Once I decided what I wanted to base my radio show on, I knew what my target audience would be. As I created a sports show, I knew my target audience would not be a particular age or gender, but instead would be for general sports fans, and as my show would predominately cover Football, Football fans would be attracted to it mainly. As I knew what my target audience would be, that had a great effect on how I wrote my script, as I knew every little detail would have to be designed in order for the audience to enjoy the show. Ultimately, writing the script made me realise that, even though the creators of radio stations pump a lot of money into keeping the stations at the top of the game, the listeners are the decisive factor in whether a station is popular or unpopular, of which could lead to the deterioration of a particular show. If a show no longer appeals to its audience, then it becomes less popular and will end up being scrapped for something else. Therefore, I knew that in order for my radio show to sound authentic, it had to be scripted to suit the audiences needs. An example of the effect the target audience had on my extract was that, because it is a local radio station (based in London), the majority of the audience would most likely be supporters of London-based Football clubs. Therefore, these listeners would want to hear news about their club, otherwise they would feel that their club does not receive enough coverage if their is significant news about their club that could be told on a radio station. Therefore, I scripted stories about Barnet FC, Arsenal FC, and Chelsea FC, to give an example of how my radio station would consider the audience when deciding the content told in the station. I also looked on RAJAR which analyses the audience numbers of radio stations, and who their target audience is. I also looked at character of service sheets on Ofcom to understand radio stations in greater detail.
How did you attract/address your audience?
In order to understand what it is that attracts an audience to a radio station, apart from the content of the show, I listened to various different radio stations such as talkSPORT, Heart and BBC Radio 2. Despite the stations having different target audiences, different types of shows, and different content, I noticed that each of these stations do have things in common. For example, they all have well-known people as their presenters at certain times for the day, for example, Ian Wright on talkSPORT, and Emma Bunton on Heart. They all advertise their own station more than they advertise anything else, and they all engage with their audience to a great extent. I considered each of these three things when planning my radio extract, and I implemented the first two points into it, with the use of made-up famous ex-professional's, and the advertisement of my station's coverage of the upcoming Football matches. However, I did not implement the last point, which I ultimately believe, as a listener of various radio stations, that, depending on the station, engaging with your audience ultimately attracts an audience. talkSPORT would not succeed if it did not have people phoning in to talk about whatever they want, as it would be a bit boring listening to Stan Collymore and only Stan Collymore for a couple of hours straight, despite him having very interesting opinions. The point I am making is that radio stations have a disadvantage in that for most stations, the audience can only hear, and cannot see. Therefore, in my honest opinion, Radio lacks where other media outlets such as Television thrive. Therefore, as an audience member, Radio needs added entertainment where TV may not. On talkSPORT, there is nothing more entertaining than an angry, drunk Football fan calling in and complaining about their teams performance and the referee because, not only is it funny, but it is enthralling viewing. The same can be said about Heart. On weekdays, it is boring as a listener when Emma Bunton and Jamie Theakston talk during their morning slot, but it is entertaining when Emma is competing with a random audience member on a Quiz that the audience can get involved with and test themselves on, with that person having the chance to win a very handsome prize. Ultimately, the thing that attracts the audience the most is, in essence, the audience itself, as radio can often be seen as the link between every person/listener.
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