Asda FM -
Asda FM Live has 4 presenters, with live music being played 24hours and streamed from Leeds to all the Asdas around the country. However on Friday and Saturday night a play list is broadcasted with dance and urban music and on Sunday the play list is gentle to soothe hangovers, this leads me to believe that it is a just a play list pre-recorded with no DJ presenting.
Tuesday 2pm, music is very relaxed however a feature/advert comes on shouting about a deal on Nintendo’s, it becomes quite a shock and feels uncomfortable. VERY DIRECT! And straight back to relaxed music.
The DJ’s voice is very relaxed and chilled he talks as if he is talking to a friend, I immediately think his target audience is mothers around the age of 25-40 as he gives tips about Sunday dinner and Asdas gravy.
The station uses many features such as ‘Carol Vordermans Big Read’ exclusive to Asda Fm along with key messages which are broadcasted twice every hour as in a study I found a woman will spend an hour on average every time she goes into a supermarket this means they will hear this update about 4 times whereas most normal radio stations will do updates every 30mins or on the hour. On average I would say two songs are played then a advert about Asdas products and then a quick introduction by the presenter to the next song along with a idea for a recipe or a different product on sale, however its not being forced to the audience its quite easy to tune out of the talk.
Like every other radio station they have their own unique indent to the show which gives it a more professional feel as well as using sound beds. Just as other radio stations they include a variety of new and old songs with the producers choosing the play list based on the demographics of their audience and even though just being a supermarket radio they are able to challenge larger radio stations to play a song first such as Gnarls Barkley’s Number 1 hit Crazy, it was played on Asda FM live before any other.
Pauses are about half a second and not used to create tension but to let the audience know of a change of topic or product or song.
Their audience base is mostly in store customers which on a weekly basis is 18million listeners including 1000 that chose to listen at home this means that the presenter must be satisfying a wider audience that originally presumed and that the listeners at home enjoy the music, presenting style and the update of the shops sales.
The presenter is a reprehensive of Asda and does he best to represent a relaxed, friend kind of feel, if he was to be shouting at the audience or being disrespectful customers/listeners would associate Asda to be like that instead of relaxed. He speaks quite slowly which is a contrast to other presenters like Chris Evans, I think this is because he is broadcasting information and understand that being played as back ground music listeners may not be giving the show 100% concentration therefore speaking more slowly to seem chilled and let them absorb the information without excluding them, however I feel his voice is quite flat and it feels like he is unexcited and possibly bored. He doesn’t use inflection in his voice, he keeps his voice at the same level throughout the sentence which makes he seem quite dull.
I think the producer chose to use one presenter at a time so that conversation wouldn’t break out as this would defeat the point of Asda radio being there to comfort their listeners and not to provoke them into deep thought or to engage into a conversation, they are simply broadcasting to advertise the products in the shop and not to entertain.
Overall I think ASDA FM live is successful radio station as they manage to satisfy their audience as well as attract out of store attention which overall is still attracting customers and a fan base, it was very clever idea to have another level of advertising to a shop. And the thought into the play list and use of features and times of day proves a lot of thought and research has gone into the production of this radio station which the design brief originally for it would have been keep the customers happy and sell more products.
The Chris Evans Breakfast Show -
The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is a very different take to radio than the Asda FM, as this is for audience who chose to tune into the show as they wake up and get ready and commute to work. He offers updates on news and the headlines from the papers as well as regular sports updates, immediately you can associate that with being more targeted at adult men than any other audience. Most of the news is sports related whether its serious or funny news.
Chris doesn’t present the news himself instead after each topic he offers a light hearted comical comment. But this follows his style of being honest and comical.
Also he asks for audience participation in his show including wanting them to go on his website to watch his videos of the challenges him and his co presenters do along with other ways to get the audience involved. In comparison to Asda FM where they are trying to please their audience is every way and make themselves come across as positive as possible however Chris Evans is sent a text about talking a little quieter he reads it out and then shouts NO, he does this as the persona he has taken on is very honest and comical and it’s the reason why his audience enjoy listening to him. And compared to Asda the only thing Chris Evans is trying to sell is himself.
He talks very fast showing his excitement, maybe in the topic or to be enthusiastic because its morning time however when talking to guests he asks the questions really quickly but also he quietens himself quite a lot compared to his normal tone I think this is not to steal the limelight from his guest but the excitement shows his true interest in the topic allowing the guest to feel more comfortable and talk more, this shows true professionalism in Chris as a presenter as he can also ask questions to the guest whilst divulging information to the listener.
There is 3 presenters and all cut each other up and talk over, it feels like a normal conversation as this is what happens and also allows the audience to feel apart of the conversation. The topic is always changing however it feels scheduled instead of natural, however they are always interesting and entice the audience to think.
He uses a very upbeat sound bed during the conversation of the presenters which gives it a level of professionalism however to add dramatic effect to the fact that they have a celebrity guest speaking on the show the sound bed is removed and Chris quietens and all attention is on the guest.
Chris uses pauses to frame his show, he uses after a topic has finished a hole second is used before he’ll start talking or play music, this lets the audience understand that there is a change in topic, feature or music. Pauses are usually used for this purpose but I feel they are more noticeable in the Chris Evans show.
Morning shows should be constantly changing to keep the audience interested and also research shows that in the morning listeners concentration is at its shortest during the day therefore the music shouldn’t be too loud and suitable to there target audience and time of day along with features to keep the audience interested.
Chris’s presenting style is indirect toward the audience but very direct toward his guests also he shouts a lot and this makes him sound excited and enthusiastic especially in the morning however its quite uncomfortable but he does have a mixture of informal and formalness.
His voice is rather high pitched and occasionally he deepens it to show his control over the variety of his voice, also he has upward inflection, which could be seen as loss of breathe however it does it more often when asking a question to the audience.
The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is successful towards its target audience of commuting adult men in the morning, with the updates of sports and news and the topics of conversations. However I personally find that he is too loud and that there is too much talking for me in the morning however the professional standard that the BBC has set, Chris manages to keep this standard at its best and that he cannot be faulted for.
North Cotswold Community Radio - Caution: May Contain Jam.
This radio station is a local station, run by different ages throughout the week. I’ve chosen to do a show called Caution: May Contain Jam! Which is produced by two 17 year old lads who attend a local high school.
The show starts at 5pm and lasts till 7pm, and I tuned in at 4.55pm to hear a group of people with only one presenting but all messing around and not realising they were broadcasted, this immediately let me know that it wasn’t going to be professional. And at 5.00pm Andy Russell one of the two main presenters told the audience that his co-presenter would be 15mins late and he wouldn’t start the show without him and he would just play music, in the real world of radio he would have to continue and keep up with the schedule. Straight away he introduced the first song which was a RnB song, however it contained swear words, half way through the song they began to notice the swearing and began to cut the song, however they just turned the volume down on the swear words and then back up, also there was no apology afterwards. After this the co-presenter showed up and they began the show as if it was 5.00pm and played the introduction to the show and eventually I felt like it would become professional however the introduction became the sound bed before they cut it out and continued to talk. Not using sound beds showed that it does take away an element of professionalism and in our show we will use them and make them appropriate to our target audience.
The main presenter Andy Russell has an unusual voice similar to Chris Evans which makes it interesting to listen to. Also Andy is able to play around with his voice including his pitch where he is able to make his voice quite high whilst keeping it melodic and soft. He uses an upward inflection which I also feel helps add an element of excitement without shouting. Also his style of presenting is informal with most of it being indirect. Some areas are direct such as where they ask the audience to get in touch with the them.
I don’t think they understand their audience as the variety of songs doesn’t follow a certain genre and I don’t think this is intentional, I think its simply because they don’t know who their audience is or how to satisfy them so instead they have decided to play music from RnB to Reggae.
Also midway through a song the presenters just decide to cut it off and broadcast one bit of funny news and also decides to say “blah blah” when giving the news. This was very unprofessional and even when delivering the news it is indirect and informal. The audience wouldn’t know that this was scheduled, factual news, also they continuously talk about their local school and local people however if they wanted it to be a local show then local news and weather would be a brilliant iea.
Lots of the codes and conventions of professional radio are broken during this show such as no use of sound beds and letting a pause of longer than 3 seconds repeatedly happen.
However this is only a local small radio station not a professional insitute and therefore can only do their bests using their skills of presenting and music.
We hope to broadcast a show which includes soundbeds, effects and features to near professional standards.
