LICA 201: WORK PLACEMENT
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF LOCAL RADIO?
HOW DOES A LOCAL RADIO SEGMENT THEIR AUDIENCE?
INTRODUCTION
Until the 1970s the BBC had a legal monopoly on radio broadcasting and Independent Local Radio in the United Kingdom did not exist in any form apart from pirate radio stations. However, that changed with the election of Edward Heath’s government followed by the introduction of commercial radio (Reynolds, 2007). I had the opportunity to work in the local commercial radio station for Cumbria: Lakeland Radio and in my time there I did a research on: What is the role of local radio and how do local radio station segment their audiences? My work in the radio included audio editing, trimming and scheduling finished pieces and helping with live broadcasting. Those aspects gave me an opportunity for an insight in the way the production and sales team work, the way commercial local radio station functions differently from a national one and when it comes to my help with the broadcasting, it gave me a chance to see what their audience thinks. As someone who is an international student in this country and who was very well familiar with popular names such as BBC Radio 1 before coming here and listening to it online, I was interested to witness the process of radio broadcasting from a smaller and more different radio station. In addition to that, for the unfortunate events of the floods in Cumbria, Lakeland radio reached out to local businesses in Kendal, Grasmere and Keswick and I had the opportunity to participate in the live broadcasts and to have another insight of their communication not only with local listeners and tourists but with local businesses as well, whether they did or did not advertise on the radio before. The aim of this report is to evaluate the role of radio stations and assess the methods they use to segment their audiences, how they target the people listening to them and how they communicate with the local community, being a source of entertainment and a successful advertising platform. …show more content…
I will be looking at statistics about local radio, data found in literature research and with the use of research methods like observation and interviews I will assess the role of local radio and audience segmentation through the qualitative data I have gathered in my work experience there. THE RADIO STATION Lakeland Radio is an Independent local radio station that is based in Kendal and broadcasts to other locations around it - Windermere, Keswick Forrest and surrounding villages. The last two were added after in 2013 when they extended their broadcast area (Martin, 2013). They broadcast on three frequencies and also have a web player. With their first air date in 2001, they are a radio owned by the CN group that is also a sister station with North Lancashire’s local radio – The Bay. Lakeland radio is defined as an Adult contemporary radio station that specialises in broadcasting local content, music, speech levels and local and national news bulletins. (Lakeland radio, n.d) LITERATURE REVIEW In her book Understanding the Local Media, Meryl Alridge (2007) titles the first chapter with the phrase – “Life is global, living is local“, and talks about the importance of local media. In Lakeland radio there is a segment named: “Live local, think local, shop local” that is a donating commercial airtime campaign about the local businesses affected by the floods. With these two quotes I can support the argument that despite the popularity of national radio stations like BBC R1, people still listen to and rely on local and community radio stations for the pure reason of receiving information relevant to the people in the area they are …show more content…
The overwhelming majority of radio stations include local news in their bulletins. More than 90% of stations update their local news at least every half hour at the crucial time of breakfast listening and update their local news at least every hour through the day. 60% of all news stories on local stations are about local issues, whilst 92% of all stations feature local news on their websites. “(RadioCentre, 2011 p:12
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF LOCAL RADIO?
HOW DOES A LOCAL RADIO SEGMENT THEIR AUDIENCE?
INTRODUCTION
Until the 1970s the BBC had a legal monopoly on radio broadcasting and Independent Local Radio in the United Kingdom did not exist in any form apart from pirate radio stations. However, that changed with the election of Edward Heath’s government followed by the introduction of commercial radio (Reynolds, 2007). I had the opportunity to work in the local commercial radio station for Cumbria: Lakeland Radio and in my time there I did a research on: What is the role of local radio and how do local radio station segment their audiences? My work in the radio included audio editing, trimming and scheduling finished pieces and helping with live broadcasting. Those aspects gave me an opportunity for an insight in the way the production and sales team work, the way commercial local radio station functions differently from a national one and when it comes to my help with the broadcasting, it gave me a chance to see what their audience thinks. As someone who is an international student in this country and who was very well familiar with popular names such as BBC Radio 1 before coming here and listening to it online, I was interested to witness the process of radio broadcasting from a smaller and more different radio station. In addition to that, for the unfortunate events of the floods in Cumbria, Lakeland radio reached out to local businesses in Kendal, Grasmere and Keswick and I had the opportunity to participate in the live broadcasts and to have another insight of their communication not only with local listeners and tourists but with local businesses as well, whether they did or did not advertise on the radio before. The aim of this report is to evaluate the role of radio stations and assess the methods they use to segment their audiences, how they target the people listening to them and how they communicate with the local community, being a source of entertainment and a successful advertising platform. …show more content…
I will be looking at statistics about local radio, data found in literature research and with the use of research methods like observation and interviews I will assess the role of local radio and audience segmentation through the qualitative data I have gathered in my work experience there. THE RADIO STATION Lakeland Radio is an Independent local radio station that is based in Kendal and broadcasts to other locations around it - Windermere, Keswick Forrest and surrounding villages. The last two were added after in 2013 when they extended their broadcast area (Martin, 2013). They broadcast on three frequencies and also have a web player. With their first air date in 2001, they are a radio owned by the CN group that is also a sister station with North Lancashire’s local radio – The Bay. Lakeland radio is defined as an Adult contemporary radio station that specialises in broadcasting local content, music, speech levels and local and national news bulletins. (Lakeland radio, n.d) LITERATURE REVIEW In her book Understanding the Local Media, Meryl Alridge (2007) titles the first chapter with the phrase – “Life is global, living is local“, and talks about the importance of local media. In Lakeland radio there is a segment named: “Live local, think local, shop local” that is a donating commercial airtime campaign about the local businesses affected by the floods. With these two quotes I can support the argument that despite the popularity of national radio stations like BBC R1, people still listen to and rely on local and community radio stations for the pure reason of receiving information relevant to the people in the area they are …show more content…
The overwhelming majority of radio stations include local news in their bulletins. More than 90% of stations update their local news at least every half hour at the crucial time of breakfast listening and update their local news at least every hour through the day. 60% of all news stories on local stations are about local issues, whilst 92% of all stations feature local news on their websites. “(RadioCentre, 2011 p:12