explain how popular music radio programmes target, reach and maintain a variety of audiences. Refer to BBC radio 1 breakfast show to support your answer (15 marks)


The uk radio industry is populated by both private and public radio stations: the private sector is dominated by global who own brands like Capital FM and Absolute radio, while the public sector is controlled by the BBC with its 11 national radio brands. The BBC is a public service broadcaster, publicly owned and funded through the TV license. As a result, their channels must meet OFCOM remit such as nurturing UK talent, addressing social issues and educating their audiences. This can be summarised by the retain values of inform educate and entertain. These values are important as the BBC Is not profit driven, and therefore must maintain audiences without using traditional commercial methods 

Radio 1s target demographic is 15-19 year olds, a challenging target given they makeup only 29% of the total radio listening audience. This is directly affected by the generation z audience being more likely to engage with personally curated playlists through sites like Apple and Spotify. One way radio 1 has tried to combat this is by introducing the BBC sounds app, first launched in 2018 whereby audiences can listen radio 1 on their phones and listen to the best bits of the breakfast show with greg James from previous days as well as other bbc content. This is complemented by an above the line tv campaign in which James reinforces the importance of the audience to the success of the radio show. the campaign was shown across the bbc tv stations in 2019/20 through a series of cross promotions achievable through the vertically integrated nature of the BBC 

the radio 1 breakfast show does not depend on commercial revenue, and has resisted calls for it to be privatised as it does not seem to fall in line with the free market the rest of the industry adheres to. It is much maligned for being a pop music station which is seen to be culturally less important than the content of its sister stations radio 4 and 3. Critics say music heard on Radio 1 can be heard on other stations, however, recent research has suggested that only 10% of Radio 1 content can be heard on its competitor stations from the likes of global and therefore it maintains its audience by providing new and exciting content.