Station Policy, Play Lists, and Programs Broadcasted by Radio 1 - Essay Example

Radio Report Introduction The British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC is not only the most popular radio station in the UK, but also in other parts of the world as well. It is the oldest radio station in the world. Perhaps no other companies have as many local and international radio stations as BBC has. Virtually, there are no life segments that are not dealt by the BBC radio stations. Sports, business, education, weather, politics, economics, cultural news, and all other types of local and international news are handled with equal value by the BBC radio stations. Even though BBC has started its services in English language, it started to broadcast in 28 languages other than English recently. BBC has many local stations in different cities of the UK. Around 40 local radio stations are working in England and Channel Islands under the name of BBC. BBC Radio 1 was established in 1967 with an intention to broadcast popular music and other entertainment activities. The popularity and the rating of Radio 1 were extremely high until recent times. However, the popularity of radio 1 seems to be declining in recent times. “Radio 1 had 10.87 million listeners in the third quarter of 2008, up from 10.58 million in the third period of 2007. However, listeners tuned in for less time, with a fall in its audience share to 9.8% from a seven-year high of 10.6% the same period last year” (Plunkett, 2008). This paper explains the station policy, play lists, and specific programs that are broadcasted by radio 1. Also, this paper analyses how fully and completely does radio 1 provides access to culture, music and public service inspired ideas specified in its service remit Station policy, play lists, and specific programs that are broadcasted by radio 1 Unlike many other radio stations in the UK, radio 1 works on some unique policies. For example, radio 1 usually conducts roadshows with the DJs and pop stars in order to reach out even distant audience. The direct experiences received from the audiences will be broadcasted from 16:00-19:00 every weekday, with a 15-minute break at 17:45(BBC Radio 1, 2014) There are hundreds of programs broadcasted by Radio 1. A unique program of radio 1 is the breakfast show. It is broadcasting between 6:30 am and 10:00 am, Monday to Friday and is hosted by Nick Grimshaw at present. Dance Anthems, Xtra’s stories, Essential mix, Xtra live, chart shows such as UK singles chart (aired on Sunday afternoons) etc are some of the other popular shows on radio 1 (BBC Radio 1, 2014). Apart from regular shows, radio 1 airs many special shows and events time to time. For example, radio 1 has celebrated its 40 th birthday on 30 September 2007. In order to celebrate this occasion, a week long special show has been arranged by radio 1. Apart from the above mentioned programs, BBC Radio 1 provides alternative genres such as electronic dance, hip hop, rock, indie or interviews after 7 pm (Plunkett, 2008) How fully and completely does radio 1 provides access to culture, music and public service inspired ideas specified in its service remit? The programs on radio 1 are aimed primarily at the 15–29 age groups even though the average age of the UK audience in 2008 was 33 (Plunkett, 2008). However, some of the recent reports have shown that the average age of the radio 1 listeners is increasing day by day. “The commercial radio sectors trade body, the RadioCentre, claims the average age of Radio 1 listeners is 33, above the 15- to 29-year-old target age range specified in the stations radio service license” (Plunkett, 2008). In other words, radio 1 is currently struggling to attract teenagers or youth community even though its shows and programs are made for the teenagers in the age group of 15- to 29. At the same time, it should be noted that the average age of the radio 2 listeners is declining all the time. It is evident that the program producers or the DJs of radio 2 are capable of attracting more teenagers than that of radio 1. It can be said that radio 2 is becoming younger whereas radio 1 is becoming older as time goes on. Such a scenario is not good for the future of radio 1. Many of the Radio 1 DJs have faced sex crime accusations in recent times. For example, Jimmy Savile, one of the popular DJs of radio 1 in the past, had committed sexual abuse against people aged between five and 75 over five decades. DJ Dave Lee Travis is another person who faced similar allegations while working in radio 1 (Alexander, 2014). From the above incidents, it is evident that the rating and the popularity of radio 1 is declining in recent times. The DJs in radio 1 function independently and the program managers or the radio station managers have little control over their activities. There are many DJs, working for radio 1 who does not have enough knowledge in English language. According to Noel Edmonds, Jimmy Savile had no command of the English language. He couldn’t speak properly. He’d come out with those awful expressions like, Howzabout that then? and I used to wonder why he even had a job” (Alexander, 2014). Yet, he was able to serve radio 1 for a prolonged period. Even though Britain is a strong critic of international terrorism, radio seems to be having other ideas. The radio station has recently broadcasted an interview with an ISIS jihadist in which the Abu Sumayyah, the terrorist described terrorism as “quite fun” and just like Call of Duty. “A listener complained to Ofcom, stating the interview had “glorified terrorism”, as both the broadcasting watchdog and the BBC Trust launched an investigation” (Furness, 2014). The above incident clearly suggests that the radio 1 is functioning against its declared policies. It should be noted that the interviews with the terrorist would motivate teenagers in Britain to consider terrorism as a glorified act. Conclusions Radio 1 is not functioning in accordance with its declared policies at present. Many of its DJs face sex abuse allegations and many of its programs were unacceptable to the audience. Radio 1 management should enforce more control on the programs broadcasted through this radio station. . References Alexander, E. 2014. Noel Edmonds on Jimmy Savile: Its wrong to entirely blame culture of BBC – he was in deep with the Royals and Mrs Thatcher. The Independent. Monday 17 November 2014 BBC Radio 1, 2014. Player radio. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 [Accessed 19 November 2014] Furness, H. 2014. BBC Radio 1 breached Ofcom rules after ISIS jihadist compared quite fun murder with playing Call of Duty. The telegraph. 10 Nov 2014 Plunkett, J. 2008. Radio 1 slipping out of its age remit, warns commercial radio body. The Guardian. 24 October 2008 Read More