needle.
• 1831: Michael Faraday began a series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction. The relation was mathematically modeled by Faraday's law, which subsequently became one of the four Maxwell equations. Faraday proposed that electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around the conductor, but did not complete his work involving that proposal.
• 1861 to 1865: James Clerk Maxwell made experiments with electromagnetic waves.
• July 30, 1872: Mahlon Loomis was issued U.S. Patent 129,971.
• 1873: Maxwell, as a result of experiments, first described the theoretical basis of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in his paper to the Royal Society A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field.
• 28 November 1875: Thomas Edison announced to the press that while experimenting with the telegraph, he had noted a phenomenon that he termed "etheric force". He abandoned this research when Elihu Thomson, among others, ridiculed the idea.
• 1878: David E. Hughes was the first to transmit and receive radio waves when he noticed that his induction balance caused noise in the receiver of his homemade telephone.
• 1880: David Hughes demonstrated his discovery to the Royal Society, but was told it was merely induction.
• 1884: Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti at Fermo in Italy invented a tube filled with iron filings, called a "coherer".
• 1884 to 1886: Edouard Branly of France produced an improved version of the coherer.
• 1885: Edison took out a patent on a system of radio communication between ships, which he then sold to Guglielmo Marconi.

• 1886 to 1888: Heinrich Rudolf Hertz validated Maxwell's theory through experiment. He demonstrated that radio radiation had all the properties of waves (now called Hertzian waves), and discovered that the electromagnetic equations could be reformulated into a partial differential equation called the wave equation.
• 1885 to 1892: Claims have been made that Murray, Kentucky farmer Nathan Stubblefield invented radio, but his devices seem to have worked by induction transmission rather than radio transmission.
• 1893 to 1894: Roberto Landell de Moura, a Brazilian priest and scientist, conducted experiments. He did not publicize his achievement until 1900
Wireless beginnings
In the history of radio and development of "wireless telegraphy", there are multiple claims to the invention of radio. Marconi equipped ships with life saving wireless communications and established the first transatlantic radio service. Tesla developed means to reliably produce radio frequencies, publicly demonstrated the principles of radio, and transmitted long distant signals.
• 1893: At St. Louis, Missouri, Tesla gave a public demonstration of "wireless" radio communication. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the National Electric Light Association, he described in detail the principles of radio communication. [1] The apparatus that he used contained all the elements that were incorporated into radio systems before the development of the "oscillation valve", the early vacuum tube. Tesla was the first to apply the mechanism of electrical conduction to wireless practices. Also, he initially used sensitive electromagnetic receivers [2], that were unlike the less responsive coherers later used by Marconi and other early experimenters. Afterwards, the principle of radio communication (sending signals through space to receivers) was publicized widely. Various scientists, inventors, and experimenters begin to investigate wireless methods.
• 1894: Heinrich Rudolf Hertz died.
• 19 August 1894: British physicist Sir Oliver Lodge demonstrated the reception of Morse code signalling using radio waves using a "coherer".
• November 1894: The Indian physicist, Jagdish Chandra Bose, demonstrated publicly the use of radio waves in Calcutta, but he was not interested in patenting his work. [3] Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using electromagnetic waves, proving that communication signals can be sent without using wires.
• 1894: The Russian physicist Alexander Popov built a coherer.
• 1896: Marconi was awarded a patent for radio with British Patent 12039, Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals and in Apparatus There-for. This is the initial patent for radio, though it used various earlier techniques of various other experimenters (primarily Tesla) and resembled the instrument demonstrated by others (including Popov). During this time spark-gap wireless telegraphy is widely researched.
• 1896: Bose went to London on a lecture tour and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office.
• 1897: Marconi established the radio station on the Isle of Wight, England. In the U.S. during 1897, Tesla applied for two key radio patents. Those two patents were issued in early 1900.
• 1898: Marconi opened the first radio factory, on Hall Street, Chelmsford, England, employing around 50 people.
• 1899: Bose announced his invention of the "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at Royal Society, London.
• 1900: Reginald Fessenden made a weak transmission of voice over the airwaves.
• Around 1900: Tesla opened the Wardenclyffe Tower facility and advertised services.
• 1901: Marconi claims to have received in St. John's, Newfoundland a radio signal transmitted from Poldhu in Cornwall (UK), but this is disputed. The claims of Marconi's signal and case against it are still discussed.
• 1903: Wardenclyffe Tower neared completion.
• Various theories exist on how Tesla intended to achieve the goals of this wireless system (reportedly, a 200 kW system). Tesla claimed that Wardenclyffe, as part of a World System of transmitters, would have allowed secure multichannel transceiver of information, universal navigation, time synchronization, and a global location system.
• 1904: The U.S. Patent Office reversed its decision, awarding Marconi a patent for the invention of radio, possibly influenced by Marconi's financial backers in the States, who included Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie. This also allowed the U.S. government (among others) to avoid having to pay the royalties that were being claimed by Tesla for use of his patents.
Spark-gap telegraphy
Using various patents, the company called "British Marconi" was established and began communication between coast radio stations and ships at sea. This company along with its subsidiary American Marconi, had a stranglehold on ship to shore communication. It operated much the way American Telephone and Telegraph operated until 1983, owning all of its own equipment and refusing to communicate with non-Marconi equipped ships. Many inventions improved the quality of radio, and amateurs experimented with uses of radio, thus the first seeds of broadcasting were planted. Around the turn of the century, the Slaby-Arco wireless system was developed by Adolf Slaby and Georg von Arco (later incorporated into Telefunken).


A spark-gap transmitter for generating radio frequency electromagnetic waves. Such devices served as the transmitters for most early wireless systems.
• 24 December 1906: Reginald Fessenden used an Alexanderson alternator and rotary spark-gap transmitter to make the first radio audio broadcast, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible.
• 1907: Marconi established the first permanent transatlantic wireless service from Clifden, Ireland to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
• 1909: Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for "contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".
• April 1909: Charles David Herrold, an electronics instructor in San Jose, California constructed a broadcasting station. It used spark gap technology, but modulated the carrier frequency with the human voice, and later music. The station "San Jose Calling" (there were no call letters), continued in an unbroken lineage to eventually become today's KCBS in San Francisco. Herrold, the son of a Santa Clara Valley farmer, coined the terms "narrowcasting" and "broadcasting", respectively to identify transmissions destined for a single receiver such as that on board a ship, and those transmissions destined for a general audience. (The term "broadcasting" had been used in farming to define the tossing of seed in all directions.) Charles Herrold did not claim to be the first to transmit the human voice, but he claimed to be the first to conduct "broadcasting". To help the radio signal to spread in all directions, he designed omnidirectional antennas, which he mounted on the rooftops of various buildings in San Jose. Herrold also claims to be the first broadcaster to accept advertising, although advertising generally involves paid announcements. He exchanged publicity for a local record store for records to play on his station.
• 1910: The Wireless Ship Act was passed by the United States Congress, requiring all ships of the United States traveling over two-hundred miles off the coast and carrying over fifty passengers to be equipped with wireless radio equipment with a range of one-hundred miles. The legislation was prompted by a shipping accident in 1909, where a single wireless operator saved the lives of 1200 people.[1]
• 1912: The RMS Titanic sank. After this, wireless telegraphy using spark-gap transmitters quickly became universal on large ships. The Radio Act of 1912 required all seafaring vessels to maintain 24-hour radio watch and keep in contact with nearby ships and coastal radio stations.[1]
• 1913: Marconi initiated duplex transatlantic wireless communication between North America and Europe for the first time, using receiver stations in Letterfrack Ireland, and Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.
• 1913: The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was convened and produced a treaty requiring shipboard radio stations to be manned 24 hours a day. A typical high-power spark gap was a rotating commutator with six to twelve contacts per wheel, nine inches to a foot wide, driven by about 2000 volts DC. As the gaps made and broke contact, the radio wave was audible as a tone in a crystal set. The telegraph key often directly made and broke the 2000 volt supply. One side of the spark gap was directly connected to the antenna. Receivers with thermionic valves became commonplace before spark-gap transmitters were replaced by continuous wave transmitters.

• 1916: First regular broadcasts on 9XM (now WHA) - Wisconsin state weather, delivered in Morse Code
• 1919: First clear transmission of human speech, (on 9XM) after experiments with voice (1918) and music (1917).
• 1920: Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment began in Argentina, pioneered by the group around Enrique Telémaco Susini.
• 1920: Spark-gap telegraphy stopped.
• 20 August 1920: E.W. Scripps's WWJ in Detroit received its commercial broadcasting license and started broadcasting. It has carried a regular schedule of programming to the present. Broadcasting was not yet supported by advertising. The stations owned by manufacturers and department stores were established to sell radios and those owned by newspapers to sell papers and express the opinions of the owners.
• 31 August 1920: The first known radio news program was broadcast by station 8MK, the unlicensed predecessor of WWJ (AM) in Detroit, Michigan.
• October 1920: Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania became the first US commercial broadcasting station to be licensed when it was granted call letters KDKA. (Their engineer Frank Conrad had been broadcasting from his own station since 1916.)
• 1922: Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment began in the UK from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle near Chelmsford, England. Early radios ran the entire power of the transmitter through a carbon microphone.
• Mid 1920s:
o Amplifying vacuum tubes revolutionized radio receivers and transmitters; Westinghouse engineers improved them. (Before that, the commonest type of receiver was the crystal set, although some early radios used some type of amplification through electric current or battery.)
o Inventions of the triode amplifier, generator, and detector enabled audio radio.
o Fessenden and Lee de Forest pioneered the invention of amplitude-modulated radio (AM radio), so more than one station can send signals (as opposed to spark-gap radio, where one transmitter covers the entire bandwidth of spectra). Westinghouse bought DeForest's and Armstrong's patent.
• 1920s: Radio was first used to transmit pictures visible as television.
• Early 1930s: Single sideband (SSB) and frequency modulation (FM) were invented by amateur radio operators. By 1940, they were established commercial modes.
Westinghouse was brought into the patent allies group, General Electric, American Telephone and Telegraph, and Radio Corporation of America, and became a part owner of RCA. All radios made by GE and Westinghouse were sold under the RCA label 60% GE and 40% Westinghouse. ATT's Western Electric would build radio transmitters. The patent allies attempted to set up a monopoly, but they failed due to successful competition. Much to the dismay of the patent allies, several of the contracts for inventor's patents held clauses protecting "amateurs" and allowing them to use the patents. Whether the competing manufacturers were really amateurs was ignored by these competitors.


Federal Communications Commission.


Federal Radio Commission.

These features arose:-
• Commercial (United States) or governmental (Europe) station networks
• Federal Radio Commission
• Federal Communications Commission
• Birth of the soap opera
• Race towards shorter waves and FM
• 1933: FM radio was patented; Edwin H. Armstrong invented it. FM uses frequency modulation of the radio wave to minimize static and interference from electrical equipment and the atmosphere, in the audio program.
• 1937: W1XOJ, the first experimental FM radio station, was granted a construction permit by the FCC.
• 1940s: Standard analog television transmissions started in North America and Europe.
• 1943: Tesla's patent (number 645576) was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court shortly after Tesla's death, because prior art existed before Marconi's patent was established. Ignoring Tesla's prior art, the decision may have let the U.S. government avoid paying damages that the Marconi Company was claiming for use of its patents during World War I; it is speculated that the U.S. government initially refused to grant Marconi the patent right, to nullify any claims Tesla had for compensation.
• After World War II: The FM radio broadcast was introduced in Germany.
• 1948: A new wavelength plan was set up for Europe at a meeting in Copenhagen. Because of the recent war, Germany (which was not even invited) was only given a few medium-wave frequencies, which are not very good for broadcasting. For this reason Germany began broadcasting on USW, "ultra short wave" (nowadays called VHF). After some amplitude modulation experience with VHF, it was realized that FM radio was a much better alternative for VHF radio than AM.

planning of news show

Planning for the radio show. (Coconut lounge news)
5 minute news bulletin work:
• Theme tune/jingle for the coconut news, we will be making this as hard hitting and catchy as we can to really draw the audiences attention
• Me doing a quick overview of all the main headlines. this will be used to set an outline to inform the listener of what is going to be on the show,this wil help draw the audience in more because if we didnt say the headlines then viewer might lose intrest in one story and change shows however if we read out the headlines they woud stay tuned in to listen to a headline they've been waiting for.
• Start off with Ruhul picking one of the bigger stories and speaking to a listener on the phone about it. using a phone in is a common radio convention as it involves the audience
• Have Alex then announce the local Kidlington news and cut to achieve footage of me interviewing members of the public. this will be more informative as it would be with an local news station
• A conversation via satelite on the breaking news use recorded sounds to start off the topic. this will be used to show a range of editing skills
• End with ruhul doing whether before theme tune plays us out this is one of the most common ways to end a broadcast and we will be using this to finish ours

research notes of Bolton FM, Heart FM and BBC Radion 1









BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock or interviews. It is aimed primarily at the 15–29 age group, although the average age of the audience is 33. Radio 1 was launched at 7:00am on 30 September 1967 as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline, which had been outlawed by Act of Parliament known as the marine offensise act this is best documented in the film 'The Boat That Rocked' which follows the story of a pirate radio ship called radio rock and it follow the lives of the presenters and the government who are trying to close them down. This idea of getting rid of pirate radio and having Radio 1 take its place is a key example of the Adaptive Structure change theory based on Anthony Giddens structure theory in which since these pirate radio shows were so popular with the people of the country then for Radio 1 to be succesful the producers of the show would have to give the people what they wanted thus changing there shows structure to be based around music.

From listners to a show on BBC Radio 1 I took some research notes as listening which i hope to later refer to as we create our own broadcast.

Slang: Such as 'oh yeah'. This makes the listener feel more 'at home' and enjoy the experience it also creates a formality about the situation and helps the audience to relate to the presenters as it shows the presenters use slang just like they do.
Talks about themselves: discussed how she got up late and then got stuck in the London traffic on the way to the broadcast center. This makes the listener feel they know the presenter and builds 'friendship' bonds, which will bring the listener back.
About the record: rihanna's latest track is discussed. This keeps the show relevant with modern day music that all the listners can enjoy.
Talks to the listener: talks about the news to the caller, again keeping the listener a main priority and creating a masked 'friendship' through doing this it will again make the listner more intrested in the show and keep them tuned into the broadcast and could even attract them to other broadcasts from the BBC
Another subject: talking about the build up to Christmas. again keeping the show relevent to a though that is on the majority of the audiences mind they even make refrence to the panic buying that goes on during the Christmas period
Says whets coming up: 'Jay-Z is up next' This keeps the listener listening as they will want to hear the song. This is best used when they say the names of the next 2-3 songs that will be played because then if one of the songs does not appeal to the listner then they will keep listning just to hear that song.
catch phrase: 'You're listening to radio 1’

Although some will argue with me that these national stations have less connection with their audience i believe that this is simply not the case as they take views from people all over england this in a way brings the country together having people from up north, down south,east and west of the country all giving there view on what is going on in the news recently this shows a much greater diversity which i believe attracts more people to the show. through this it means the show can get alot more investment meaning they can afford better technical equipment which gives them an advantage over the local radio shows as mny people prefer the listening experience on a nation show such as BBC Radio 1.







96.5 Bolton FM is a Community Radio station based in Bolton, UK. Its studios are located at Office 6, Ashburner Street Market, Bolton. 96.5 Bolton FM launched at 11am on 20 June 2009 at the One Bolton Festival launch event located Victoria Square, Bolton.






The station has several high profile connections including former Labour Whip Frank White as the station's former chairman and radio professional Darryl Morris as a Director and programming advisor. Carl Hartley is Programme Controller of the station, a position he held at former CN Group station Rugby FM. He's also had experience at Lakeland Radio, Tower FM, and The Bay.



Presenting the show: Jay Hull
Talking to the listener: He discussed local events of interest, there was opportunities for call ins
Talking about the record: He would introduce the next track
Adverts: Local businesses eg ‘Plumbers of Bolton’
Catch phrase/Theme tune: to a tune ’96.5 Live from the North’
Digresses to another subject: Presenters did discuss their personal lives
DJ talks about own life: He announced he’s getting a new dog at the weekend





What i did realise about the show not only from listning to it but from looking at the logo for Bolton Fm is that the show is almost like a family of itself its run by northern speaking people to connect with there audience it has various local sports teams getting involved in it and it generally has one of the best relationships being audience and presenters that ive ever seen. Although it has only recently been established i believe that this radio station will soon become the most popular notheren radio show in the country aslong as it keep this so important connection with its viewers.



Heart (also known as Heart FM and Heart Radio) is a network of adult contemporary independent local radio stations in central & southern England and north Wales. Each station broadcasts local breakfast and drive time shows and simulcasts network programming at all other times. Seventeen of the Heart stations are owned and operated by Global Radio with two stations owned independently as a franchise. The particular show i listen to was from the London show.

Presenting the show: Toby Anstis
Talking to the listener: caller calls in to answer question on chance to win tickets to a gig paid for by the show
Talking about the record: talking about the song e.g name chart position and if they like the track
Promotes another show: uses upcoming messages to tell you when Emma Bunton’s radio show will begin.
Adverts: Lg phones, trust a trader.com, Wilkerson and Persil
Catch phrase/Theme tune: 'This is Heart' and 'Give it Some Heart'
Digresses to another subject: starts talking about I’m a celebrity get me out of here.
Says whets coming up: songs from Michael Bubble and Lighthouse Family coming up.
DJ talks about own life: say that he is not feeling too well and has caught the cold that is going round.

National and Local stations advertise different products and events (local promote local goods while national advertised bigger brands) but they both use similar advertising theories. They use the Hyperdermic Needle Theory to promote themselves, every time you hear 'This is Heart' as a listener, you feel you want to keep listening to hear what’s coming up on the show. The Two-Step Flow theory is also used, as people go away and discuss what they've heard on the radio e.g "BBC Radio 1 was playing that new track!" and more people will go and listen to pass their own judgment. However it is important to note that The Two Step flow theory only really applies to the national broadcast as not everyone listens to the local radio shows but mainly everyone hears abit of the national broadcasts.

By listening to these three stations I managed to analyse them and pick up some key skills. I listened to how the DJ's spoke and wrote down the conventions of radio. I see our radio course-work being a local news show but with qualities from a national show. We will report on both national and local stories with the professionalism of editing from a national show, but the heart-warming presenting and audience connection you receive from local radio.

semiotics

semiotics
semiotics Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signification and communication, signs and symbols, into three branches:Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotataSyntactics: Relation of signs to each other in formal structuresPragmatics: Relation of signs to their impacts on those who use themSemiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological dimensions, for example Umberto Eco proposes that every cultural phenomenon can be studied as communication. However, some semioticians focus on the logical dimensions of the science. They examine areas belonging also to the natural sciences - such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt to, their semiotic niche in the world In general, semiotic theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study: the communication of information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics or zoosemiosis.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Reviews Heart FM already written by their audience

i found the folowing reviews on http://www.ciao.co.uk/
fan reviews for heart:

I was horrified to hear my husband actually admit that at work he listens to Heart Fm BY CHOICE! We had first sampled Heart when the station was first launched and it was quite simply dreadful.
However, he insisted that it had improved no end, and that for our generation, (lovers of 80's music) it was excellent. So I decided, against my better judgement, to give it a go. I was very pleasantly surprised. As an avid Captial fan, I was getting a little sick of the adverts that they run. Heat play far fewer adverts, in fact they are noticeably fewer. The music comes thick and fast, with modern tunes interspersed with some of our golden oldie favourites. I have listened to it all day on Saturday and have only noticed one or two songs that I actively dislike, and even then, it can be fun to remind yourself why!
The DJ's can be a little naff, but even then they tend to keep their interference to a minimum, and hey, nobodys perfect.
So, to conclude, put aside your misconceptions and doubts, forget Capital (sorry!) and tune in to Heart. I promise you won't be disappointed!



100.7 heart fm westmidlands local radio station, plays music from all generations and genre, from pop , rock to chilled out soul to top it off add abit of motown.
you have the perfect mix !
something for everyone to listen to, i first started listening to heart when mom was doing the house work singing along to the radio, just seeing my mom happy singing and dancing caught on me and my sister joined in, the music is fab,
you can even catch heart fm online while you'r all siting here on facebook tune into heart catch them on www.heart.co.uk
you can also pick up frequencies around the country
the only one problem i see with heart is the constant advertisements but then i think they have to make their money somewhere !
but other than the adverts i'd give heart fm the thumbs up !
party on guys !!!

overall heart has been rated very highly from reading reviews i believe that this is in short down to tow main points those being
1) The range of music they play, this is obviously succesful as it appeals to a wide variety of ages and social groups this results in a wider target audience to recieve the text increasing the shows popularity. however there are drawbacks to having a wider target audience as viewers may lose intrest if they are only attracted to one section of the show resulting in amount of listeners dropping because the show is not specific enough.
2)The avalibilty of heart fm online. with newer technologies being created everyday the technologies of the past such as radio are struggling to keep up however through embrasing the 'online age' it has prevented radio going the way of the VHS video tapes and has creating a much simpler way of accessing the radio whilst in the work place or simply at home.

despite these two positives listeners clearly felt strongly about the amount of advertising being played aswell as the poor quality of the dj's these are two very series problems for a radio show firstly because since there are no visuals for radio it is all taken in by audio this means that the audience and the dj have to be able to relate to each other and even respect each other and build up a repore and secondly again the audience tunes in to listen to the show not adverts so adverts on the radio should be kept as short as possible although this is a common problem with a station like haert fm as its local so most of its money comes from adverts which means if it wants to keep running it needs to keep getting investers.

analysis of radio stations

Heart fm
Presenting the show: toby anstis
Talking to the listener: caller calls in to answer question on chance to win tickets to a gig paid for by the show
Talking about the record: talking about the song e.g name chart postion and if they like the track
Promotes another show: uses upcoming messages to tell you when emma buntons radio show will begin.
Adverts: Lg phones, trust a trader.com, Wilkerson and Persil
Catch phrase/Theme tune: 'This is Heart' and 'Give it Some Heart'
Digresses to another subject: starts talking about im a celebrity get me out of here.
Says whats coming up: songs from Michael Buble and Lighthouse Family coming up.
talks about themself: say that he is not feeling to well and has caught the cold that is going round

Bolton fm
Presenting the show: This is Bolton runs from 11am till 1pm and is presented by Kevin Williams and Johnathon Taylor
Digresses to a differnt topic: Advertising for the turning on of the lights in Bolton tomorrow night
Talks to the public: On the news section they ask for a mans opinion on swine flu
Talks about themselves: Talking about the trouble they had getting into work due to traffic
Catch Phrases: From Bolton for Bolton 96.5fm Bolton fm
Promotes another show: Promotes Gossip Girls a show coming up after about 5 girls who disscuss girl problems of the day
Says whats coming up: Announces the next track

radio 1
Slang: slang used like 'oh yeah'
Talks about themselves: talks about himself e.g who he is and what time he got there
About the record: jason durulo track is discussed
Talks to the listener: talks about the news to the caller
Another subject: talking about christmas
Says whats coming up: jay sean
catch phrase: your listening to radio 1

i believe that we have found some key differnces in the local and national shows through our research for instance BBC radio 1 had alot more advertising not just for there shows but for products from other buisness' that have paid to have there advert played on the show, this is because a national radio station means that a wider audience can be targeted through the media as more people listen and recieve the advert because its in a nationa area rather than a local station.
another key differnce is the quality of the presentors on the shows for local news stations they have generally unknown dj's in most cases whereas the national shows can attract such stars as emma buton who is a big popstar this name alone draws in more viewers through the use of the hyperdermic needle as the name is linked to great music hits with one of the greatest girl bands of all time this instantly makes the listener switch on and want to hear her show.

planning of analysis of 3 radiostations

We're working in our group of 3 and we are all going to be analysing 3 differnt radiostation
ruhul will be doing radio 1
alex will be doing bolton fm
and ill be covering heart fm
through doing this we can analyse what radio connventions are used for local stations and if there is any major differnces in the conventions used on national radio stations.
i expect to find that the local radio stations will have larger sections dedicated to news updates for various issues such as traffic and congestion whereas the national shows will have more live interviews with guest dj's and play more music and then have a specific section dedicated to the news ever couple of hours rather than constant updates.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

glossary of radio terminology

A TOP
ABC American Broadcasting Company; network
AC Adult contemporary format.
Account Executive Station or agency salesperson.
Actives Listeners who call radio stations to make requests and comments or in response to contests and promotions.
Actuality Actual recording of news event or person(s) involved.
ADI Area of Dominant Influence; Arbitron measurement area.
Adjacencies Commercials strategically placed next to a feature.
Ad lib Improvisation. Unrehearsed and spontaneous comments.
Affidavit Statement attesting to the airing of a spot schedule.
AFTRA American Federation of Television and Radio Artists; union made up of broadcast performers: announcers, deejays, newscasters.
Aircheck Tape of live broadcast.
Amortization The structure under which a loan is repaid; the structure of time payments and interest.
Amplification Electronically increasing the power of a signal.
AM Amplitude Modulation; method of signal transmission using Standard Broadcast band with frequencies between 535 and 1705 kHz.
Announcement Commercial (spot) or public service message of varying length.
AOR Album-Oriented Rock radio format. Also called Classic Rock.
AP Associated Press; wire and audio news service.
Arbitron Audience measurement service employing a seven-day diary to determine the number of listeners tuned to area radio stations.
ASCAP American Society of Composers, Artists, and Performers; music licensing service.
Ascertainment The formal process of determining a community's needs.
Attribution Statement of the source of information in a news item.
Audio Sound; modulation.
Audition tape Telescoped recording showcasing talents of air person; listen off-air.
Audition channel Monitoring point separate from program that allows for off-air listening.
Automation Equipment system designed to play prepackaged programming.
Availability Vacant air slot for commercial announcement.
Average quarter-hour (AQH) Rating measurement used to estimate the size of a station's audience during any fifteen minute period.
AWRT American Women in Radio and Television.
B TOP
Back announce Recap of preceding music selections.
Balance sheet A summary of a station's assets and liabilities.
Barter Exchange of airtime for programming or goods.
BEA Broadcast Education Association.
Bed Music behind voice in announcement.
Bi-directional pickup pattern Microphone pattern that is sensitive to sound from the front and back but not the sides.
Blasting Excessive volume resulting in distortion.
Blend Merging of complementary sound elements.
Book Term used to describe rating survey document; "Bible."
BM Beautiful Music radio format. One of the first formats on FM.
BMI Broadcast Music Incorporated; music licensing service.
BPME Broadcast Promotion and Management Executives.
Bridge Sound used between program elements.
BTA Best Time Available, also Run of Schedule (ROS); commercials logged at available times.
Bulk eraser Tool for removing magnetic impression from recording tape.
C TOP
Call letters Assigned station identification generally beginning with W east of the Mississippi and K west.
Capstan Shaft in recorder that drives tape.
Cardiod pickup pattern Microphone pattern where sound is picked up from front and rejected from the rear.
Cart Plastic cartridge containing a continuous loop of recording tape.
Cash flow Operating profit before taxes, depreciation and interest are subtracted.
Cassette Two reels of tape in a plastic housing.
CFR Code of Federal Regulations.
Chain broadcasting Forerunner of network broadcasting.
CHR Contemporary Hit Radio format.
Clock Wheel indicating sequence or order of programming ingredients aired during one hour.
Cluster Group of announcements; stop set. (see Spot set)
Cold Background (music bed) fade on last line of copy.
Combo Announcer operating own board, engineering show; also refers to co-owned AM/FM operation.
Commercial Paid advertising announcement; spot.
Compact disk (CD) Digital recording using laser beam to decode surface.
Compensation Combination of salary and fringe benefits paid to an employee.
Condenser microphone Microphone with a capacitative electrical element.
Console Audio mixer consisting of inputs, outputs, toggles, meters, sliders and/or pots; board.
Consultant Station advisor or counselor; "format doctor."
Control room Center of broadcast operations from which programming originates; air studio.
Cool out Gradual fade of bed music at conclusion of spot.
Co-op Arrangement between retailer and manufacturer for the purpose of sharing radio advertising expenses.
Copy Advertising message; continuity, commercial script.
Copywriter One who writes commercial or promotional copy.
Cost Per Point (CPP) Estimate of how much it costs an advertiser to reach one rating point worth of listeners.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM or Cost Per Mil) Estimate of how much it costs an advertiser to reach 1,000 listeners.
CPB Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Funds NPR and PBS.
Crossfade Fade out of one element while simultaneously introducing another.
Cue Signal for the start of action; prepare for airing.
Cue burn Distortion at the beginning of a record cut resulting from heavy cueing.
Cume Ratings measurement, the number of people who have sampled a radio station.
D TOP
DAB Digital Audio Broadcasting. There are two competing systems. IBOC favored by the US. Eureka147 favored by Canada and Europe.
DAT Digital audio tape.
Dayparts Periods or segments of broadcast day: 6-10a.m., 10a.m. - 3p.m., 3- 7p.m.
Dead air Silence where sound usually should be; absence of programming.
Deejay Host of radio music program; announcer; "disk jockey."
Demagnetize remove magnetic impressions.
Demographics Audience statistical data pertaining to age, sex, race, income, and so forth.
Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) Powerful communications satellites that beam programming to receiving dishes at earth stations.
Directional Station transmitting signal in a preordained pattern so as to protect other stations on the same or adjacent frequency.
Donut spot A commercial in which copy is inserted between segments of music.
Double billing Illegal station billing practice in which client is charged twice.
Drivetime Radio's primetime: 6-10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m.
Dub Copy of recording; duplicate (dupe).
E TOP
EBS Emergency Broadcast System. (now EAS) Emergency Alert System.
Edit To alter composition of recorded material; splice.
ENG Electronic news gathering.
Erase Wipe clean magnetic impressions; degauss, bulk, deflux, demagnetize.
ERP Effective radiated power; tape head configuration: erase, record, playback
ET Electrical transcription.
Ethnic Programming for minority group audiences.
Eureka147 Digital Audio Broadcasting System being used by Canada and Europe.
F TOP
Fact sheet List of pertinent information on a sponsor.
Fade To slowly lower or raise volume level.
FCC Federal Communications Commission; government regulatory body with authority over radio operations.
Fidelity Trueness of sound dissemination or reproduction.
Fixed position Spot routinely logged at a specified time.
Flight Advertising air schedule.
FM Frequency Modulation; method of signal transmission using 88-108 MHz band.
FMX System used to improve FM reception.
Format Type of programming a station offers; arrangement of material, formula.
Frequency Number of cycles-per-second of a sine wave.
Fulltrack Recording utilizing entire width of tape.
G TOP
Gain Volume; amplification.
Generation Dub; dupe, tape-recording.
Grease pencil Soft-tip marker used to inscribe recording tape for editing purposes.
Gross impressions Total number of exposures to a schedule of announcements.
Gross Rating Points (GRP) Representation of the total number of exposures to a schedule of announcements, expressed as a percentage of all possible listeners.
Ground wave AM signal traveling the earth's surface; primary signal.
H TOP
HD-Radio (see IBOC)
Headphones Speakers worn directly over the ears; headsets, cans.
Hertz (Hz) Cycles per second; unit of electromagnetic frequency. (named after Heinrich Hertz).
Hot Overmodulated. also uptempo AC.
Hot clock Wheel indicating when particular music selections are to be aired.
Hype Exaggerated presentation; high-intensity, punched.
I TOP
IBEW International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; union.
IBOC In-Band On-Channel. System that would allow digital broadcasting over current AM and FM frequencies. Major companies promoting IBOC included Lucent and USADR USA Digital Radio, Inc. These companies have merged and are now know as Ibiquity. IBOC is now refered to as HD-Radio.
ID Station identification required by law to be broadcast as close to the top of the hour as possible; station break.
Input Terminal receiving incoming current.
Institutional Message promoting general image.
IPS Inches per second; tape speed: 1 7/8, 3 3/4, 7 1/2, 15, 30 IPS.
ITU International Telecommunications Union; world broadcasting regulatory agency.
J TOP
Jack Plug for patching sound sources; patch-cord, socket, input.
Jingle Music commercial or promo; signature, aural-logo.
Jock see Deejay.
K TOP
KDKA First radio station licensed by the Department of Commerce.
Key (keying) Turning a sound source on or off from the console.
Kilohertz One thousand cycles per second; AM frequency measurement, kilocycles.
L TOP
Leader tape Plastic, metallic, or paper tape used in conjunction with magnetic tape for marking and spacing purposes.
Level Amount of volume units; audio measurements.
Licensee Individual or company holding license issued by the FCC for broadcast purposes.
Line Connection used for transmission of audio; phone-line.
Line-of-sight Path of FM signal; FM propagation.
Liner cards Written on-air promos used to ensure adherence to station image; prepared ad-libs.
Live copy Material read over air; not prerecorded.
Live tag Postscript to taped message.
Local channels Class IV AM stations found at high end of band: 1200-1600kHz.
M TOP
Make-good Replacement spot for one missed.
Market Area served by a broadcast facility; ADI.
Master Original recording from which dubs are made.
Master control see Control room.
MBS Mutual Broadcasting System; radio network.
Megahertz (MHz) Million cycles per second; FM frequency measurement, megacycles.
Mixdown Integration of sound elements to create desired effect; production
Monitor Studio speaker; supervise on-air sound; aircheck.
Mono Single or fulltrack sound; monaural, monophonic.
MOR Middle-of-the-Road radio format.
Morning Drive Radio's most listened-to daypart: 6:00-10:00 a.m.
MSA Metro Survey Area; geographic area in radio survey.
Multiplexing Impressing two or more signals on one carrier as in FM stereo.
Multitracking Recording sound-on-sound; overdubbing, stacking tracks.
Music sweep Several selections played back-to-back without interruption; music segue.
N TOP
NAB National Association of Broadcasters.
Narrowcasting Directed programming; targeting specific audience demographic.
NBC National Broadcasting Company; the first radio network.
Network Broadcast combine providing programming to affiliates: CBS, ABC, Mutual, etc.
Network feed Programs sent to affiliate stations.
News block Extended news broadcast.
NPR National Public Radio
O TOP
Omnidirectional pickup pattern Microphone pickup pattern that picks up sound equally well from all directions.
O and O's Network or group owned and operated stations.
Off-mike Speech outside normal range of microphone.
Out-cue Last words in a line of carted copy.
Output Transmission of audio or power from one location to another; transfer terminal.
Overdubbing see Multitracking.
Overmodulate Exceed standard or prescribed audio levels; pinning VU needle.
P TOP
Packaged Canned programming; syndicated, prerecorded, taped.
Passives Listeners who do not call stations in response to contests or promotions or to make requests or comments; the silent majority.
Patch Circuit connector; cord, cable.
Patch panel Jack board for connecting audio sources: remotes, studios, equipment; patch bay.
Payola Undercover illegal payment to a disc jockey or radio station programmer for playing or plugging a record.
Persons using radio (PUR) Measurement of the number of persons listening to stations in a market.
Pinch roller Rubber wheel that presses recording tape against the capstan.
Playback Reproduction of recorded sound.
Playlist Roster of music for airing.
Plug Promo; connector.
Popping Breakup of audio due to gusting or blowing into mike; blasting.
Positioner Brief statement used on-air to define a station's position in a market.
Pot Potentiometer; volume control knob, gain control, fader, attentuator, rheostat.
PSA Public Service Announcement; noncommercial message.
PRI Public Radio International.
Production The use of studio equipment to combine sounds into a finished product. See Mixdown.
Psychographics Research term dealing with listener personality, such as attitude, behavior, values, opinions, and beliefs.
Punch Emphasis; stress.
Q TOP
Quadraphonic four speaker/channel sound reproduction; surround sound.
R TOP
RAB Radio Advertising Bureau.
Rack Prepare or set up for play or record: "rack-it-up"; equipment container.
RADAR Nationwide measurement service by Statistical Research, Inc.
Rate card Statement of advertising fees and terms.
Rating Measurement of the total available audience.
Reach Measurement of how many different members of an audience will be exposed to a message.
RCA Radio Corporation of America; NBC parent company.
Recut Retake; re-record, remix.
Reel-to-reel Recording machine with feed and take-up reels.
Remote Broadcast originating away from station control room.
Reverb Close echo; redundancy of sound.
Rewind Speeded return of recording tape from take up reel.
Ride gain Monitor level; watch VU needle.
Rip 'n' read Airing copy unaltered from newswire.
rpm Revolutions per minute: 33 1/3, 45, and 78 rpm.
RTNDA Radio and Television News Directors Association.
Run-of-station (ROS) Bulk commercial buying plan where station's traffic department will fit the commercials into available time locations. See BTA
S TOP
Satellite Orbiting device for relaying audio from one earth station to another; DBS, Comsat, Satcom.
SBE Society of Broadcast Engineers.
SCA Subsidiary Communication Authority; subcarrier FM.
Secondary service area AM skywave listening area.
Segue Uninterrupted flow of recorded material; continuous.
SESAC Society of European Stage Authors and Composers; music licensing service.
SFX Abbreviation for sound effects.
Share Percentage of station's listenership compared to competition; piece of audience pie.
Signal Sound transmission; RF.
Signature Theme; aural logo, jingle, ID.
Simulcast Simultaneous broadcast over two or more frequencies.
SIRIUS One of two national satellite radio services. (See also XM)
Sky wave Radio wave that bounces off the ionosphere.
Sound bite Audio portion of interview. See Actuality.
Sound hour Term referring to the programming strategy with an hour of broadcasting.
Spectrum Range of frequencies available to broadcasters.
Spec tape Specially tailored commercial used as a sales tool to help sell and account.
Splice To join ends of recording tape with adhesive; edit.
Splicing bar Grooved platform for cutting and joining recording tape; edit bar.
Sponsor Advertiser; client, account, underwriter.
Spots Commercials; paid announcements.
Spot set Group or cluster of announcements; stop set.
Station Broadcast facility given specific frequency by FCC.
Station identification Station call letters immediately followed by city of license. for example: WVUD Newark
Station log Document containing specific operating information as outlined in Section 73.1820 of the FCC Rules and Regulations.
Station rep company acting in behalf of local stations to national agencies.
Stereo Multichannel sound; two program channels.
Stinger Music or sound effect finale preceded by last line of copy; button, punctuation.
Straight copy Announcement employing unaffected, nongimicky approach; institutional.
Stringer Field or on-scene reporter; freelance reporter.
Subliminal Advertising or programming not consciously perceived; below normal range of awareness, background.
Sweep link Transitional jingle between sound elements.
Syndication Programs sent to a network of users.
Syndicator Producer of purchasable program material.
T TOP
Tag Postscript to taped message.
Talent Radio performer; announcer, deejay, newscaster.
Talk Conversation and interview radio format.
TAP Total Audience Plan; spot package divided between specific dayparts; 1/3 AAA, 1/3 AA, 1/3 A.
Tape speed Movement measured in inches per second. See IPS.
Telescoping Compressing of sound to fit a desired length; technique used in audition tapes and concert promos, editing.
TFN Till Further Notice; without specific kill date.
Time spent listening (TSL) Measurement of average amount of time spent by average listener tuned to a station.
Toll broadcasting Precursor to commercial radio.
Total Survey Area (TSA) Geographic area in radio survey.
Trade-out Exchange of station airtime for goods or services.
Traffic Station department responsible for scheduling sponsor announcements.
Transmit To broadcast; propagate signal, air.
Turnover Measurement of how often listenership changes from time period to time period.
Turntable Ancient device used to play records :-)
U TOP
Underwriter Program sponsor; noncommercial financial sponsor.
Underwriting Method by which noncommercial stations seek financial support from commercial sponsors.
Unidirectional mike Microphone designed to pick up sound in one direction; cardiod, studio mike.
V TOP
VOA Voice of America. U.S. International broadcast service.
Voice-over Talk over sound.
Voice-track Recording of announcer message for use in mixdown.
Volume Quality of sound; audio level.
Volume control Pot; fader.
VU Meter Gauge measuring units of sound.
W TOP
WARC World Administrative Radio Conference; international meeting charged with assigning spectrum space.
Wheel Program tool indicating sequence or order of programming ingredients aired during one hour.
Windscreen Microphone filter used to prevent popping and distortion.
Wireless telegraphy Early radio used to transmit Morse code.
Wire service News gathering organization; for example:AP.
Wow Distortion of sound created by inappropriate speed; miscue.

X TOP
XM One of two national satellite radio services. (See also Sirius)
Z Z-TOP
Zone I Region of the country where class B FM stations are located.