Broadcasting Blog - Peter Doherty
Cambridge 105:
Website: https://cambridge105.co.uk/
Cambridge 105 is a commercially funded community radio station for the city and South Cambridgeshire. They started broadcasting on the 19th of July, 2010. you can listen to the station on 105FM, on digital as part of the Trial Cambridge Multiplex and online. Cambridge 105 is a voluntary, non-profit organisation. They’re not registered for charity, but operate with charitable aims and are recognised as doing so by the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation. Cambridge 105 are funded by a mixture of of advertisements and member donations.
I listened in to Cambridge 105 on the 11th of December from 09:30 until 10:00. The show that was on air was ‘John Gannon’s 60’s Scene’.
The presenters style is one of a friendly nature. He’s your guide through the 60’s and all that it has to offer. This, in my opinion, is a great thing. However, the music that he selects is very hit-and-miss. Being open to everything lets the things that people had forgotten - for a reason - come back into view.
I would say that their market position is firmly on the older end of the spectrum. Let’s say 55+.
The radio sweeps are robotic for the 60’s scene show. Quite jarring. It could be that they sound this way in contrast to the show that I am listening to? Cambridge 105’s position, to me, sits in ‘old-peoples home’ position. But, once again, this may just be the show that I’ve tuned in to. The specialist shows that are advertised are country, folk and soul - they all lean in to OAP territory. There is an ‘urban bass line’ show on at 7-10pm on Friday night, however.
John Gannon talks after every song. There’s no room for the music to flow, but from a producers point of view it establishes a sort of friendship with John. It is a nice and cheerful feeling when he talks. The information that he speaks on is all relevant and applicable to what he plays. He is knowledgeable in his chosen area - very information heavy. I do feel that the show could potentially benefit from songs being played back-to-back.
The structure of the show follows this lineage - song-talk-sweep-song-talk-sweep. It can become a bit repetitive, but I could see how it would become familiar being a constant listener to the show.
Overall, I enjoyed listening in. It’s most definitely a community station - by the community, for the community.
Athlone Community Radio formed in 2006. It’s ‘not for profit, but would serve the interests of their clients and general public of Athlone’. ACR was granted a temporary broadcasting license in March 2008 and received a 10-year Broadcasting Community Radio Sound License in January of 2011. The majority of presenters are volunteers - of which they have more than 60. The station has some paid staff, a full-time manager and marketing officer and all are funded through various government schemes such as Community Employment, Tus - a community work placement scheme- and Jobs Initiative. The station works ‘closely with community groups and organisations in the area giving them air time to talk about their work’.
I tuned in to Athlone Community Radio from 08:30 to 09:10 on the 13th of December. Benny Cunningham was presenting his ‘Brekkie Fix’ at the time.
I was welcomed by a groggy sounding presenter that sounded as if he had just woken up along with his audience. A laidback aesthetic was firmly in place. The Brekkie Fix begins at 8am and ends on a one-and-a-half-hour ‘St. Mary’s Parish Mass’ from 09:30 to 11:00. This, according to the stations website, occurs Monday to Friday. Lots of religious programmes are on the stations schedule, including: ‘The Faith’ from 11:00 to 11:30 on a Tuesday, ‘St. Hildas’ on Friday at 12:00 to 13:00 and ‘Athlone Methodist Church Service’ from 11:00 to 12:00 on Sunday’s.
It seems to me that the final show ends at 6pm every day. Quite a lot of the talking points on the show revolve around charity work and things like the St. Vincent de Pauls and Samaritans. It’s very personal and community driven. It reminds me of my time at CRY(Community Radio Youghal).
The station is sponsored by local businesses such as the Athlone Credit Union and Bonavox Hearing Specialists - I think that this says a lot about the average age of the listeners.
The music selection, because of the time of the year, leaned heavily into Christmas territory. It was requested by the listeners! The songs didn’t flow, they stopped and started out of nowhere.
“It’s all about you. Athlone Community Radio”. The branding is all about the listener and how they can be helped by the community that they live in. In an article written by Jody Berland named ‘Radio Space and Industrial Time’ she mentions that ‘Radio announcers are instructed to address their audience in the singular, never as a mass, and to establish a mood of friendly companionship to the listeners, who are often assumed to be predominantly women’ (Berland) Benny is great at speaking to a specific person. He also has a warm aura - his bass heavy voice helps with this.
Aspen Waite Radio
Website: https://www.aspenwaiteradio.com/
I’m a little confused as it says on their website that Aspen Waite are ‘proud disruptors of the accountancy market with every service you need under one roof from marketing and media to tax’. Are they marketing advisors? Media moguls? Accountants? 10am sees Craig Arthur’s show with ‘Real Music. Real Business’. I cant seem to find any information on the actual radio station. However, Aspen Waite area service provider of accounting and audit, tax credits, tax advice, corporate finance, business recovery and more.
I’m kind of surprised that a company/business of this kind has a radio station at all? And, in all honesty, it’s not bad. I tuned in at 07:50 to ‘Breakfast with Nathaniel Warren’. He’s young, fresh, energetic. A rush to your Friday morning all the while remaining professional. The station is appendaged to the ‘Educate. Entertain. Enjoy’ sweep that plays. There’s a balance of music and talking points.
The show has a clean aesthetic. Compared to a community station, it’s squeaky clean. Sanitized.
The music that Nathaniel plays ranges from alternative to folk/country. his ‘recently plays’ looks like this: Nirvana ‘Lithium’, Foo fighters ‘Love Dies Young’, The Jam ‘Eton Rifles’, Weezer ‘Say It Ain’t So’, Duran Duran ‘Hungry Like A Wolf’, Johnny Cash ‘(Ghosts) Riders in the Sky’, Brenda Lee ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’.
i think that this station is targeted at an audience somewhere in the 30 to 40 age range. Predominantly male. The 40-minute chat about the World Cup that ensues bolsters this claim.
The station is on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. All the giant tech platforms. You’d expect this from a marketing and media business. I’m going to say that Aspen Waite radio is a commercial radio station considering that it is part of a money-making service/business.
Overall, Nathaniel has been very listenable. They spent a large chunk of time chatting about the World Cup, but made it engaging. The station, as far as I could work out, is bordering talk radio and any kind of music that the presenter feels like playing. I mean, it’s 08:50 and the World Cup segment is ended with Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’. A jump-start to the morning commute if there ever was one.
Perth 96FM
Website: https://www.96fm.com.au/
96FM is Perth’s first commercial radio station. It lunched at 4pm on Friday the 8th of August, 1980 according to their website. It is owned and operated by Australian Radio Network and was formerly part of the Fairfax Media and Village Roadshow networks.
From the ‘recently played’ list, it veers into rock and pop radio territory.
I tuned in at 10:00 - 18:00 Perth time. It was the Kyle & Jackie-O Hour of Power. According to the news it was 29 degrees down under. Feeling jealous is probably not the best start to this part of the assignment. 96FM’s website feels like it has a bit of everything - news, social media stuff, there’s even a ‘Health & Beauty’ section of their site!
The show sweeps have a real bass-y voice to them. It asserts dominance. They’re short and sweet - to the point. The show gets off to an 80’s start with A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me’. Easy listening, which falls in line with the post-work 6pm ethos. The presenters are sticking to the Hour of Power with back-to-back-to-back tracks. 15 minutes in and there has been no talk to speak of. Other sweeps across the show are all flogging items. ‘Low prices for life’, ‘barbecues for sale’ etc. It’s summertime on the other side of the world. This is unapologetically commercial radio. I think that I’ve counted 7 sales pitches in a row. Make that 8.
I feel a bit hard done by with regards to the naming of the show. I’ve realised that there’s almost no chance of it having ‘presenters’. It should just be called the ‘Hour of Power’ - drop the names beforehand. Using the presenters names is ultimately misleading. It gives me a bad sense with respects to the station. Maybe I’m looking at it from the wrong angle, but I feel as if they’re not being transparent in a way. They’re also playing Ed Sheeran.
I’d say that the market position of the station hits the 30-40 demographic. Their website and choice of music smells of ‘I’ve spent 20,000 on Christmas presents and now I’m going to complain that I have no money’.
I can’t guarantee that I’ll listen to the station ever again. There’s a hint of deception that I can’t quite put my finger on? My jealousy of the 29 degree weather may be coming through slightly.
Trent Radio CFFF-FM 92.7
Website: https://www.trentradio.ca/
CFFF-FM are funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Trent Radio is a producer-oriented broadcast facility, that started as a Trent student club in 1968. Sponsored and designed by students from Trent University, Trent Radio Incorporated as a registered charity Community Broadcast license in 1978, and is a resource that’s shared with the Peterborough community.
The show that I tuned in to was called ‘Smooth Operator’. It’s not what it seems, however. It is quite literally what it says on the tin - announcements and recorded student PSA’s. Drug warnings and cleft-lip advertisements. It is all pretty ‘smooth’. I imagine TV ads specifically made for care homes to sound like this. Lullabies about art spaces and coins for sale.
The website looks lik it hasn’t been updated since 1968.
From the announcements that I heard in the 30-minute that I tuned in for, I’m going to say that the average listener would be in the ballpark of 50-60. Although it was started by the Trent University Student Club in 1968, I get the feeling that the same students run the station o this day. A most definite community feel. Sporadic. It feels like the people on the show don’t expect anyone to take any action with regards to what they have to say - down-and-out in a way, carefree in another. The station is all over the shop. A country song comes on out of nowhere. I felt as if I was losing my marbles. From a producers perspective, this is either a well-executed and well-crafted joke, or a day at the office gone horribly wrong. You have to listen in to see what i’m saying!
Overall a slightly crazy listen, but I think that this is the point. A crazy package and within this, a crazy product. Eric Norberg’s ‘Radio Programming: Tactics And Strategy’ states that ‘The structure is the “package” into which the “product” - the radio station - is put, and it is the package that defines any product’. (Norberg)
I think that the package and product are one with regards to CFFF-FM.
RTE 2FM
Website: https://www.rte.ie/radio/2fm/
Under the Broadcasting Act 2009, RTE is dual-funded; this means that RTE is part-funded by a license fee and part-funded by commercial revenue i.e. advertising income and other commercial activities. Both sources of funding are necessary to allow RTE to fulfill its public service remit.
The majority of RTE’s activities are of a public service nature. The cost of providing these services, however exceeds the amount of license fee revenue which RTE receives. As a result, RTE engages in commercial activities to bridge the funding gap.
The presenter is up-beat. Diarmuid O’Brien from 12:00 to 12:40. Lighthearted. Energetic. He uses the faders to speak over whatever is playing in the background - not the best technique, but some love it. It plays into the hands of ‘radio cliche’ in my opinion. It makes things sound quite choppy and very up-and-down sonically. The show uses long links full of information such as upcoming gigs at Christmas time - the listener has their chance to win tickets, for example. The transitions into songs are quite smooth. The sweeps are short. The music selection sits in the realm of unoffensive and cheesy pop - East 17 and Ellie Goulding pave the way.
RTE, being pretty much the BBC of Ireland, run a similar race of ‘Ratings by day, reputation by night’. Having tuned in to RTE at night on multiple occasions, I think that it’s fair to say that the ethos previously mentioned is well and truly adhered to.
I think that this particular show exists so that people tune-in, tune out, so to speak, and leave it on in the background. The inoffensiveness of the music is fir for said purpose.
Be up-beat to attract listeners and be inoffensive to keep them!
Jazz FM
Website: https://planetradio.co.uk/jazz-fm/
Jazz FM are part of Bauer Media Group. As of September 2022, the station has an audience of roughly 470,000 listeners according to RAJAR. As the station name suggests, the show that I tuned in to ‘Nigel Williams Saturday Show’ certainly played jazz. It’s the kind of station that you kick your shoes off and put your feet up to. An almost guided meditation-like experience. The presenter is fairly smooth. Probably not old enough to have been of age when the likes of Miles Davis and Coltrane were doing their thing, but he is very knowledgeable on the scene, as you’d hope and ultimately expect. “The finest in soul, jazz and blues”.
The transitions between song and talk segments are seamless. The free-flow of the show is admirable. However, this may just be the style of the music that ir being played. The calculated yet relaxed nature of the material is coming through in the way the show is run. Keeping things moving on a soothing swing is high on the list of the shows priorities. The links are brief and also keep things moving.
I’ll estimate that the listenership of Jazz FM is ranges in the 55+ ball park, although the ‘cool’ aspect of jazz is more than likely to also pill in younger listeners.
WICB 91.7 Ithaca
Website: https://wicb.org/
Established in 1947, the station is owned by Ithaca college based in Ithaca, New York. It is operated by Ithaca college students. They are the colleges only FCC licensed, non-commercial educational station that broadcasts from the tip of Ithaca’s South Hill 91.7FM. WICB stands for: ‘W’ meaning they are East of the Mississippi river and ‘ICB’ means Ithaca College Broadcasting.
The station serves Tompkins County and beyond, reaching from Northern Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, with a potential audience of over 250,000.
You can find WICB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The shows presenter, ‘Ben’, is in his 20’s and decent at what he does. He plays listenable music - some gems, even. The show is kept tight and is served with a happy demeanor. It can go 6 or 7 songs before a word or sweep is spoken/broken into. It’s a very different kind of approach to radio in the UK. It feels very polished. Squeaky clean almost to a fault. The links are not rushed. They’re jovially breezed through.
Every song is mentioned which signals to me that the presenter has carefully picked everything that he plays. I respect this. A nice selection is played from contemporary rock to more electronic pop. The branding is that of a college radio. Sometimes featuring advertisements for upcoming shows and other times featuring PSA’s about college life and such. The show that I tuned in to had a nice balance of musi, sweeps and presenter interaction.
I think that the secret to this stations success, considering it’s been on air since 1947, is that it has all corners covered. Rock, pop, electronic etc. The flow is impeccable.
References
Berland, J. (no date) Radio Space and industrial time: Music formats, local ... - JSTOR, JSTOR. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/853500 (Accessed: December 21, 2022).
Norberg, E. (no date) Radio Programming: Tactics And Strategy. Read at the David Goldman library, University of Sunderland.
