Radio 1

I enjoyed the flash back to the way it was. This was my era! NOT!!I was never a great radio fan but to think we only had BBC Home, Light and the 3rd Programme. How did we survive! The stuffy BBC obviously did not appreciate the impact of the 60s and chose to ignore it whilst others saw the gap in the market and jumped right in. I remember Radio Caroline (28/3/64)and a young Tony Blackburn but I cannot remember which record of the Rolling Stones was played first - the programme did not give a hint.

The BBC then seemed to sulk and ban these commercial radio stations but they managed to survive using European Funding.

The BBC eventually got their act together and Radio 1 was born on the 30 September 1967. Tony Blackburn was poached from Radio Caroline and opened the show with "Flowers in the Rain". It really annoyed me that I could not remember who sang it but after the class one of my colleagues was able to tell me that it was "The Move".

PRODUCERS

Since then Radio 1 has gone from strength to strength. According to Piers Bradford and Will Kinder, producers/managers, this is because they have a specific audience and they cater for it. Their audience is in the 15 - 24 bracket and many of their staff fall into the same age bracket which works well.

The producer is really a manager who is responsible for bringing everything together - timings, music, guest bookings, specialist shows, documentaries etc. They are responsible for defining and targeting their chosen audience.

Andy Parfitt is in overall charge of Radio 1.

DJs

These are probably the most important "face" of Radio 1. The shows go out to the whole country and with this in mind, BBC have employed DJs with regional accents to appeal to all areas eg Chris Moyles (Leeds) in the morning.

Other DJs specialise in music for a wider audience (usually at night) eg Zane Lowe.

Each show has its own team who plan the show in conjunction with the DJ. As the DVD was shot in the afternoon, Chris Moyles' team had disappeared!

Andy Parfitt says they are allowed more freedom of speech than DJs on commercial radios but they have to fit in with the ethos of the station. He says radio is a team game and everyone is a good team player.

Playlists

It was interesting to hear about Surita Jagpal's job - listening to the music brought in every Tuesday by the Pluggers from the record companies. I think it might be boring after a while. Radio 1 rate the music

A 25/35 plays a week
B 10/20 plays a week
C 5 plays a week

The board meeting takes place once a week. Each producer is allowed to pick one record he wants to play and then the resta are decided by the board. Alex Donnelly - Head of Music - says that people often ask him if this is the job he has always dreamed of. I think there is more to it than just listening to music!NEWBEATRadio 1 also has its news and current affairs program. Rod McKenzie, the Editor, says that they treat the news differently because of their target audience - students, plumbers, secretaries etc. There is a daily Production Meeting and after discussion, stories are allocated to reporters like Andy Brown who will have to go out and meet the people and get their views (including the noise factor on the streets). He then has to come back to the office to edit his written and audio work in time for newsreader Georgina Bowman to broadcast Newsbeat. A lot of planning goes into this as reporters can be as far afield as Los Angeles, Ibiza, Aberdeen.

PUBLICITY AND MARKETING

These people are responsible for keeping Radio 1 in the audience eye. Julian Payne is in overall charge of this. He will arrange for adverts to go into media that the target audience will read to advertise special events such as summer in Ibiza. Radio 1 hosts this every summer and this year they used the opportunity to introduce 2 new Radio 1 DJs and get them into the public eye - JK and Joel. Working in another country can be difficult and it is necessary to work with the authorities to pave the way for the event to take place. H aims to get maximum press and business exposure. In the case of Ibiza they set up a website and kept it up to date - research shows that quite a few of Radio 1s listeners go their for their holidays. The results of this party in Ibiza were published in Zoo Magazine - read by many of their target audience. The website alone got more than a million hits.

Andy Parfitt had the last word. He said that Radio 1 would still be around when he and most of the other staff were gone. Radio 1 has constantly to adapt to survive and to strive to maintain its individuality.