MED327 - Radio Analysis

Sun fm is the only commercial radio station in Sunderland, so already is has a huge audience to work with. It was initially launched as Wear fm back in 1990 and then to SunCity but changed its name for the final time in July 1995 to Sun fm. Its target audience is aimed at around the 30-50 mark. Its music mainly focuses on contemporary and classic popular music. Licensed by Ofcom, the station also features live local news and traffic reports at least once an hour during the daytime too. The station in general is very local orientated with it's content and scripts all aimed at local events, businesses and stories. The station was previously owned by UKRD but was just recently took over last week in April 2018 by Nation Broadcasting. When it comes to the programming of the station, the daytime content is presented live and local from 6am till 7pm. Anything after those hours and on weekends are either pre-recorded or automated. The "Vodafone Big Top 40" chart is syndicated fr...

WBZ-FM is a sports radio station also known as "98.5 The Sports Hub" based in Boston Massachusetts, serving the area too. It is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group and has been on air since August 2009. The station is very speech orientated and really informative even to someone who isn't a sports fan like myself. The station talks about a range of sports from basketball to American football to baseball and is neutral on all various Boston teams which is a good way of getting callers or two presenters to have a debate on what team is better for example. You can tell the presenters really know what they are talking about with these sports and they sound so enthusiastic talking about sport too which makes it a really enjoyable listen despite it being speech I don't understand or would usually find uninteresting to listen to. The fact they cover live games so much is a great outside broadcast but will take a lot of preparation and organisation to execute well.  (Benoit ...

Joy 94.9 is Australia's first and only gay and lesbian community radio station. Owned by JOY Melbourne Inc, it first aired in December 1993 and is based in Melbourne but got its permanent full-time broadcasting license in January 2002. Licensed by AMCA, it specialises in dance, techno and electronica music and also focuses a lot on community stories. The station is staffed by around 250 volunteers. The programming of the station focuses on talkback, music, capitalist culture and lifestyle programs. The lifestyle programs are perhaps one of the most important sections to the station talking about local LGBT community events, counselling, mental health, support services and key networks supporting the LGBT community too. This station would really help provide a voice to the LGBT community who feel they haven't found their's yet or maybe don't know how to deal with rejection or coming out for example so having radio stations like this are so, so important. (Shingler ...

KIIS 1065 is an Australian radio station based in Sydney owned by the Australian Radio Network. It has a market share of 9.5% and average weekly listeners of 951,000 people. Licensed by ACMA, it is one of the most listened to Australian radio stations. KIIS has a very Capital vibe to it and similar to Capital has a similar target audience of around the 15-30 mark. The online branding and digitalisation of this station is really important. I see videos especially on Facebook of this station all the time, especially Kyle and Jackie O. The videos are always really gripping to watch whether the concept is something funny like a prank video on one of the presenters by the other or organising an emotional surprise to a really deserving listener. This really fun and giving vibe is evident across the station at all times. The two presenters always have a really fun and jam packed show and they have a really energetic quirky style of presenting that really wakes you up in the morning. The t...

WHTZ branded Z-100 is an American radio station based in New Jersey serving the New York city metropolitan area. It is owned by iHeartRADIO. The station really reminds me of the American version of a station in the UK such as Capital. It focuses on chart and pop music. Besides an analogue transmission, it broadcasts over two HD radio channels and is available to listen to online on the iHeartRADIO website. It has been on air since 1961 and has always been a station that has provided music for the younger generation. Its target audience is aimed at 15-30 year olds and this is evident in the speech of the show, bubbly personalities and heavy entertainment talk throughout the day. Digitalisation is important to the brand as their website is really well-organised and has a lot of information on there too. On their website it has sections such as contests, playlists, presenter profiles and so many articles on the home page to look at. It looks really informative visually. The presenting ...

BBC Radio 1 Xtra is a sister station of BBC Radio 1. Similar to Radio 1 it is a digital station and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It was founded in August 2002 and it's target audience, again similar to BBCR1 is from the ages of 15-30. Licensed by Ofcom, it renewed its last license in April 2016. This station, unlike it's sister station focuses on more specialist music in the form of urban music. This features other sub genres such as hip hop, RnB, grime, bassline and garage to name a few. (Benoit & O' Donnell 2000) state that "Music is a very important element in radio production; indeed, it can be argued that music is what radio is all about. In any event, it's important for a producer to have an advantage, to manipulate music to create an effect. Good producers can also understand the kinds and varieties of music and thus can fit productions into the stations overall format." This is really evident on this station as it is so s...