Radio Industry Review; RC LO1.1

Learning Objective 1

1.1 Critically review the organisation and regulation of the radio commercial production industry.

‘The radio industry is a generic term for any companies or public service providers who are involved with the broadcast of radio stations.’ [Wikipedia, 2013, Online]

Radio broadcasters can be broken into at least two different groups:

Public Service broadcasters are funded in whole or in part through public money. This may be through money received directly from the government, or, as in the UK, through a license fee. The license fee is typically protected by law and set by the government, and is required for any household which contains equipment which can be used to receive a TV signal.’ [Wikipedia, 2013, Online]

‘Commercial broadcasters (also called Independent Local Radio in the UK) are largely funded through the sales of advertising spots on their radio station. Commercial stations are often quite local, and may have some Public Service commitments within their permit.’ [Wikipedia, 2013, Online]

‘In the UK, the radio industry regulators Ofcom are looking to establish a third tier of radio, called community radio. These radio stations will be fairly small and run by community groups.

Commercial radio stations make most of their revenue selling "airtime" to advertisers. Of total media expenditures, radio accounts for 6.9%. Radio advertisements or "spots" are available when a business or service provides valuable consideration, usually cash, in exchange for the station airing their spot or mentioning them on air.’ [Wikipedia, 2013, Online]

‘The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), part of Radio Centre Ltd, is the marketing body for radio, funded entirely by the UK Commercial Radio industry. Our aim is to share Britain's love of radio with advertisers, and to help them use the medium more effectively and creatively.’ [RAB, 2013, Online]

So therefore in basic terms radio in the UK is broken down into public service and commercial radio. Public service radio is provided by The BBC and is purely funded by the TV license that is required to be paid by anyone that receives a TV signal to their household. The BBC is there and they simply just give us what we want, music. Unlike commercial radio which is all about generating revenue from advertisements, public service radio is all about the people and what they want and they will aim to reach everyone within every market from any angle.

However commercial radio is only interested in making capital and to do so they will make us listen through 3/5 minutes of advertisements followed by the same loop of music that is set and must be played to us in order to make more money. Most commercial radio stations are given a set songs that must be played so many times within one day as they have a contracts that are made with record labels in order for them to get the most airtime and they have a set system that they have to stick too where public service radio really has the freedom to do what they want with the airtime they have been given.

 Advertisement is where commercial radio stations generate the most of their revenue which is why it plays such a huge role with the structure of the shows that are broadcast.

Sources; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_industry Wikipedia, 2013, Online.

http://www.rab.co.uk/about-us Radio Advertising Bureau, 2013, Online.