Radio: Introduction to radio

 Introduction to radio: blog tasks

BBC Sounds

Read this Guardian feature on the launch of BBC Sounds and answer the following questions:

1) Why does the article suggest that ‘on the face of it, BBC Radio is in rude health’?

On the face of it, BBC Radio is in rude health. It has half the national market, with dozens of stations reaching more than 34 million people a week. Radio 2 alone reaches 15 million listeners a week and for all the criticism of the Today programme (“editorially I think it’s in brilliant shape,” says Purnell), one in nine Britons still tune in to hear John Humphrys and his co-presenters harangue politicians every week.

2) According to the article, what percentage of under-35s used the BBC iPlayer catch-up radio app?

Although millions of young Britons continue to tune in to traditional BBC radio stations, Purnell says just 3% of under-35s use the iPlayer catch-up radio app, which will soon be axed

3) What is BBC Sounds?

“The BBC produces great audio and they’ve got the marketing muscle to use BBC Sounds to introduce podcast listening to the large numbers of people who haven’t done that yet,” says Matt Deegan, a consultant who writes about the radio industry

4) How do audiences listen to radio content in the digital age?

The very best stories are fundamentally anchored around the personal experience. You’re trying to find the human in the machine. Journalists have a process but younger audiences can find that very cold and want to access the actual response of human beings. They really want to understand the heart of the story.”

5) What does Jason Phipps suggest is important for radio and podcast content aimed at younger audiences?

One of the UK’s most popular podcasts, My Dad Wrote a Porno, “wouldn’t have been commissioned anywhere in the past” because it is “too outlandish”, Phipps argues.“We need more brash, funny, intelligent podcasts,” he says, saying the format’s intimacy is the reason why podcasts about “sex, relationships and erotic imaginations” have done so well. “It’s a perfect place to have uncomfortable conversations.”

6) Why does the BBC need to stay relevant?

"The world in which we offer this amazing idea called the BBC has changed exponentially over nearly a century and particularly in the last decade,” he says. “And because the BBC is really important and valued by licence fee [payers] it’s got to continue to be relevant. “Otherwise you leave the BBC set in aspic and increasingly irrelevant. If you believe in the BBC you have to let [it] flourish in spaces where it can have a greater public value than market impact. That’s what we seek to do: be relevant.”

Now read this review of the BBC Sounds app.

7) What content does the BBC Sounds app offer?

The big idea is that you download the app and then go to BBC Sounds for anything audio (apart from long-form audio books). Music, news, drama, documentaries, true crime, comedy – if you want it in your ears, you start with the orange button. The app lets you click through to any live BBC radio station, but it also offers you other forms of listening, from podcasts to playlists. You want music to cheer you up? Here’s a big beats hip-hop playlist “to keep you moving”. You’d like to know how Rita Ora made her album? Try this short behind-the-scenes doc. How about something spooky for Halloween? Here’s a selection of drama, music and stories. (Also a five-minute pumpkin-carving soundscape, and an explanation of why we carve pumpkins in the first place: I listened, it’s lovely.) All the BBC podcasts you might enjoy are here, plus a few non-BBC ones (Guilty Feminist, Griefcast). If there’s any you really enjoy, you can subscribe.The new button is orange, with a big S on it. This stands for Sounds. For, lo, the new app is BBC Sounds, and the Beeb is immensely proud. At the party, director general Tony Hall and James Purnell, director of radio and education, went onstage to talk about “responding to your tastes, your moods”, “playing with form and content” and “public service running through its veins”. Amazing what an app can do, really

8) How does it link to BBC Radio?
Sounds is easy to use, though I found the programme information a little tricky to access, and the search – as ever with the BBC – isn’t sensitive enough. (Looking for the new 5 Live podcast about the Waco siege, I typed in “5 Live Waco”, but only got old programmes). My other main problem is there isn’t enough content. “Spooky Sounds” only offered me 11 shows; “Be Curious” just 10. The BBC has thousands of amazing audio programmes! If you browse podcasts via, say, the Apple Podcasts app, you have 16 categories to choose from, and within each, at least 20 series to try. Sounds needs to feel as packed as Netflix in order to properly work.
9) What are the criticisms of the BBC Sounds app?

10) Two new podcasts were launched alongside the BBC Sounds app. What are they and why might they appeal to younger audiences?

To celebrate the new app, the BBC launched a couple of new podcasts, including the aforementioned 5 Live Waco series End of Days (make sure you use a capital D in search, or it won’t turn up: insert rolly-eye emoticon here), and Beyond Today, a 20-minute podcast that delves deeper into the big stories of the Today programme.

Devised and hosted by comedy writer Sarah Morgan, this podcast asks three questions of its guests: their favourite scary scene from film or TV; something that made them scared as a child; and a fear that they still have now. Guests include Richard Osman, Alice Lowe, Carrie Quinlan and plenty of others of the standup ilk; the chat is open and revealing. (Robin Ince is on the most recent Halloween Spectacular and is super lovely.) The sound production has improved a lot since The Fear joined Great Big Owl’s podcast offerings for its most recent series.