LO1: Task 1 - Investigating a Radio Station

Sheffield Live!

Sheffield Live is an independent community radio station by the community media association. They run many community radio shows on the radio station with shows such as Community Live which is run by numerous volunteers in the local community who discuss various community issues. They also host a show called local talent show which features many different upcoming bands from around Sheffield. One more show they host on the radio station is a radio show called Spirit of the Wapentake.

Sheffield Live uses different sorts of genres for shows. For example Communities Live uses different aspects of the community.The music they play varies from chart, indie, Latin, pop, rhythm and blues, African, jungle, reggae, ska and rock etc. 'soul Casino' is one example of northern and classical soul, where as they also broadcast shows like 'da beat down' which broadcasts mainly R&B music showing that Sheffield Live! aim to reach the highest amount of audience in the local area. Talking about the local are this gives me another example of this would be 'top local talent'  

Sheffield Live target for people living in the local area. The target a broad audience throughout the Sheffield Region, as they run many different shows. For example Communities Live which is a debate show on local community issues in the area, The local talent show which will be aimed at people who have a high interest in music especially the local bands and one more show they broadcast is Soul purpose which is a show which broadcast soul, jazz and funk music. This all connote the fact due to the timings of the shows the audience reach is completely different.

In Sheffield Live different parts of the Production team work together to produce and promote products. Sheffield Live basically provides people the production equipment in the community to create their own show for what they think will target the local community. It also pays for the PRS license for the shows who play commercial music.

The main competitor for Sheffield Live is radio station Hallam FM. Hallam FM is basically a commercial radio station therefore has much money to spend on it's shows. Hallam FM targets a wider demographic than Sheffield Live! This is mainly because their audience reach is 11% which means around 32,000 adults tune into the station every week.