Evaluations

The first show we created was Subcity, this was aimed towards the target audience of 15 to 25 years old. Our show target audience is similar to radio 1xtra. Knowing this Charlie and i did a lot of primary and secondary research based on this station. Charlie and me went to the bullring; we chose this location because we knew our audience was more likely based in this area. We asked 100 people to fill out questionnaires for our primary research. I then did the secondary research where I looked at Rajar figures for 1xtra and radio 1, along with looking at viral youtube site like UKFdubstep. This site has an enormous fan base; which gave us more incentive to create the show. Then James did the focus group. 

The research we did was invaluable when it came to looking at techniques radio 1xtra uses for play list selection, mode of address and content. When listening back to the show, I felt that we captured the essence of radio 1xtra, however putting our own twist on it.  Charlie, Adam and myself, regularly discussed on Skype what should be the next step for subcity. Planning our marketing strategy to create a bigger audience.

When looking back at our research and it was obvious that creating a cross media radio station was the right step to take. We created a youtube page, facebook page and email accounts for our audience to have interact with us. The youtube page stood out for me the most on this assignment because of its rapid success in a short space of time. Charlie, Adam and me managed the youtube page, which we took very seriously and professionally. I feel we created a light hearted atmosphere on the site with wacky viral video, which we knew would appeal to our target audience such as, dubstep bogey, Craig dancing to dubstep and subcity behind the scenes.

The video content that uploaded is really where subcity gained most of the audience views and feedback. We currently have 121 subscribers and 22,000 + upload views. I created the background layout, business cards, pictures and the logos as part of the marketing design for the page; which Adam and Charlie finalized the decision to use. Adam did a fantastic job of securing the HMV sponsorship by going down on numerous occasions to collect DVD's and money, which will then be donated to charity. By having the backing of HMV and CIN was excellent because it meant that people took us seriously and didn't just assume we were going to do a small student radio show, but something professional. 

Talking about how the show went, I believe that my role was fulfilled as sound manager of Subcity to a high level of quality and professionalism. Adam and I me listened to all the playlist back, writing down the levels for tracks, idents and beds beforehand for the show. Charlie enforced lots of practical runs, which was good for me to learn microphone placements for the different presenters.

Listening back to the show there wasn't a lot of popping or distortion, however it did peak at times, but we had a compressor which a eliminated this sounds. It really showed how smoothly everything ran on the day because of the amount of practice we had and how Charlie ensured that everyone knew what they were doing.  Adam, Charlie and I finalised the playlist, I made the beds and created the original idents, however were later changed by Adam, due to unforeseeable changes. I was unsure about the feature for subcity, which was an interview with Aaron Snipe a local DJ. I was optimistic of having this as a feature, however it turned out to be real success with Aaron proving to be a great guest.

The other show we created was the Mojo show, which I produced. This show was based on the same target audience age of 15 - 25, however aimed at different specific genre of music, being acoustic and live performance. I told everyone to do the same research they did for Subcity, but this time for the Mojo show this time.

One of the biggest weaknesses with the show was that we left its creations 2 weeks late, which automatically put the Mojo show on the back foot.  I feel because of this I didn't get the support and input from some member of the group as I have of liked.

I was hoping that everyone would get involved, because we had a group meeting on what style of station we wanted and everyone agreed; I assumed people would be more enthusiastic about creating this show.

Charlie went out asking 50 people to fill out questionnaires again and the feedback was extremely positive. I feel the primary of secondary research was successful implemented to the final content of the show by script, content and presenter style. When writing the script I found out that the audience was very educated in their knowledge of music. Because of this I made sure there was a lot of in depth debates that the presenter would follow the style of radio 1 presenter and mode of address, which was set as informal and light heart. The presenters voice would have lots of bass and EQ as typically seen on a big radio station to make the presenters voice sound more dynamic. Their tone would be calm and relaxed as this was more fitting for a lunchtime show at 12 - 1 pm. When writing the script I put lots of improvised debates of 30 sec too 2 mins in duration, making the presenter speak more relaxed, fluently and giving them the chance to use banter. The topic I choose for the presenter to use were things like Ucas, money, nightlife and events, which were topic that our target audience could relate too and interact with. 

The greatest achievement in this assignment, was when I organised a live band to come in and perform.  I also got students from college to perform a live acoustic set which I then record to in order to playout as feature. I also use this content as part of the show cross media platforms on the Youtube and Facebook, to create attention. Adam and me spent three days organising the whole thing making sure the equipment and studio was booked out, baring in mind this was the first time we had ever recorded music, I think it went fantastic and came out with great high quality content. 


There weren't many radio station specialising in the same style as us, most of them were based on the internet which is good because our show is being streamed on the ustream. The convention of the station i looked the most was radio 1 and the live lounge feature, looking heavily at the presenter style, formate and content. My finding show that the playlist selection is vital as the audience is very musically intellectual. 

When listening to the final show it sounded okay, however in the radio studio there was an extreme break down in communication, no body was listen to the producer. I felt the script was easy to understand and follow. I told the presenters two days in advance to read the final script and if they had any issue with the script to talk to me. However this issues weren't raised until during the show, which was extremely frustrating and unprofessional. I think that I did well to time the script as we finished on the hour exactly, ignoring the song we had to play for ustream. By using the conversation and back up songs that I could take out of the script at any point, gave me the perfect flexibility to ensure the show would end excalty on the hour.  I had a stopwatch during the show to calculate how long we had left in the final show. I forced to take out one of the song, as we were over running by five mins. 

I was happy with my involvement in both shows. Personally I found myself drawn more toward the subcity show, that’s where most of the group main focus and interests, lied.  I did realise the responsibility of making the other show and tried to do my best to get it to as a high standard of subcity, but found it was hard to get people involved and found myself doing a large portion of the work. I think that both products were amazing and the audience figures were fantastic for subcity, which were a credit to the team and Charlie the producer. I feel we hit the nail on the head with the two very diverse radio show creating the appropriate tone and content selection for both.