Radio: Life Hacks

Radio: Life Hacks

Our first CSP for radio is the BBC Radio 1 show Life Hacks.

Our key concepts for Radio are industries and audience so these are the contexts we need to consider when studying the texts.

Previously on: The Surgery

Before being merged into Life Hacks, The Surgery was an evening radio show on BBC Radio 1 that ran between 1999 and 2017. Most recently, it was on every Wednesday at 9pm and ran for 60 minutes. It featured presenter Katie Thistleton and advice from Dr Radha Modgil.

It worked like an agony aunt column in old teenage magazines and took on controversial subjects such as gender identity, sexuality, relationships and mental health. It featured texts and calls from listeners and the post-watershed slot meant adult topics could be discussed.

The Surgery > Life Hacks

In November 2017, The Surgery was merged into a new Sunday afternoon show called Life Hacks that runs between 4pm – 6pm presented by Cel Spellman and Katie Thistleton. This mostly plays music but offers advice segments with Dr Modgil covering similar topics to The Surgery.

Although both The Surgery and Life Hacks ran in scheduled broadcast slots, in recent years the programme has been available as a podcast and encourages digital consumption and interaction. 

The Surgery



Life Hacks: Stormzy interview



Life Hacks: debt advice feature on BBC Sounds

Listen to this debt advice feature on BBC Sounds.


BBC Radio 1: History

BBC Radio 1 launched in 1967 playing pop music and using jingles in the style of American radio. It was a significant change from previous BBC content and was hugely popular in the 1970s and 1980s (some shows had 10m+ listeners).

It became available on DAB digital radio in 1995 but not promoted until digital radios were more popular in 2002. It is available via digital TV and online via BBC Sounds.

Radio 1 is famous for events as well as radio – summer Roadshows, Big Weekends and the annual Teen Awards.


Industries: Radio in decline

Although the BBC still boasts impressive audience figures for BBC Radio 2 and 4, it has struggled to attract young listeners to BBC Radio 1 in recent years.

Since 2010 listeners have declined – and although BBC R1 targets 15-29 year olds the average listener in 2017 was aged 30. Radio 1 is increasingly focusing on digital and social media with 16m weekly YouTube views reached in 2018.

BBC Radio 1 - Life Hacks: Blog tasks

Analysis

Listen to the extracts from Life Hacks above and answer the following questions:

1) What do the titles The Surgery and Life Hacks suggest?

 hey suggest that they will make your life better/easier, the same way that a surgery has the long term intention of improving quality of life.

2) How are the programmes constructed to appeal to a youth audience?

The language used is not that formal which is understandable and suitable for the youth. The programmes touches on topics such as school, anxiety which the youth do face in the real life,

 

3) What does the choice of presenters (Cel Spellman and Katie Thistleton) and Dr Modgil suggest about the BBC’s approach to diversity and representation?

Katie Thistleton is from Manchester and Dr Modgil is half-Indian. BBC have deliberately chosen a diverse pair as to show the audience that they respect all cultures and applaud diversity. This makes BBC more appealing as audience members will believe that they are showing are sense of diversity

4) Go to the Life Hacks iPlayer page and analyse the content. What does this suggest regarding the Life Hacks audience and what the BBC is hoping to achieve with the programme?

This promotional graphic constructs a representation of a youth audience due to the emojis, which a youth audience can engage with.

5) Go to the Life Hacks podcast episodes page. Listen to a few episodes of the podcast and explain how the topics may a) appeal to a youth audience and b) help fulfil the BBC's responsibilities as a public service broadcaster. 

These topics appeal to the youth audience as it covers over things that this generation faces such as ethnicity, identity and getting sleep.  This helps fulfill the responsibilites of BBC which are to inform, educate and entertain. 

Audience

1) What is the target audience for BBC Radio 1?

15-29 year olds

 

2) Who is the actual audience for BBC Radio 1?

BBC Radio one is in the bracket of 40-45.

3) What audience pleasures are offered by Life Hacks? Apply Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory.

Personal identity could be applied due to people being able to reflect them selves amongst these topics. Diversion also could be applied as it also gives a sense of entertainment such as listening to Stormzy.

 

4) Read this Guardian review of Life Hacks. What points does the reviewer make about Life Hacks and the particular podcast episode they listened to?

'I found myself listening to a few life inspiration/entrepreneurial podcasts last week.'

 

5) Read this NME feature on Radio 1 listener figures. What are the key statistics to take from this article regarding the decline in Radio 1 audience ratings?

Radio 1 has lost 200,000 weekly listeners since May, when they attracted 9.4 million listeners a week.

There was better news for Radio 1 in terms of its digital audience, with the station now posting a record 16 million YouTube views a week. 
The station is also still the top choice for listeners aged 15 to 24 in the UK.

Industries

1) How does Life Hacks meet the BBC mission statement to Educate, Inform and Entertain? 

They educate their audience by providing them with advice regarding youth related issues.

They inform them on current news and popular stories.

They also entertain with music, such as radio stations providing this.

2) Read the first five pages of this Ofcom document laying out its regulation of the BBC. Pick out three key points in the summary section.

 

The BBC is the UK’s most widely-used media organisation, providing programming on television and radio and content online. The public hasexceptionally high expectations of the BBC, shaped by its role as a publicly-funded broadcaster with a remit to inform, educate and entertain the public, and to support the creative economy across theUK.

 

 To meet these expectations, the BBC must deliver the mission and public purposes set out in its new Royal Charter(the Charter). For the first time, the BBCwill be robustly held to account for doing so by an independent, externalregulator. Alongside responsibilities for programme standards and protecting fair and effective competition in the areas in which the BBC operates, the Charter gives Ofcom the job of setting the BBC’s operating licence(the Licence). This sets binding conditions, requiring the BBC to deliver for licence fee-payers. Itis also our job to scrutinise, measure and report on the BBC’s performance. 

 

On 29 March2017, we consulted on a draft Licence setting out requirements for the BBC to fulfil its remit, and plans for Ofcom to measure the BBC’s overall performance. We have carefully considered more than 100 responses from members of the publicand industry.We have taken account of the BBC’s interim annual plan for 2017/18, published on 3July2017. We have also carried out bespoke research into audience opinions and expectations of the BBC.

 

3) Now read what the license framework will seek to do (letters a-h). Which of these points relate to BBC Radio 1 and Life Hacks?

Support social action campaigns on BBC radio. We are requiring Radio 1 to offer a minimum number of major social action campaigns each year. Providing information and raising awareness of social issues affecting young people and giving them a platform to engage with is one of the key ways Radio 1 can set itself apart from other radio stations.

4) What do you think are the three most important aspects in the a-h list? Why?

Support social action campaigns on BBC radio; it helps educated and raise awareness of things which helps them achieve one of their mission statement. It also attracts more younger audience it shows they care about social issues.

 

5) Read point 1.9: What do Ofcom plan to review in terms of diversity and audience? 

Ofcom are planning to review the on-screen diversity.

 

Read this Guardian interview with BBC 1 Controller Ben Cooper.
6) What is Ben Cooper trying to do with Radio 1? His mission is to make BBC Radio 1 a radio version of Netflix, allowing a new wider audience for the BBC.
 

7) How does he argue that Radio 1 is doing better with younger audiences than the statistics suggest? Cooper remains under pressure to bring the age of listeners of BBC Radio 1 down. The target is 15- to 29-year-olds, the average is 32. 8) Why 

 

8) does he suggest Radio 1 is distinctive from commercial radio? He suggests that the difference is the amount of songs available through Radio 1; radio 1 has 4,000 songs available while commercial radio contains roughly 400 

  

9) Why is Radio 1 increasingly focusing on YouTube views and digital platforms?

They are increasingly focusing on Youtube views and digital platforms they believe that the younger audience are more engaged with Youtube and therefore things such as radio are becoming less popular, they believe if they focus on this it will bring a wider range of audience.

 

10) In your opinion, should the BBC’s remit include targeting young audiences via Radio 1 or should this content be left to commercial broadcasters? Explain your answer. 

 

I think they they should leave the content for commercial broadcasters because the younger generation are less likely to listen to Radio 1 as there are so many other places where they can such as spotify or youtube.