Heart FM Radio Example

Heart FM : 102.6 or 97.4

© 2011 Global Radio UK Ltd.

'More Music Variety'.

Typical Heart FM News reel, and various adverts:

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BBC RADIO OXFORD RESEARCH

BBC RADIO OXFORD REASERCH

Theories in News Clips

The first news segment was international and national news. We provided this for our listeners so we could create some interest for people outside of Oxfordshire. For example the International news at the time concerned Tunisia - which effected a lot of people and had worldwide interest. With the mentioning of the Tunisian President gives the story an element of Elitism highlighting the importance of the people involved and how powerful people such as politicians and celebrities can influence the decisions of others. Also, the Tunisia story is an on-going story, as many people from the UK had been effected, so this could possibly an area we could have asked the listeners to feedback on the story and give their thoughts. 

The next story is about the search for Joanna Yates's Killer, and how her family are pleading for information on the case firm anybody who thinks that they could help in any way.This news story has great elements of simplicity, in the way it is presented - we decided to do this, so we could get the information across easily to the audience without confusing them we details they did not need to know. Also this story may relate to many listeners, and creates human interest, as people may understand and have sympathy towards the people involved in the incident.

In the next news segment, we talk about a local Kidlington Pub being under new management. I think this was a fantastic story to include as it would really grab the attention of the local listeners. It was also great to get the vox-pop with the pub landlord, which was staged, however we did it to interest the listeners. It was important to have a news story linked to the village because it gets people involved in something that they can relate to. 

Final Task - (Coursework)

FINAL PEICE (COURSEWORK)

Preliminary Task (Coursework)

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How I Contributed To The Planning Process

How I Contributed To The Planning Process

When it came to the final piece of coursework, it took many hours to prepare, including background and radio research. The timeline, story research, and preliminary exercise also took a considerable amount of time. If we did not take this amount of time on planning and preparation for the final piece, I am positive that we would not have got the high quality result that we got in the end. It was essential that we took our time organising who was going to do what and how we wanted to radio show to sound. In the end, we were all happy with the end result.

I made sure that I was involved in the research of other local and national radio stations, so I was sure how they were presented, the layout and the typical traits and conventions of a local radio show. I listened closely to Oxford’s Heart FM and local radio Jack FM to identify the typical traits of local radio that came up in the show. This was really helpful, as it allowed us to use some of their techniques in our radio show to good effect.

Before we could start our final piece, we had to complete the preliminary exercise. We had to create a shorter version of the radio show. This was a really valuable exercise, as it really helped us get used to the equipment and the structure of a radio show. I was heavily involved in this task as I did the background music, organising the structure, trying to make sure we stuck to the time limit and making sure everything ran smoothly.

Once we had our final project recorded we did a timeline for it to make sure that we had enough material to cover the five minute time. This also helped us analyse our project for any mistakes that we wanted to change.  

Media Radio Timeline

Timeline:

Jingle - 0:11
Intro - 0:08
Competition description - 0:16
Effect - 0:02
News Headlines - 0:18
Local Oxfordshire News - 0:48
Effect - 0:02
Local Weather forecast - 0:18
Effect - 0:02
Sports Update - 0:33
Introducing song - 0:13
Song - 0:20
Voxpop - 1:00
Introducing news story - 0:15
Effect - 0:02
News with Voxpop - 0:35
Effect - 0:02
Final Round up - 0:21
Song Clip - 0:14

Total time: 5:48 minutes.

Media Evaluation Questions

Media Evaluation Questions

1.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my opinion i do not think that our media product does represent a particular social group. However, we were inspired by local radios such as Jack Fm and Heart Fm. But, we also listened to the way in which radio 1Xtra presented their shows, and what type of music they played. We took quite a relaxed approach towards our radio show which was resembled the style Heart FM. I do believe though that we are more suited to a listener that likes and is interested in a variety of music.

The way we presented the show in the majority was quite in-formal, we thought that this would be a good option to use to make us ‘easy to listen to’. For example we came together as a group and discussed the type of radio we liked to listen to. We all had the same sort of choice and preferred the more laid back approach. However, we did make sure we were formal when it came to the more serious stories and when it came to the news stories.

The music played on the radio show was a mixture of pop and UK urban music. However if were to carry on with the show – i am sure there would have been a huge variety of music played on the show, to make sure we do not segregate our audience and give everyone something they like to listen to. Anybody who likes a wide range of music would in my opinion enjoy the show. I believe we got this from BBC Radio 1 because they play so many different types of music.

People who would listen to the show on a regular basis would probably be around the age of 11-40. As the music varies, i would not feel that the radio show is aimed at any particular social group. If i was forced to make the choice i would have to say that the show would be aimed at young/middle aged adults and teenagers – this is because the majority of the music will be the music that is in the charts with a blend of old and new music fused in.

2.       What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Because our radio show is a local radio show, i think it would be best for our radio product would be best suited to a global radio label. I think it would be good to be under the same sort if institution as Heart FM. We would like to think that we have the same sort of structure and offer the same sort of variety – this would also depend on the right management of the show, and the way it is advertised.

After researching companies such as ‘global radio’ they seem to take on a variety – and plus they boasted their strong portfolio of brands, which would only help the radio show.

Looking at Jack FM’s website, they are sponsored by a company called ARI consultancy who own a variety of radio stations, with the likes of Jack FM, who play they music they think is appropriate, and another radio station called ‘my-fm’ which is aimed at females of the age of around 35-49 year olds.  I do think that our radio show Shoot Fm would fit well in both of these institutions. As Shoot FM offers a great variety of music, and have a quite alternate approach i believe that any of these companies could be a suitable home for Shoot FM.

3.       Who would be the audience for your product?

I don’t think we have a specific audience, because the type of music we would play, and have played – i believe the radio show is open to anyone who is prepared to listen. However, as i stated before if i had to choose i would have to say that the station would be best suited to an audience of around 11-40.

We took a very friendly approach towards our audience as if we knew them, in order to gain their loyalty and create a solid listenership so they want to keep listening to the station. After listening to local radio stations such as Jack FM, and listening to their laid back approach we wanted to keep the same sort of vibe and keep our media product friendly. We did not want to have the same formal and serious style of the likes of BBC Oxford.

I would have loved to aim the radio station to every single person in the area, however because of the existence of radio stations such as BBC Radio Oxford and other more serious and formal radio stations who aim there shows at an older audience, so i would assume that older listeners would rather listen to those radio shows . Reasons for this may be: the topics discussed on the shows, the type of music played, and the way that they address their audiences. I did not want our radio show to be anything like this because i myself find these stations quite boring to listen to, because you do not feel a connection with the presenter and the lack of music and entertainment played on the show. This could simply be because these shows are aimed at an older audience.  

4.       How did you attract/address your audience?

We tried to have a very friendly approach to the radio show, so that that audience could relate to the audience and almost welcome them into listening to Shoot FM. However, we made sure that when we had to be serious, for example in the news stories, we were formal, which i believe is the right thing to do.

As far as attracting our audience, we played music that was in the charts at the time to lure them into listening to good music. Also we did the mystery guest segment, which included a clip of Rowan Atkinson – who plays Mr Bean. We took a clip from his show, and gave the audience a chance to call in and tell us who the mystery guest was to win a chance to meet the celebrity. We got this idea from radio station such as Heart FM and BBC Radio 1. We used many techniques to try and keep the audience interested, for example – topic shifts, keeping news stories flowing and a not going into too many personal conversations, to make sure that the audience do not get lost and keep in the loop of the show.

5.       What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

During working, creating and editing this radio project I believe i have learnt a lot about how radio shows work and what goes into structuring radio. By doing this, it has really helped me get to grips with the software that i was using too, which was Logic Pro 9. I used this program because it allowed me to record and edit audio at my pleasure and make my jingles and intro’s etc.

After recording the audio, we had to do quite a bit of editing and had to equalise the vocal audio. I added compression on the voices to make the sound of the voices tighter as if it was recorded in a studio environment, and with the vox pop’s i added reverb to make it seem as if they were recorded in different locations and not in a recording studio. I also had to record road noises to create the vox pop. I recorded this separately to make sure that they did not go over the voices and make them sound muffled.

A lot of editing took place with our jingles. I had to add auto tune to the voice, put several filters on the audio and use the tools on the software to add echo and reverb to make the sound as professional as we could.

After adding in the background music which i created, and added in the jingles and other effect, we had to turn up the actual vocals – this made it easier to hear what we were saying and it allowed us to pick up any faults that we would have made and that could then be fixed.

6.       Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think we really transformed our radio product in our final piece from what it was in the preliminary task. Our preliminary did not include any effects. I think we added a lot more detail in our final task and paid a lot more attention to detail with the way we addressed our audience. I believe our final task is a lot more like a local radio show and was of a much higher standard overall.

We also included other people in our broadcast to create a sense of reality in the radio show. Also we went outside to record vox pops, which were not included in the preliminary task, to record digitise sounds which were then mixed into the final production.

As I listen to our preliminary task now, it seems very urban compared to our final task which i think reaches out to a wider audience. We used a really different approach in our final task to relate to more people.  Also because we had to create a longer piece, we needed to include a lot more information and learn how to elongate stories which we previously shortened in the preliminary task. For example our news stories had to be longer, and we had to keep our audience interested for a longer time, so we used songs and other specialist segments to keep them listening.

In the preliminary task i think we were too laid back and the show and we didn’t really pay attention to any main news stories. I think this was because we did not really structure the preliminary task and just recorded it straight away.  For the final five minute task we stuck to the script and structure we had agreed on – however, whilst keeping the show as real as possible.

Overall I was really happy with our final task. I think it sounds very good and does sound like some of the stuff you hear on the radio. I think we used the resources available to us to great effect and created a really good radio show.

Media Evaluation Questions

Media Evaluation Questions

Evaluation Questions

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our Media project is based on a local radio station to us called 'Jack FM'

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/ address your audience?
• What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
• Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progerssion from it to the full product?

Media Evaluation Questions

Media Evaluation Questions

Evaluation Questions

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our Media project is based on a local radio station to us called 'Jack FM' 

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/ address your audience?
• What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
• Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progerssion from it to the full product?