Radio: The Surgery & Life Hacks
Radio: The Surgery & Life Hacks
Our first CSP for radio is the BBC Radio 1 show The Surgery.
Our key concepts for Radio are industries and audience so these are the contexts we need to consider when studying the texts.
The Surgery
The Surgery was an evening radio show on BBC Radio 1 that ran between 1999 and 2017. Most recently, it was on every Wednesday at 9pm and ran for 60 minutes. It featured presenter Katie Thistleton and advice from Dr Radha Modgil.
It worked like an agony aunt column in old teenage magazines and took on controversial subjects such as gender identity, sexuality, relationships and mental health. It featured texts and calls from listeners and the post-watershed slot meant adult topics could be discussed.
The Surgery > Life Hacks
In November 2017, The Surgery was merged into a new Sunday afternoon show called Life Hacks that runs between 4pm – 6pm presented by Cel Spellman and Katie Thistleton. This mostly plays music but offers advice segments with Dr Modgil covering similar topics to The Surgery.
Although both The Surgery and Life Hacks ran in scheduled broadcast slots, in recent years the programme has been available as a podcast and encourages digital consumption and interaction.
The Surgery
Life Hacks: Stormzy interview
Life Hacks: debt advice feature on BBC Sounds
Listen to this debt advice feature on BBC Sounds.
BBC Radio 1: History
BBC Radio 1 launched in 1967 playing pop music and using jingles in the style of American radio. It was a significant change from previous BBC content and was hugely popular in the 1970s and 1980s (some shows had 10m+ listeners).
It became available on DAB digital radio in 1995 but not promoted until digital radios were more popular in 2002. It is available via digital TV and online via BBC Sounds.
Radio 1 is famous for events as well as radio – summer Roadshows, Big Weekends and the annual Teen Awards.
Industries: Radio in decline
Although the BBC still boasts impressive audience figures for BBC Radio 2 and 4, it has struggled to attract young listeners to BBC Radio 1 in recent years.
Since 2010 listeners have declined – and although BBC R1 targets 15-29 year olds the average listener in 2017 was aged 30. Radio 1 is increasingly focusing on digital and social media with 16m weekly YouTube views reached in 2018.
BBC Radio 1 - The Surgery & Life Hacks: Blog tasks
Analysis
Listen to the extracts from The Surgery and Life Hacks above and answer the following questions:
1) What do the titles The Surgery and Life Hacks suggest?
they suggest ways to fix or help make life easier especially for young people as life hacks has become a term that means a shorter or less draining way to do something.
2) How are the programmes constructed to appeal to a youth audience?
The background music fast temped clearly showing its aim towards youths. The presenters refer to many things young audiences will be identify with.
3) What does the choice of presenter (e.g. Katie Thistleton) and Dr Modgil suggest about the BBC’s approach to diversity and representation?
both of them are female instead of male which might have been done to relate to more young females as there's slightly more females listening to BBC R1 compared to males. Katie Thistleton is from Manchester, whereas Dr Modgil sounds like she's from London so they are both giving their experiences from different regions which may also attract young listeners who are going to university and want to hear what its like before they actually go.
4) Look at this promotional graphic produced by BBC for The Surgery. How does it construct a representation of a youth audience?
the use of emojis push towards a younger audience and the emojis they selected are those that they feel will catch young peoples eye as they all relate to younger audiences such as the phone the speaker and the half sad face maybe representing anxiety so maybe young people who have exams coming up may be interested and want to find out what they talk about.
5) Now look at the graphic from a digital media perspective: how does it suggest audiences are listening to and interacting with BBC broadcasts in the digital media landscape?
There not being a frequency suggests that audiences wouldn't interact with the radio station through conventional radio, and it would be a modern version of a radio where you can search the name, or it would be through the internet.
Audience
1) What is the target audience for BBC Radio 1?
15 to 29 year old's.
2) Who is the actual audience for BBC Radio 1?
the median age is 32
3) What audience pleasures are offered by The Surgery and Life Hacks? Apply Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory.
Personal relationships is shown through the way they interview people from all over the UK.
Surveillance as this informs young people and gives them a sense of what to do, and what not to do when they go to university or begin working at a younger age which is something a large amount of teens go through.
Personal identity within the interviews as they speak about experiences alot of people have been through or are currently going through. This helps prevent mental health issues if students are prepared for high levels of stress they may face.
4) Read these Guardian reviews of The Surgery and Life Hacks. What do the reviews praise the programmes for?
Industries
1) How does The Surgery and Life Hacks meet the BBC mission statement to Educate, Inform and Entertain?
The Surgery and Life Hacks meets the BBC mission statement to Educate, Inform and Entertain is by using strategies to target their audiences such as one will use informal tone of language when speaking about the topics to give a friendly atmosphere.
2) Read the first five pages of this Ofcom document laying out its regulation of the BBC. Pick out three key points in the summary section.
The public has exceptionally high expectations of the BBC, shaped by its role as a publicly-funded broadcaster with a remit to inform, educate and entertain the public, and to support the creative economy across the UK. For the first time, the BBC will be robustly held to account for doing so by an independent, external regulator. Alongside responsibilities for programme standards and protecting fair and effective competition in the areas in which the BBC operates, the Charter gives Ofcom the job of setting the BBC’s operating licence (the Licence).3 On 29 March 2017, we consulted on a draft Licence setting out requirements for the BBC to fulfil its remit, and plans for Ofcom to measure the BBC’s overall performance.
3) Now read what the license framework will seek to do (letters a-h). Which of these points relate to BBC Radio 1 and The Surgery / Life Hacks?
Support social action campaigns on BBC radio. We are requiring Radio 1 to offer a minimum number of major social action campaigns each year. Providing information and raising awareness of social issues affecting young people and giving them a platform to engage with is one of the key ways Radio 1 can set itself apart from other radio stations.
4) What do you think are the three most important aspects in the a-h list? Why?
Increase requirements around programmes for children, support a wide range of valued genres and support regional and national audiences, and creative economies across the UK
5) Read point 1.9: What do Ofcom plan to review in terms of diversity and audience?
We are also announcing an in-depth review of how different audiences are represented and portrayed on the BBC. All audiences should feel that the BBC offers something for them, however, our research shows that several groups feel that it does not adequately represent their interests or lives.
6) What is Ben Cooper trying to do with Radio 1?
Ben Cooper’s mission is to make BBC Radio 1 like a Netflix for radio which would make it an ideal entry point to an interview with the station’s controller. On Friday, the BBC announced that Cooper would be getting a new boss, and a controversial one at that. From the end of this month James Purnell, the BBC’s director of strategy and education, will be taking responsibility for radio as part of a new, expanded division.
7) How does he argue that Radio 1 is doing better with younger audiences than the statistics suggest?
starting out with 24 hours of on-demand “phone-first” content, such as a weekly “Top 10 most-played tracks of the week” programme, but intends to seriously ramp up the hours next year.
The station’s YouTube channel now has almost 3.5 million subscribers and more than 1bn views. While BBC Radio 1 may be blooming nicely on new digital channels, Cooper remains under pressure to bring the age of listeners of BBC Radio 1 down. The target is 15- to 29-year-olds, the average is 32. Earlier this year, the station’s breakfast show audience reached its lowest level in more than 13 years.
9) Why is Radio 1 increasingly focusing on YouTube views and digital platforms?
Using figures based on those aged 10 and up, he reckons the most common age of a Radio 1 listener is 18. And for its YouTube channel it is 12- to 17-year-old females.
10) In your opinion, should the BBC’s remit include targeting young audiences via Radio 1 or should this content be left to commercial broadcasters? Explain your answer.
I think that the BBC should definitely include young audiences in their target audiences via Radio 1 because they need to support their statement which is to Educate, Inform and Entertain and most youth people need this because they are young and are still part of the learning process. 
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