Tobie Dunnett Radio 1 Essay 12/12/17

Q: Explain why popular music radio programmes struggle to gain recognition as

Public Service Broadcasting. Refer to The BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show to
support your answer.

The BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show is a radio show played every morning on BBC
Radio 1. It is hosted by Nick Grimshaw and runs from 6:33am for three and a half
hours. The show plays popular music in order to appeal to its target demographic is
15-29 year olds. As well as broadcasting contemporary music, the show has other
purposes such as broadcasting important news updates, weather information and
more. This is because, since the show is played by the BBC, it has to meet the duties
of a PSB (Public Service Broadcast). As a PSB the BBCs (radio show specifically)
responsibility is to benefit the public and provide them a service. This is because the
BBC is publicly funded through the compulsory TV license of 147 that every
household in the UK must pay in order to view and use the BBCs content. It is
extremely important that the BBC (radio show) provides this service to an acceptable
standard to keep the consumers happy. Without the funding from the TV license, the
BBC would not be able to exist. This is also why the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show
has no adverts - there is no need for commercial funding. Any adverts heard will be
internal, and used to promote other products produced by the BBC. However, music
programmes still do struggle to gain recognition as PSBs.

Firstly, as a PSB, the radio station must make sure that its content appeals positively
to a wide group of people (mass target audience). The issue with popular radio
stations is that the music they play will not be to everyones taste - some people may
dislike the style of music that is popular at the moment. For example, popular music
radio stations may go through a stage of playing lots of house music in the
summertime, since house music is generally very popular at that time of year. During
this time, fans of other genres, for example rap or hip hop may feel excluded and
disinterested in the radio stations content. This is an issue because it shrinks the target
audience from mass to niche, which would result in a dramatic drop in viewers. This
would also inevitably result in a drop in funding since people may cancel their
subscriptions as they feel like they are not being benefited by the service. However,
the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show tries to combat this by finding a balance between
what is popular, but still taking into account multiple genres of music. This enables
everyone to enjoy the content, and potentially introduces audiences to genres they
have never explored before. For example, on the 7/12/17, the songs Bouffe Daddy
by J Hus and Clocks by Coldplay were played consecutively by Grimshaw. These
are evidently from two extremely different genres (UK rap and indie rock) however
they were both played to ensure the content appeals to a mass target audience.

Additionally, it could be argued that the show is not a PSB due to it not representing
all views and ideologies. This is to do with censorship and the idea that
unconventional language or beliefs are removed from its content. It could be argued
that through doing this, the BBC is being unfair to its viewers by controlling what
Tobie Dunnett Radio 1 Essay 12/12/17
they are exposed to. The BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show is heavily regulated, and the
songs played are carefully selected by the BBC Trust. The trust ensure that there is no
swearing or inappropriate language in any of the songs played. This is important
because, due to the timings of the show, it is very likely that children or immature
audiences may be listening, and with that comes the risk of exposing them to
inappropriate content. Ofcom (Office of Communications) is the government run
company that is in charge of the regulation of the BBCs content. Ofcom have a 9
point broadcasting policy called The Code which must be followed by all
broadcasters. The BBC is regulated in order to conform to the code and ensure none
of the points are broken. In this instance, music is censored to prevent infringing
section 1 of the code, which is protecting under 18s. People would argue that by
censoring music and other content, the BBC is denying full expression and freedom.
It could be argued that the prevents the audience from feeling satisfied with the
services that are compulsory for a public service broadcaster to provide.