LO3: Codes and Conventions of genre of planned show

Conventions of a magazine talk show - 

Scheduling :

Having looked at the magazine talk show Big John at Breakfast as  part of LO1, we decided to base our show on a similar topic however suitable for a more mature audience at around 7pm in the evening. Generally those who listen to Big John at Breakfast are on their way to work or taking their children to school therefore the producers have to regulate the content on the show to be appropriate for a younger listener who may be present whilst the main consumer is listening.

Music:

A show of this genre generally has a variety of music which is suited for its target audience, for example, Hallam has a 25-34 year old average listener therefore current hits are most popular amongst this age group - they play hit music with frequent interjections of older popular songs from the 90s . As our show starts at around 7pm our main objective is to get our audience prepared for their night out in town therefore we have included current, upbeat songs such as 'God's Plan' and 'Feel it Still' which are popular in the charts at the moment with our age group (16-24) therefore are likely to be played in the local bars and clubs. Later on in the show we will be playing 'throwback' hits from artists such as Sean Kingston which were popular at the time the younger end of our demographic were growing up therefore is suitable for all listeners. This was a convention I observed from Hallam FM as they provide a mixture of music genres suitable for all demographics throughout the day - this helps broaden the target audience - this would be included in the audio trail also to entice listeners in.

Presenters :

Our presenters are all local to the area therefore carry the local accent and dialect for example 'put your big coat on' , this is important as our mode of address for the show is peer to peer much like the example show which I looked at Big John At Breakfast where all the presenters chat to each other using their local dialect. We have used an all female presenting team , this is relevant as the tone and register of these presenters correlate to our primarily female target audience. One of our presenters in particular has a strong regional accent whereas the other does not , this serves a purpose as those who live in Sheffield will understand and relate to the person who sounds as they do , however our listeners are of university age therefore are likely to come from all over the country therefore it is important to have somebody for them to relate to also who doesn't have as strong of an accent - this shows how we have tried to relate to a mass audience.

Features:


Having listened to a variety of radio shows as part of LO1 , including popular shows across Hallam FM , we decided on a list of features which clearly follow the codes and conventions which have been outlined by these shows . Written into the script are news and weather updates , phone ins , competitions and celebrity gossip which are all common conventions of not just shows in this genre but radio shows as a whole . Having these features as part of the show will help listeners associate the genre of our show with other big names such as Hallam and when they are aware the show focusses solely on Sheffield it is more likely that they will want to tune in. Features such as competitions are very common on magazine talk shows as they give the opportunity for the show to make money whilst giving back to their listeners , as our show is funded solely by advertisements its all the more important to include these type of aspects as they are a fantastic way of making revenue. Hallam Fm in particular do these kind of giveaways where listeners have to ring in and share an experience to be in a chance to win - we have taken this and put our own spin on it making it so that listeners win when they take part in our confessionals section of the show . By doing this we are making our show more relatable whilst also creating that advertisement for the show. All of the news and weather for the show will focus around the local area which is a standard convention for a local radio station , that being said some report on the entirety of South Yorkshire which will make our show stand out as we will be exclusive to Sheffield.

Jingles:

Magazine talk shows all have a variety of jingles which help create the 'brand' the ones which do this most successfully are Capital Fm and Hallam Fm. Both have variations based on the segment of the show which is to be played before or after it , for example 'for the latest news and weather..... Capital FM' and 'The biggest hits ... and the Proper tunes, Hallam FM' - both of these examples use the station/show name and mention some form of the content. When writing our jingles I took this into consideration therefore wrote a variety of jingles following a similar trend - repeating the station name to reinforce the brand such as 'start your night right with ONE20 fm ' and 'giving you the latest hits and latest gossip from one 20 fm' - this gives the inclination of what is to come on the show and effectively ties in each segment as the example shows have shown.
News:

Due to our station being local , it is all the more important to make sure the news segment is relevant to the area which is something that is well executed by Hallam Fm as they are the biggest radio station in South-Yorkshire. They have on the hour news updates throughout the day which focusses on Sheffield and surrounding areas in South Yorkshire with occasional national news stories which comment on the country - as ONE20 is a local show , we want to accurately represent this with the nature of the stories which make it into the news segment - I purposefully did some research using Sheffield's own newspaper company 'the star' and chose some of the most relevant news stories to Sheffield. The news is an important convention of any radio show as it is one of the only ways some people keep up to date with current affairs, as our target audience is young 16-24 and of the c2de social grading , it is more than likely that the radio is one of the only free ways they can access music therefore they are a captive audience when It comes to the news - this is an easy way of keeping them in the know without being a public service broadcaster.


Competitions:

As mentioned before, competitions are one of the best ways to advertise your show whilst making your audience present within the day to day running of the show. One of the biggest competitions which I have looked at is the '1k minute' from Hallam Fm where one listener is chosen to answer 10 questions correctly to have one thousand pounds put into their bank account . Obviously this is a radio station with a lot of commercial background and paying advertisers therefore they can afford to give away tax free cash , this is something we wouldn't be able to offer as we wouldn't have enough funding therefore a giveaway with tickets which could be donated to our show from a local festival is a more feasible option . This is a standard convention of this kind of radio show therefore listeners will relate more easily to the listeners. By using a local festival as a prize for the best confession , we are reinforcing that this is a local radio show,  for local people