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: 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.
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.
6) What is Ben Cooper trying to do with Radio 1?
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 does he suggest Radio 1 is distinctive from commercial radio?
9) Why is Radio 1 increasingly focusing on YouTube views and digital platforms?
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?
The title connote that they both give advice on things.
2) How are the programmes constructed to appeal to a youth audience?
The programme bases the issues and the things around teenager's lifestyle and mental health concerning around teenagers.
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?
Past radio stations could be stereotyped into simply utilizing white moderators, this shows how BBC have advanced in the feeling of decent variety and portrayal. The mix of their various personalities causes them to speak to the differing group of spectators the BBC are endeavoring to Target.
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?
There is an area for the life hacks webcast in which they talk about sex, connections, and emotional well-being issues which would interest a group of people of 15-multi year olds.
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.
The beginning of the digital recording, peppy music plays which matches the pace of the webcast and would speak to a standard group of spectators. They talk about themes on: self-perception, forlornness, tension or fits of anxiety.
Audience
1) What is the target audience for BBC Radio 1?
The target audience is 15-29 year olds.
2) Who is the actual audience for BBC Radio 1?
The remit of Radio 1 is to entertain and engage a broad range of young listeners with a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech.
3) What audience pleasures are offered by Life Hacks? Apply Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory.
The audience pleasures that are offered by Life Hack is personal pleasure. Some of the audiences that are listening to it may feel like it somehow in a way connects to their own story.
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?
'The chat was interesting: Stormzy explained his decision to set up a scholarship for BME candidates for Cambridge University.'
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.
Industries
1) How does Life Hacks meet the BBC mission statement to Educate, Inform and Entertain?
Life Hacks educate by giving the audience the advice. The inform bit is hone they were giving current situations and the entreating by having celebrities coming in.
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 has exceptionally 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 the UK.
- 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 BBC will be robustly held to account for doing so by an independent, external regulator. 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. It is also our job to scrutinise, measure and report on the BBC’s performance.
- Support regional and national audiences, and creative economies across the UK. For the first time, the BBC must spend broadly the same amount on programmes, per head, and make broadly the same volume of commissions, per head, in each of theUK’s four nations. By doing this, we are seeking to ensure that the UK’s nations receive a fair share of the BBC’s investment in network programmes. We are also requiring at least half of the BBC’s production spend on qualifying network programmes to be outside London.
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?
- Secure a more distinctive BBC across all its services – a central feature of the Charter –through a range of new measures. At least three-quarters of all programme hours onthe BBC’s most popular television channels should be original productions, commissioned by the BBC for UK audiences. There will be new requirements on Radio 1 and Radio 2 to play a broader range of music than comparable commercial stations and more music from new and emerging UK artists.
- Safeguard vulnerable genres such as arts, music and religious programmes. Our research shows these areas are important for some audiences; but some are in decline. We have therefore confirmed higher requirements for BBC One and BBC Two to show programmes in these genres, including a new requirement to broadcast during peak viewing times. With BBC Three’s move online, we have also introduced a regulatory condition to safeguard the provision of comedy on BBC One and BBC Two for the first time.
- Support a wide range of valued genres. The BBC must support a wide range of genres across its channels and services, such as drama, comedy, factual programmes and different types of music.2 Ofcom expects the BBC to support valued genres, particularly those that have seen declining investment. We also expect the BBC to continue producing programmes on a broad range of established themes and interests –including but not exclusively programmes covering politics, business, consumer issues, rural affairs, health, disability and social action. We will monitor the BBC’s output in a variety of ways to ensure it meets its public purposes and provides a broad range of programmes across its services.
4) What do you think are the three most important aspects in the a-h list? Why?
Require the BBC to reflect the full diversity of the UK population. We are requiring the BBC to put in place a new commissioning Code of Practice for Diversity, approved by us, by April 2018. This will ensure that on- and off-screen diversity considerations are embedded in the commissioning process. We will also ensure the BBC is publicly accountable for achieving its workforce diversity targets. It must now report in detail on its progress towards these targets each year.
5) Read point 1.9: What do OfCom plan to review in terms of diversity and audience?
Audiences should feel that the BBC offers something for them, however, our research shows that several groups feel that it does not adequately represent their interests or lives. We will take into account the outcomes of the review as we shape our future oversight of the BBC, and we will take further measures where needed to ensure that the BBC is delivering for all its audiences.6) What is Ben Cooper trying to do with Radio 1?
“I want Radio 1 to be the Netflix of music radio,” he says.
7) How does he argue that Radio 1 is doing better with younger audiences than the statistics suggest?
8) Why does he suggest Radio 1 is distinctive from commercial radio?
“Are we distinctive from commercial radio? Yes we are”,We will play something like 4,000 different tracks a month, commercial radio plays about 400."
9) Why is Radio 1 increasingly focusing on YouTube views and digital platforms?
This would be a much better idea as they will attract more of a younger 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 feel like that they should leave that content to be left to the commercial broadcasters. This is because teenagers are very less likely to listen to radio.
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