Evaluation

Phresh FM Morning Show

When we were first put into our radio groups, I was quite worried at first because we had never really worked on radio properly before, some of us had only touched upon it in the FD, but at the same time I was looking forward to it because it felt like a new challenge. In the end I decided to evaluate the morning show as I felt I played more of a part in that one.


We pre-recorded our morning show and straight away, Jon accidentally messed up by pressing the wrong bumper. After having a moan we needed to forget about it and concentrate on the rest of the hour. Brett was one of the presenters and we introduced the guests, who were myself, Craig and Kris. After this though, I found that once we had got into our rhythm as a team, that we didn't really follow the codes and conventions of original/professional radio programmes. This wasn't helped by the fact that Jon forgot to play sound beds when the guest and main presenters were talking. I felt that if this was a real radio show in for example Radio 1, we would get into alot of trouble for not doing things professionally.

To introduce the show Jon played a 3 minute song right at the start of the show and used it to introduce himself and the show. I thought this was a fantastic idea because you don't hear this much often and it gives the effect to the audience that the show/presenters are upbeat and lively. This would also attract the audience rather than them hearing a load of talking first and making them want to switch stations.

Every so often, in between songs, Brett and Jon would bring up topics which would be talked about with the guests and presenters. We tried to make them interesting and top news which would relate to our target audience(teenagers to mid-twenties). Naomi was the producer of the show so she gave the presenters a schedule for the show which showed the topics that were to be talked about and when the songs were going to be played and how long they were.

I think it was later on in the show there was a minor disagreement between the crew which also involved our pre recorded quiz show. Brett introduced it and then Jon played it, but seeing as Gemma was in the quiz, she felt that Brett should have introduced her first before playing it, but it was already being played so obviously it was too late. We all thought that, if she felt like this she should have said something about it at the start of the show, but instead, herself and Naomi distanced themselves from the crew and basically sat at the back of the room, and made themselves void to the show really.

Other than that confusement, the rest of the show went relatively okay. Bumpers were played correctly to introduce Nathan's news every 15 minutes. I think though, that Jon should have used soundbeds when the presenters and guests were talking about a topic, or maybe also when Nathan was reading the news. A script would have helped because sometimes conversations became awkward where we didn't know what to say to introduce a song and we tried to avoid silence. I also feel that we should have picked topics that all the speakers could talk about, so everybody could have a say and then it would go into more detail.


So overall looking back at the project as a whole, I feel we improved alot but there were still some weaknesses that showed. I think our strengths were confident presenters with Kris in particular, and Jon. Jon was a great help because if something went wrong ie; a song wouldn't play, he would divert the silence by sparking up a topic, mainly about the song whilst we were trying to quickly sort out the problem. A weakness we had was that, the songs that we had chosen to play on our morning show were scattered across all of our iPods, so we had to unplug and plug iPods at a rush, but I made sure that the next song was ready on the iPod and ready to play when needed. I admit though, that we should have been more organised and maybe had all the songs imported onto one playlist on one iPod.

Features for the Radio Show

For both our radio shows we have about 7 features to play through out the play and only one of them is going to be live which will be the quick fire round

• Quick Fire Round

The aim of the game is basically to link words/objects/places together until someone gets stuck The presenter says a word, such as Apple, then the next contestant has to link it to something else, like Pear, or something totally different like the iPhone. The quiz ends when the other contestants cant think of a related subject to the last word that has been said. As this is a fast paced show that requires quick, smart reactions, we have decided to play this in our morning show so it'll wake up the audience.

• Pre-recorded Quiz

Gemma and Naomi started to think up questions that could be asked in a quiz which would require the other members of the team to take part. They also tried to make it so that the answers were all about different subjects so as that everyone that took part in the quiz had a chance to get a point. Apparently they found it quite difficult in finding answers, as most were hard or we couldn't think up enough to ask, the quiz though surprisingly ended up 9 minutes long. Jon was the presenter that asked the questions and it was, Brett, Kris and Gemma that was the contestants in the quiz.

• Guess That Tune

Many times I have heard a gameshow being made from a song that has be distorted, played backwards and basically messed with. So we used this as a starter to base our next gameshow on. Naomi, Gemma and myself made up this quiz, when editing it we played the song backwards instead of jumbling it all around so you just have to look out for key words in the song we have picked or the tune. The audience then call, text or come down to the studio if the know the answer.

• Children In Need Feature I

After doing some Children In Need Research, we come across all the past songs that had been made and released for the charity. So for our next feature, Jon and Nathan together got hold of all of the songs and then merged them into one song which lasts over 3 minutes but includes about 7 different songs. We decided to play about 30 seconds of each song before switching to a different one. This was done so that the audience recognises the songs from being related to Children In Need and what the new song will be and encourages the audience to buy the new track.

• Children In Need Feature II

Gemma and Naomi created a second feature for Children In Need, which is partly based on the NSPCC adverts that you so often see, and also when the main broadcast of CIN is on the BBC, they often play clips which raises awareness to the public, and this one raises awareness of the programme and how you should try and donate money towards the charity. On the official site of Children In Need, the girls found a clip of a little girl called Ellie who is currently in hospital, and has been for a while and she is only young. They recorded her speaking and then Gemma recorded herself asking for help and how the audience can help Ellie and others get better by donating and giving them better equipment.

• Where's Kris / Jon

This feature, like Quick Fire and Guess That Tune, gets the audiences brains guessing. Kris and Nathan had the idea about the two presenters on each different show describing a couple of locations as to where they are. We decided to do this as it's a challenging game because we only give away 2-3 clues for each location and so it's not exactly easy unless we give away big clues, which we don't. Like as before, the audience can either call or text in during the show if they think they know what the answer is.

Focus Group

On 1st November during Graham Coopers lesson, we held a focus group. We asked 6 people from the widest range possible, and they were aged between 16-19 and were mixed gender and different styles.

We showed them –

·         a 5minute clip of Radio 1 and what they thought

·         a pre-recorder rehearsal of our shows and what they thought

·         let them listen to a couple of features and note their reaction

·         give them a list of our draft playlists for both shows.

This is the reaction that we recieved:

Radio 1 – “lively”, “fun games”, “interesting topics”, “too much talking not enough music”, “me and my family all listen together in the car and find it interesting even though we are all different ages”.

Our show- “I understand the angle they are coming from”, “technically flawed”, “enjoyed the range of music”, “music felt right for the time of day they said it would be played” “presenter seemed different and he should be more original.”

Reaction to features-  Quick fire - they joined in with what they thought could be the next word, laughed. “I felt the quickfire round ended too soon but I joined in and had a laugh”

Guess that tune- “make the song harder to challenge audiences because that song was really easy”, “I like the idea of submitting my answer onto facebook because then I can ask for a song and look at the features it offers.”

Playlists- “they seem appropriate for time of day but the morning only has 6 songs in a hour!” “I like the idea of the news being every 15minutes as long as its not really long news cos that’s boring” “I really love the variety of bands in the afternoon show, I could sit with my friends who have different tastes and all enjoy it.”

We then asked them questions about our shows, presenters and the features that we had produced. Here are some opinions and quotes that we got from them:

1.       How would you compare our two presenters?

      “They have two different styles and they don’t connect with each other as one company” “Kris is a quick thinker and works well with his guests”

2.       Which presenter did you relate to and why?

       “Jon as I could wake up to him and stay awake, he has quite an unusual tone” “Kris because his topics and his opinion match me and my interests”

3.       How did you find their language and style?

      “Kris’ style fits in with the style of his show and so does Jon however they don’t fit as two presenters on one show” “Jon talks like he is a lot older, his language is a mega contrast to Kris who seems quite chavy”

4.       Features?

      “I really enjoyed Quick Fire but I wanted it to last longer” “I liked the quiz, it was long but I felt the questions were cool and the contestants worked well together”

5.       Do you feel the shows followed the company’s style?

      “The programs are so different” “yes I liked the morning chat and in the afternoon there was more music.”

6.       Did you want to get involved?

      “I played along, if I was in my car I would have aswell”. “The Quick Fire I will introduce to my mates, it would be well funny.”

I think that by holding a focus group, it gave us an understanding as to what our target audience enjoy listening to on the radio, and also what they want to hear. The points that they have made are relevant to us building on the show and improving it, like for example, making our Quick Fire gameshow last longer as our audience really did seem to enjoy it. By taking these points on board and taking them into consideration, our audience then know we've listened to them, and will take more notice and interest to our future shows.

Logo Design

This is the logo for “Touch FM”. It features the company’s corporate colours, which are red and silver. They have turned top of the letter H into a radio aerial just to add effect and also to attract the possible listeners. Below the text, there is a silver sub box with the wavelength in which the listeners can find the station on when tuning their radio. This logo has all the essentials to be upbeat whilst also being very informative as potential listeners can look at it and straight away will be able to know where to tune in to listen to it. It’s also not too complicated which means it’s easy for the human eye to look at and it’s not to in your face 

When you think of hearts, you automatically think of love and happiness, which is what the creators of this logo were thinking of when putting together this logo. The first thing I saw was that the letter A had been transformed into a heart, and the corporate colours are blended across the word “heart”. A tint of red when then fades into pink, purple and finally blue. This logo also features the wavelength in which the listeners can find the station on the radio. The colours that have been used across the logo really go well together and they look even better when they’ve been mixed into one fade across the word.

This is the logo for “KISS FM”. The first thing that I noticed straight away is that the end S is facing the opposite way, I think it gives the effect that the 2 letter “S”’s are kissing each other, hence the name”KISS FM”. The logo font is like cartoon/bubbly writing and gives helps to send a message to the listener that it’s a relaxed type of radio show which has a bit of laugh and also plays top music. If you look closely at the two S’s, when facing each other the bottom part looks like a smiley face and the top part looks like a heart. This is why the top part is pink and the rest of the text is a sort of grey colour. This is like a hidden message to the viewer which not everyone will pick but I find it really very clever.

Radio Analysis

The three radio stations that I decided to listen to was Radio 5 live breakfast phone-in, Matalan In-store radio and Classic FM. The three radio stations are very different to each other but also have some similarities hidden in them.

I chose to analyse Matalan radio because I work there, so I could get an idea of the different types of music they play throughout the day, or when I work. I first found out that Matalan don't actually have the correct license to play chart music etc, so they've had to use cover versions that sound just like the real thing. The only adverts Matalan do is to do with the new range of fashion clothing that's been launched or telling you about the website. There also isn't actually a proper presenter, it's almost as if the whole show has been pre-recorded on a play list and played over, which reminds me of when I recently listened to the Touch FM night show, the news was actually reported from "Sky News" and not Touch FM HQ. The lady who announces the adverts has a very upbeat tone of voice, and sounds very light hearted but serious enough so she can get her point across and try and promote the advert. To the music now, and Matalan radio played a variety of music, from old classic hits, to new up-to-date hits. I think this showed me that the target audience i.e the customers, for Matalan ranged from the younger generation, teens to the older, more mature generation. The pace of the show is rather fast, which songs being faded out and then faded straight into another song with no talking in between,  and this happens most of the time. Every so often there would be an Ident between each song which would simply say "Matalan", or one time I did hear "Thank you for shopping at Matalan". Seeing as this is a in-store radio show which customers listen to as they shop, I actually think its more convenient for the show to be constant music, then the customers can use it as background music as they shop and don't have to worry about listening in hard or missing something that may have been said and their full concentration can be on the shopping. But I think that the main purpose for the station is not just for backing music, but to sell products that have either just arrived, or that are on sale. I noticed that when the music is playing it's relatively quiet, but when the lady voice comes up, the volume is suddenly increased a fair bit. This is done to alert the shoppers and make them listen in to the offers that are currently in store. When something is being played at a quiet volume, and then all of a sudden someone starts talking loudly, it's a natural reaction to look up and take notice, or in this case, listen in. I think they've considered it well because the woman only talks once every 15-30 mins so its not constant talking. By setting it in 15-30 minute timeslots, it gives the new customers who have entered the store but not heard the announce, chance to hear it.

The second show I decided to listen to and analyse is the breakfast phone-in with Nicky Campbell on Radio 5 Live. This show is totally different to the Matalan radio because there is no music whatsoever. The basis of the phone-in is that the presenter brings up a topic that is in the papers and is big news, and then invites the audience and listeners to call in and debate about the topic, and voice their opinions. The talk show debate is actually fast paced because people are constantly talking over each other as they debate with one another. The presenter also takes part. On every single debate each morning after about 15 minutes there is an Ident which advertises 5 Live, and then it goes straight to the news, which is with a different presenter. This happens 4 times throughout the show, as the show itself is an hour long. There is no reference to music at all on this show, only reference to hot topics in the news and papers. The presenters voice is quite serious as they are all talking about serious stories, but he is not a boring mono-toned voice person. He often raises his voice alot when expressing his opinions when callers are taking part, and although the show is just all talking he is light-hearted. He tries to make the show interesting. The target audience for this show I think is upper class mature as most of the topics that are debated are to do with politics or upper class people themselves, such as the Prime Minister etc. Not all the time is it about politics however, sometimes they talk about top sport topics, or controversial celebrity stories, but most of the time it swings into the politics side of things. I feel that the purpose of this radio show, is to give the audience a chance to get involved for themselves. The thing that this show lets the listeners do is ring in and voice theirr opinions on the days topic, so it gives them chance to interact with the presenting panel and also argue with other listeners opinions. The show usually lets in 2-3 callers at a time, so they get the chance to argue their opinions with other members of the public, who are usually from the same sort of class as them, as well as the studio presenters. 

Questionaire for Audience Research

This is the questionaire that mainly myself, Naomi and Gemma came up with. We all chipped in to think of questions then Naomi and I typed it up. This is copied and pasted from the Word document...:

Audience Research-Questionnaire

WWhat is your age range? (Please circle)

16-18 18-21 21-25 25+

WWhat Gender are you?

Male Female

HHow often do you listen to the radio?

1-2 times per week 3-4 times per week Everyday

WWhere do you listen to the radio?

At Home At Work In the Car

 What time of day do you usually listen to it?

Morning Mid-Day Afternoon Evening

6. A) In the Morning what type of music would you want to hear?

Relaxing Loud Mixture of the Two

b) In the morning would you want travel and news updates every minutes? Yes no

7) in the afternoon would you prefer to have a mixture of all genres? Yes no

8) Where you would prefer to have more features played?

Morning Afternoon Same Amount in Both

What sort of music do you like listening to on the radio?

Pop/Charts DnB Classic Rock Dance RnB Indie

Do you like to hear regular news and travel updates? Yes no

Would you like to participate in games on the radio?

Yes no

How do you usually participate in Children In Need?

……………………………………………………………………………………………

What sort of content would you like to hear from the radio to raise money for Children In Need?

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Its not exactly best layed out as it was hard to do it on here, but you can see the questions and answers that we have provided for the people to fill out.

Children In Need-facts!!

BBC Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million.

2004

The 2004 event was held on Friday 19 November through to the morning of 20 November. The television broadcast was hosted by Terry Wogan and Gaby Roslin with the voice over being Alan Dedicoat.

2005

The 2005 event was held on Friday 18 November. The television broadcast was hosted by Terry Wogan, Natasha Kaplinsky, Fearne Cotton, Matt Allwright with the voice of Alan Dedicoat. The event raised £17,235,256 by the closing minute.

2006

The 2006 event was held on Friday 17 November. The television broadcast was hosted by Terry Wogan, Natasha Kaplinsky, Fearne Cotton and Chris Moyles with Alan Dedicoat reading out the money raised at various points. On average, the broadcast brought in 7.72 million viewers and raised a total of £18,300,392 by the closing minute.

2007

The 2007 event was held on the evening of Friday 16 November through to the morning of Saturday 17 November and was hosted by Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton, joined by other guest presenters throughout the night. The voice over reading out hourly totals was Alan Dedicoat. The event broke all previous records with a total of £19,089,771 raised by the end of the broadcast.

2008

For the 2008 show Terry Wogan returned, and this year he was joined by Fearne Cotton and Tess Daly as hosts, with Alan Dedicoat reading out the money raised at various points. Phil Lavelle co-presented with Konnie Huq. It was held on 14 November. The event broke all previous records with a total of £20,991,216 raised by the end of the broadcast.^[5]

2009

The 2009 show was held on the evening of Friday 20 November through to the morning of Saturday 21 November 2009 hosted by Terry Wogan, Tess Daly and Alesha Dixon. A concert was organised by Gary Barlow in the Royal Albert Hall. Artists who performed included Katherine Jenkins and Julian Lloyd-Webber, Taylor Swift, Pixie Lott, Take That, JLS, Robbie Williams, Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis, Annie Lennox, Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Paul McCartney, Muse, Paolo Nutini and Lily Allen. The event raised £20,309,747 by the end of the broadcast.

2010

The 2010 show will be held on the evening of Friday 19 November through to the morning of Saturday 20 November 2010.

In the logo of Children In Need it always features Pudsey the bear who wears a colored-spotted bandanna which wraps around and covers his right eye. Also with every year of CIN there is a song that is made and released which hopes to raise money for the charity by getting to number one in the charts. It is highly promoted on the radio and even on television to try and promote and persuade people to buy the record