LO1: Investigation of a radio station

LO1: Investigation of a radio station 

BBC Radio Sheffield

Genre - Local/ community radio
BBC Radio Sheffield follows the genre of a local/ community radio station.

Presenters
Due to the radio station including a variety of shows all covering different topics, there a large range of presenters. In order to fit the community radio genre and reach a wide and diverse audience the presenters are from a range of backgrounds, races, genders and ages. Each have their own use, for example younger presenters may be used for current sports segments and student news, whilst older ages for expert opinions on news segments etc. Examples of those part of Radio Sheffield are as follows: Howard pressman, Ronny Robinson, Toby Poster, Paulette Edwards, Rob Staton

Content 
Being a community radio station it features a variety of shows which cover a variety of topics to appeal to all ages and needs. Content of the station involves primarily local news and updates whilst also still including national news, travel, sports and weather updates. Furthermore, due to the public service provider having to provide content that's educational and entertaining, Radio Sheffield implements such content as text ins, phone ins from the audience to comment on a particular subject and special guests invited in. One example of this from the analysis of the a radio show is the guest of 'The Beast' from the popular tv game show The chase.This celebrity personality draws attention to the channel and provides a character which the majority of the audience will recognise. In addition to this, as with any other radio station there is all a heavy use of songs between shows and the scheduled content, all with varying genres to appeal to the wider and varied community. The content and shows of the station is also occasionally produced by others independently by wire free productions.

Ownership
The station itself is owned by the BBC, whom also own a variety of other stations such as Radio1, Radio1 Extra, BBC radio 4 and five, as well as other regional stations similar to that of BBC radio Sheffield. This is largely due to it obligation to provide content that is informative, educational and entertaining to the UK as part of its role as a public service provider. Meaning it is funded by the government and through the public paying Tv licenses, this is also means that the stations are not dependent on advertising as a revenue stream and meaning the content of radio Sheffield involves no adverts other than cross promotion of other shows etc.

Listnership/ Audiance

Listeners of BBC Radio Sheffield come from all walks of life. This large and varied audience of different ages and locations are as a result of the programing of the shows, with it featuring something for everyone whether it be for commuters or afternoon entertainment for students studying. The primary locations of listeners are those living in Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Parts of Nottinghamshire, as the signal broadcast by the Holmes Moss Transmitter reaches this far. However, the station can also be accessed online anywhere providing you have a Internet connection, making it available to anyone. Despite, this it still likely only has an appeal to a regional audiences due to the local news features and information etc. And according to RAJAR, as of November 2014 BBC Radio Sheffield has 276,000 listeners, which represents 21.2% % of the reach.

How people access it 

People can access the radio station via traditional methods such as FM radio on 104.1 or alternatively on DAB radio. This station can also be streamed via the BBC radio app or website making it accessible any time and anywhere providing they have an Internet connection. In addition to this, users can access past radio shows and listen as and when they want as the BBC Store the shows for a short period of time.

Funding/Advertising

As previously mentioned, the station is owned by the BBC whom is a public service broadcaster meaning it is funded by the government and public. Therefore does not rely on traditional methods of gaining revenue streams seen in other stations playing frequent advertisements.