262 Blog Task 1

Blog Task 1a

The point of local radio is to create a close relationship between the presenter and the viewer. The viewer receives more useful information relating to the area they live in, instead of a more overall view of the West Midlands, for example. Local radio stations can give more information on local news and weather, giving school closures due to weather conditions and traffic and transport information on local roads/trains. They also showcase local sport and entertainment news, so people in that area know what might be going on at the weekend or in a few weeks, they might say what’s on at the Belgrade for example, or if there are any exhibitions on at the transport museum. The point of local radio is to keep the community in that area up to date and connected.

The target audience for BBC local radio shows are 50 years or over, but there is also a wider audience group who may just be interested in local issues. BBC Coventry and Warwickshire reaches 14% of the population of Coventry. (99 out of 690,000), which seems like a very low percentage. However, the BBC local radio shows have 7.2 million listeners a week. (17.3% of adults in England). With 1.3 million people only listening to these local radio shows.

BBC local radio stations are more focussed on the community and hold debates, whereas mercia, or touch’s priorities are entertainment, so they play more music and have more of a chatty show. BBC local radios have a slightly more serious approach and only talk about things happening within the local community.

Click to access local_radio.pdf

Blog Task 1b

Greg James – Rage Against The Answer Machine

Greg James is on BBC Radio One from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, the target audience for Radio One is 18-24 year olds, so, naturally, there is a lot of music during Greg James’ show. He keeps the talking light hearted and minimalistic. At the start of his show, he does a 10 Minute Takeover section, where the audience write on the Twitter and Facebook pages which song they want played on the show and the people are picked at random, the only reason a song wouldn’t be played would be if they couldn’t find it on their system. This is great audience interaction section, getting people hooked right from the start of the show, it also gives a variety of different songs and gives the shows producers and researchers a chance to see what type of songs their audiences are listening to, giving them a better idea of target audience.

When we come back to Greg after each song, he tries to link with something coming up later on in the show, so he will say he is going to reveal a joke, but later on in the show. He also says the news will be “right after this song” when in fact, this doesn’t happen until 4 songs later.

The types of songs played during the show are quite new and in the top charts, these are songs like Lilly Allen – Somewhere Only We Know, (which is currently 4th in the UK top 100,) Alesso – If I Lose Myself (which is like an undiscovered track)  One Direction – Story of my Life (which is currently 3rd in the UK top 100.) So this fits in nicely with the target audience. Greg also plays a song that he specifically has picked and likes. This song is called I Lost Myself, by Sivu. He asked for the audiences thoughts on this track, bringing the listeners back into the show. He reads out some tweets and comments after the song has finished. This is just after half way through the show, so the listeners don’t feel forgotten.

The longest bit of dialogue between the presenters is near the end of the show, when Zane Lowe joins Greg James and Chris in the studio, they talk about a song Chris and Greg did called Mulled Wines by Father Chris Smith. This is a mock version of Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. This adds a touch of comedy to the end of the show, and also introduces the next presenter nicely.

After this little conversation has ended, Greg James plays another song and then introduces the line up for the evening, signalling his time has come to an end. He says goodbye and plays a song, which is where Zane Lowe will enter the studio. Playing a song last adds a nice crossover between the two shows.

http://www.officialcharts.com/music-charts/

Blog Task 2.

Ellen Terry Actress:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dame_Ellen_Terry

Ellen Terry (27 February 1847 – 21 July 1928) was an English stage actress, who became famous  in 1874 for her different roles in Shakespeare plays, along with other classics. Her entire career lasted nearly seven decades.

The story:

We could try and find some of Ellen Terry’s relatives and get them on the show to discuss her, they could give us all sorts of information on the life she lead and the person she was. We could get them to take part in a fun reenactment of a famous play she once did. We could then also link this to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and see if they could do an Ellen Telly tribute night.

John Lennon and Yoko came to Coventry to plant acorns:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2008/05/28/john_yoko_feature.shtml

In June, 1968 John Lennon and Yoko Ono came to Coventry to submit a piece of art at a sculpture exhibition at the Cathedral. They were to plant 2 acorns enclosed in a white iron circular bench, so the tree would grow inside of the bench. The acorns were planted in easterly and westerly positions to symbolise the meeting of John and Yoko, and also to show the piece and reconciliation Coventry displayed after the second world war, but it all went wrong when the bench was planned to be moved to a different part of the cathedral by event organisers. Somebody also stole the acorns and the plaque. So Lennon sent someone to collect the bench, probably in an attempt to forget Coventry ever existed.

The Story:

We could try to find the acorn thief, or ask the people of Coventry if they had ever heard this story and what their thoughts on it are, whether they think it actually happened and how truthful the story is. We could try and find somebody who saw Yoko Ono when she revisited Coventry some years later.

Coventry twin cities:

http://www.coventry.gov.uk/directory/25/twin_towns_and_cities

First twinned with Volgograd, in Russia during the 2nd world war. It was the first twinned city in the world. They joined because of the battles faced in both cities during world war 2, both cities were turned to rubble due to German forces. Town twinning was invented to create friendship and understanding between different cultures and to act as a peace barrier to countries who didn’t always see eye to eye. It was also invented to encourage trade and tourism and in later years it has been use to form international business links between cities.

The Story:

We could try and find out some more information on how cities are twinned, could completely base our show around a different Coventry and get a Skype interview with someone from that city, asking if they know about the Coventry in the UK.