103.4 Sun fm

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 from the Capital Studio in the Global building in Leicester Square in London every Sunday 4-7pm. Sun fm on average draws in 62,000 listeners a week with a market share of around 12.5%. The average listener tunes in for 9 hours a week which is more than a larger company has such as BBCR1 at just over 6 hours per week.

The station really appeals to its target audience well with the music it plays a lot of the time being classic pop hits covering the 80's, 90's and 00's. The content mentioned on the show appeals to a more middle aged audience with conversation such as soaps and entertainment information. The station also does appeal to a younger audience too as a lot of people aged around the 20 mark such as myself, will also find soap gossip and pop hits off the 90's fun to listen to as well. So I think it's really smart how Sun fm manage to appeal to such a large audience. Local content is also very important to the station too and that is a real identity to the Sun fm branding. (Shingler & Wieringa 1998) state that "Words, speech and voices are everywhere on radio. Some stations are almost nothing but words. Others are more or less equal mixture of speech and music. Even radio stations are liberally interspersed with DJ chat, news bulletins, time checks, weather forecasts and traffic news. Speech lends structure to the daily schedule and provides the context in which music operates as meaningful entertainment." You can see how well the show and all the features are constructed and executed on the station throughout the day.

With the branding "Made in Wearside for Wearside" a lot on the station. Sun fm attend a lot of local events whether it be local concerts, visit the community, attend charity events, walks, sports events or visit and advertise local businesses you really can see the sense of community and local content is essential for the station.

One feature I particularly love from the station is "The Thousand Pound Minute" with Simon and Danni in the morning every weekday. I love listening to this feature while I'm getting ready on a morning and feeling really slugish as it's always really energetic and gets you really exited but anxious for the player if they are going to win the one thousand pounds. It is a straight forward format where the caller is asked ten general knowledge questions and they need to get them correct in the space of sixty seconds and if they do the money is theirs. I think its such a great idea and simple format that will get listeners involved and most importantly keep listening. The style of the station is generally really fun and upbeat and does have that sense of community to it and you can tell it's important across the station. The presenters always seem really bubbly and full of fun no matter what time you tune in during the day. They don't use young language so you can tell its a station aimed at older adults than teens and young adults.

When it comes to the programming, the content of the station is always really well-distributed across the hour and theres something every fifteen minutes to keep listeners hooked. Shows between 6pm and 6am are automated and voice tracked but with any pre-recorded shows you can't actually tell they are pre-recorded which keeps the station running smoothly. Overall the station is really great and has a great local feel to it and it achieves both the feel and target audience it wants to draw in really well.


https://www.sun-fm.com/

References

• Shingler, M. & Wieringa, C. (1998) On Air. Methods and Meanings of Radio. London: Hodder Headline Group