LO1 Task 1: Investigating a radio station

Programme types -

Sheffield Live! is an independent community radio station, which means it operates different to a commercial radio station and BBC. It is owned by the Community Media Association. Sheffield live produce programmes such as Communities Live, Spirit of the Wapentake, Soul purpose, The Local Talent Show, Vancouver Manoeuver. Communities Live is broadcast most weekdays from 12pm to 1 pm. Different groups of volunteers produce and present the show each day, providing a wide mix of styles and subjects for discussion: local and national politics; music and art from Sheffield; community events, and much more. The goal is to cover anything and everything, especially if it is relevant to Sheffield. It is a great place to put topics in the spotlight, and people are encouraged to contact the Communities Live team with ideas. Spirit of the Wapentake is live every Wednesday at 5pm till 7pm, this programme plays the best rock music from the last 40 years or so as well as letting you know the latest rock news and local rock gig information, this show is broadcasted for the people who enjoys the genre of Rock music . Soul purpose  is a programme which plays a myriad of deep soulful emotive music including the deepest of deep house, soulful garage, jazz, funk, disco, hip hop, soul, techno and anything between, locally and from around the globe, this is again for anybody who enjoys these genres. The Local Talent Show features some of the best upcoming bands and artists from Sheffield and surrounding areas. It is broadcast every Friday from 4pm to 5 pm and is made up of a mix of interviews, music and live acoustic performances. Vancouver Manoeuver is laid-back West Coast Canadian guys with some awareness breaking good music from back home into the UK and putting it in perspective.

Genres -   
Most of the shows are music such as Vancouver Manoeuver, Spirit of the wapentake and Soul Purpose. These are all music shows, however they are different to the usual charts music which can be found on BBC Sheffield as these are shows which focus on one specific genre of music such as cultural music brought to the radio station by Vancouver Manoeuver. However there are other radio show such as Communities live which is a very local base show which talks alot about the community of Sheffield. Sheffield live also have shows about the news such as 'Business Live' in this radio show it includes business news, debate and interviews for anyone interested in growing or starting a business also including social enterprises. Guests include business people sharing their tips and advice on how they have overcome challenges and inspiration. Another genre Sheffield Live produce are a talk show such as 'Talking Balls' this is a radio show about sports in which they talk about the latest ports news and stories with interviews, previews and competitions.


Audience profiles -  

Sheffield Live!'s target audience are the local community of Sheffield, this is because their shows are based around the local people as they can get involved with some of the show just by volunteering, this means that the target audience is a wide range of people, this is also because of the variety of genres of shows that this radio provides us with. The target age are young adults and older, this is because there aren't any children's shows that are broadcasted as most of the shows are based on older subjects. I have created an audience profile for the show "Spirit of the Wapentake" which is broadcasted by Sheffield Live. The main target audience for the broadcast is people who are interested in rock music. The target age of this radio show is young adults and older. The target gender of this show are male, this is because people who like rock music are mainly males.

Production Process - 
Different areas of the production team work together to produce products by volunteering to help create shows, this is because Sheffield Live is a non profit community organization as it is for social gain which means that it is broadcast to for the benefit to society, this is done by producing or consuming a good service. Social benefit includes all the private benefits plus any external benefits of production consumption. If a good has significant external benefits, then the social benefit will be greater than the private benefit. Different people from the production team work on different things such as pre production, this is the part of the radio show where the teams organise the treatment for shows, Script for shows, Research (Cultures - Music), Team meeting organise schedule and production content, Organise PRS and stick to ethical guidelines, this is also the part where sound effects are made. After the production team has completed pre production they then begin with the production of the show this is the live broadcast which is of the presenters talking using the sound effects and interviews that were made in pre-production. Post production is where the live broadcast is edited through to make it run smoothly and also this is when adverts are added.

Market share - 
BBC radio Sheffield is a main competitor of Sheffield Live!, this is because this radio show is also a based around the local community and also are a big company which many people know about, this is a disadvantage to Sheffield Live! as the radio show will need to work harder to attract the attention of the local community which means they will need to broadcast a wide variety of genres in the shows to appeal to more people.