Finished Radio Show

Finished radio show:

Evaluation- Technologies and Progression

I have learn't many different sort of media technologies that I had not ever been familiar with in the past. These are Blogger, this is where i posted new information that I had explored for my different media texts and explained how and why I decided to make decisions that i did. I also used sound cloud to import music and sound effects that I had used in my radio show. By importing them onto sound cloud means that I could post them onto my blog.

The software and technology that I used to record the voices for my radio, were things like the micro phone, since the room i recorded in was not sound proofed I had to have the people recording stand closer to the microphone so that no echoes were picked up. On the other hand because the micro phone picks up breaths much louder than if they were standing further away meant that I had to spend more time silencing the voices. Compression is when the whole radio is made to the same volume so that when it is played in the car people do not have to constantly turn the radio up to the appropriate volume. Adobe audition 1.5 is the software that I used to record and edit the radio show.

Evaluation- Institution

My radio show Razzle Radio, is a local radio show. It represents Radlett in Hertfordshire. The news stories I created related to the stories happening in the local community, or represented stories from the members of the public.

My show would be more like a Local radio show, for example LBC or Capital Birmingham, these are both local radio stations and broadcast to local communities. LBC is owned by Global Radio. This is a British media company formed in 2007. It owns other many large radio stations such as Capital, Capital Xtra, Heart and Smooth. These Broadcast mainly from London although Global Radio own other stations in different regions.

Local or Community radio, serve geographical communities they broadcast content that is relevant to the local, specific audience. Community radio are operated, owned and influenced by the communities they serve. They are non profit and provide the community with a opportunity to share their own experiences in the media. My radio best suits this genre of radio as members of the public have the ability share their views and thoughts on changes that are occurring in the community and how it effects their everyday life. There is a certain personal feel that comes with local radio.

Evaluation- Representation

The advantages that i gained from listening to multiple different radio shows means that I really understood the language, tone and ways the presenters speak. This enabled me to present and portray my radio show as if it was a real life radio show. This could also depend on the target audience, for example a show targeting a younger audience may speak in a less formal way and uses colloquial language that appeals to younger audience, this could be the slang that are used now days e.g. mate, dude, babes.

In my first attempt of writing a script in my preliminary task, I had not done as much extensive research into radio in comparison to what i have done now. My knowledge is far wider now, I have learnt that the ways in which radio is presented is dependent upon to audience it targets. I had to find people to record the voices for the characters on my radio. The people that i used had to represent the age and personality of the voices on my radio.

For my presenters I wanted a female voice, this is because the radio show that i was doing targets middle aged women, therefore by using a female voice makes the radio show more approachable and appeals to the target audience. I used a male voice for the news presenter, in my opinion a male voice sounds more dramatic this is the way the news is presented.



Voices for advert 1:
For my first advert I needed to use a female voice to play the wife and a male voice to play the husband. I used a drama teacher at my college to play the mother (Louise), she has a motherly voice this is relatable for the audience as she sounds like a mother. The father was played by an art teacher (Chris), for this role i needed the father to sound forgetful yet kind at the same time. A father turkey i used Jon, a media teacher at my college, he is very good at changing his voice to sound like the characters that i needed. Father Turkey is a comical voice and i needed someone confident to play it. Christine was the voiceover at the end of the advert.

I had the choice between two voices to play the mother. I chose to use Louise as she sounded louder and clearer voices for advert 2:
Graham a science teacher played the man in the car advert, his voice sounds dramatic which is what i needed for the advert. Alex played the voiceover at the end of the advert, i needed someone who could change the sound of their voice. The harsh tone of the voice alerts the listeners and makes it feel more tense. The sound effects that i used allowed the advert to sound more realistic

News story 1 voices:
For the fan 1 in this story I used one of my friends Tali, for these characters i needed people who sounded young, due to the death of a singer who's audience is teenage girls, using my friends creates an authentic and realistic feel. For the second fan I recorded it myself as I felt i suited the voice. Chris again played the voice of the rehab group leader, he sounds kind and his voice is calm, this is how i would imagine a rehab leader to sound.

News story 2 voices:
The first voice I used was Christine, she played the mother and complains about the noise of the machines, she sounds upset and aggravated. Christine plays the older lady, since she is a drama teacher she has learnt to change her voice to sound like her characters this is one of the main reasons i used her. Jodie another friend of mine plays a student voice in the story.

News story 3 voices:
Tali played the voice of the mother over the phone

News story 4 voices:
For the Dr I used Louise as her voice sounded authoritative and intellectual

Presenters voices:
For the presenter voices I played the main presenter Jackie Donnague, Jon played the news presenter and Alex did the jingles.

When editing the radio show, taking out the breaths, controlling the timing between sentences and taking out the mistakes means that the performance of the voices can be controlled according to the context of the situation that is happening e.g. an advert or news.

Evaluation- Using the Conventions of Real Media for my Media Product- News

Before deciding on which news story I would include on my radio show I did extensive research in order to execute the news bulletin effectively. From the research that I found that all news story consist of the 5W's and news values. These are key conventions that I had to include in my radio to make it sound as realistic as possible. These conventions structure the story and enable listeners to be informed of the correct information.

I listened to a number of different news stories to identify and compare what stories they included on their shows, i also compared different radio shows to see if their news stories changes depending on their audience and genre. Also by listening to different news bulletins I got a good understanding of how the news sounds authentic through the use of language that they use.

I listened to the similarities and differences of news bulletins used on local and national radio. By doing this I could identify what to include and not include in my radio show.

There are other parts of radio that are vital when creating a radio show, these are: voxpops, outside broadcasts, archive clips, soundbites and specialist reporters- these generally are only found on national news, therefore would not be realistic if I included it in my local radio show would not reflect the realistic feel to my radio.

I mainly included vox pops in my stories, considering i did a local radio show means that the listeners are most likely members of the public, therefore including interviews from the public gives the show an approachable and interesting aspect. Mainly in my vox pops I had the correspondent recording an interview with the public on the street, this means i have to make it sound although they are really in the environment where they are meant to be. This is done by converting the sound from stereo to mono, the sound was equalised to replicate the sound of a correspondents microphone.


In my first news story I did a story on the death of a celebrity, it included vox pops of two fans of which were interviewed outside the hotel where the celebrity was found. To enable the vox pop to sound realistic i included real life sound effects of cars, cameras snapping and chatter. This meant that when listeners hear the vox pops they get the feel that the fans are on the street.






The vox pops that i used in my second story that was about the historical artefact being found i included the sound of machinery, and for the first recording of the mum with the baby i put sound effects of the baby crying.







The third story is similar to the others in terms of it being recorded on the street, the sound effects that were appropriate for this would be sirens and camera snapping, this gives the feel of an accident to to listeners.
In this advert I also had a mother speaking over the phone to the radio, this would be called a sound bite



In my fourth story where the nutritionist was recording in a primary school meant that I had to ensure i included the sound of children laughing and chatting in the background.

Evaluation- Using Conventions of Real Media Texts- Jingle

Whilst doing my research of radio, I found that all radio shows included a catchy jingle. Depending on the type of radio it is effects the sound of the jingle. Jingles being a vital part of radio, I felt that it was necessary to include a jingle. The jingles are played frequently throughout the show, there can be various jingles for different parts of the radio for example for the news, travel updates and adverts all use different jingle, they will be a similar beat but a different tempo. News jingles tend to be more serious than the show jingle.

Station Jingle:

News Jingle:


My jingle uses a catchy song, with a voiceover introducing the jingle. Having a catchy jingle is very important when creating a radio show, it tells the audience what show is being played and introduces the show. Considering radio moves quickly, it is sometimes hard for audiences to keep up, therefore using a jingle is a quick and easy way for the audience to become familiarised with what is going on. Jingles communicates to the audience through a catchy melody, a lot of the time the audience will remember the jingle throughout the day.

Evaluation- The Ways in which my Media Product Uses Conventions of Media Texts

All radio shows consist of jingles, news, weather, adverts and music. For this next post i will be discussing why and how I used the adverts that I chose in my media product. Adverts are essential for radio shows, it is how they make the majority of their revenue. By selling airtime to businesses or services providers means that the radio station advertising their products get paid. The length of advertisement changes depending on the amount of airtime brought. This is the reason why including adverts is a vital convention when producing a radio show. As annoying and boring adverts may be for listeners it is a key factor and is beneficial to listeners and the media companies.

Adverts vary between ones that include a narrative and ones that do not. This changes the feel of an advert and is dependent upon what the companies of the advert want to be heard over the radio. The length of the advert often depends upon what is being advertised, some adverts will just outline the product and does not include any narrative. The target audience of the radio effects what type of adverts and aired, products that appeal to the listeners are the ones that are played over the radio. For example when targeting a group of middle aged women the radio station may chose to play an advert for clothing, food or make up, where as if they were targeting middle-aged males they will play car adverts. 

My radio was targeting middle aged women, therefore I chose to base my adverts on a food shopping company that I invented called 'save-cost' and a safe driving awareness advert, both my adverts were long and included lots of narrative. 

Save-Cost advert:
In this advert I attempted to make it quite comical and funny in terms of playing on the idea of domestic homes and how they work. Christmas being a time of cooking and present giving means that people are very busy. The sound effects I recorded allowed the advert to seem as if we were listening in on somebodies house, will all the sound effects i used. By using diegetic sound that implies that the listeners are hearing what the voices hear on the radio really makes it sound authentic. 

Car Safety Awareness Advert:

This advert provided a more serious approach, even though my radio targets women and this voice uses males still implies the idea of safe driving, as this could be someones husband. The sound effects that I used were skidding noises to give the impression of a car accident along with sirens and a crash noise. I also have a dramatic voice over of the man who supposedly had the accident means that the audience can try to imagine what he experienced. At the end of the radio the sound of cell doors closing implies he is in prison, this ends the advert on a memorable, tense conclusion.