The NPR National Public Radio in the U.S.A is a private and public funded, non profit membership media organization that was created in 1970 and syndicates to 797 public radio stations across the United States.
The station produces and distributes news and cultural programs that are then sent to other public radio stations. However these individual public radio stations are not forced or required to broadcast everything that NPR produces.
NPR consists of program segments of stories that affect the people of America. While listening I encountered a story about birds migration across America and a radio presenter attempted to follow the birds migration.
Some of the programs on NPR are:
• All Songs Considered
• Jazz Profiles
• Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! NPR News quiz
• On Point: public affairs call in show
• The Diane Rehm Show: public affairs call-in show
• Latino USA
• Justice Talking
• On the Media
• American Radio Works
• America Abroad
• Car Talk
• Says You!
• The Business
• World Café
• Engines of Our Ingenuity
While the air of the programming does not seem to be quite as serious as the BBC World’s Service it is still quite formal and informative. I preferred listening to NPR rather than the World Service as NPR changes direction and themes quite often and has segments and little stories constantly rather than focusing on major issues for long lengths of time.
Interestingly in a poll conducted by Harris in 2005 found that NPR was the most trusted news source in the U.S.A
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
BBC World Service Review
BBC’s World Service is an international broadcaster that is widely considered one of the best and is broadcasted currently in 32 languages to most parts of the word via internet, analog and digital shortwaves.
It is a politically independent, commercial free and non-profit ran radio show. It streams 24 hours a day and on average was a weekly audience of over 188 million people. It is serious news and current affairs radio station.
The feeling of the BBC World Service is that of a formal and informative radio broadcaster service.
Programming consists of:
• The World Today
• Newshour
• World Briefing
• The Strand
• Sportsworld
• World Have Your Say
Often on the weekends they include live commentary of the Premier League (English Football League) matches. This programming is informative and formal.
However it gives the listeners and chance to interact with the entire world. In World Have Your Say listeners are encourage to participate in a discussion involving current world events. This is a unique experience for many people as it easily gives a chance to hear peoples opinions from across the world.
It is a politically independent, commercial free and non-profit ran radio show. It streams 24 hours a day and on average was a weekly audience of over 188 million people. It is serious news and current affairs radio station.
The feeling of the BBC World Service is that of a formal and informative radio broadcaster service.
Programming consists of:
• The World Today
• Newshour
• World Briefing
• The Strand
• Sportsworld
• World Have Your Say
Often on the weekends they include live commentary of the Premier League (English Football League) matches. This programming is informative and formal.
However it gives the listeners and chance to interact with the entire world. In World Have Your Say listeners are encourage to participate in a discussion involving current world events. This is a unique experience for many people as it easily gives a chance to hear peoples opinions from across the world.
The Music Shows Review
The Steve Show on BBC’s 6Music station was a music based show that ran from 2007-2009. It was hosted by Stephen Merchant and co-anchored by his long-time friends Dan, Harry and Rufus. These co-anchors were essentially nobodies other than Steve’s friends. However this made for interesting, funny and unique radio as the announcers didn’t necessarily follow all the radio broadcasting protocol.
Features within the show included:
• Hip Hop Hooray
• Cover Me Up
• Songs to Seduce Women By
• The Fiendishly Difficult Music Question
• Songs to Nurse a Broken Heart
• Search for a She-J
As the show was very blokey Steve decided to conduct the segment ‘Search for a She-J’ where they invited women to send in tapes and mp3’s of women wanting to join the music panel and co-anchor the show. Eventually Sammy was picked and joined the team.
Earlier this year the show has taken a break due to the fact that Steve is currently working on a movie with Ricky Gervais and the website left a refreshing quote saying: "Our man's off to glamorous tinseltown, where the Hollywood execs will puzzle over what on earth he's talking about with that Brizzle accent! Bon voyage, Stephen, see you at 6 Music again soon...remember, we understand you!".
What made Steve’s show interesting, funny and different was the freshness of the presenters who were not professional dj’s or announcers. They were strictly music junkies and friends of Steve’s.
This gave the show a freshness and also an opportunity to have real discussion on music that they loved without the pressures of radio formality.
Features within the show included:
• Hip Hop Hooray
• Cover Me Up
• Songs to Seduce Women By
• The Fiendishly Difficult Music Question
• Songs to Nurse a Broken Heart
• Search for a She-J
As the show was very blokey Steve decided to conduct the segment ‘Search for a She-J’ where they invited women to send in tapes and mp3’s of women wanting to join the music panel and co-anchor the show. Eventually Sammy was picked and joined the team.
Earlier this year the show has taken a break due to the fact that Steve is currently working on a movie with Ricky Gervais and the website left a refreshing quote saying: "Our man's off to glamorous tinseltown, where the Hollywood execs will puzzle over what on earth he's talking about with that Brizzle accent! Bon voyage, Stephen, see you at 6 Music again soon...remember, we understand you!".
What made Steve’s show interesting, funny and different was the freshness of the presenters who were not professional dj’s or announcers. They were strictly music junkies and friends of Steve’s.
This gave the show a freshness and also an opportunity to have real discussion on music that they loved without the pressures of radio formality.
XFM The Ricky Gervais Show
The Ricky Gervais show on XFM is a collaboration that stars Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. The show initially started in November 2001 on XFM London and aired weekly from 2001-2005 off and on. After this success from XFM the show was made into an audio book from the Guardian Unlimited and set as podcasts to download. They have some become the worlds most downloaded podcast with 281,670 downloads per month and in 2006 BBC revealed that all together the shows have been downloaded over 8million times.
The shows main topics of discussion are:
• Educating Ricky
• Knob News
• Cheeky Freak of the Week
• Rockbusters
• Monkey News
• Songs of Phrase
• White Van Karl
• Karl’s Diary
• Song for the Lovers
• Song for the Ladies
• Hip Hop Hooray
• That Film Sounds Good
• Do We Need Them?
• Karl’s Film Quiz
The show has many features that are comedy based and revoler around Karl as the central comedian. However the show has a very relaxed feel to it and it sounds like it is just three mates having a conversation and the microphones just happen to have been left on.
It is this feeling that drove so many listeners to the show and to eventually download it as a podcast.
The show also has many competitions and phonein’s for the audience to get involved in. Two of the most famous competitions were Rockbusters and Karl’s Film Quiz.
Rockbusters gives a cryptic clue that the audience has to work out what which results in a band or artist. For example: exploding pet. Answer: Atomic Kitten.
Karl’s Film Quiz involved inserting Karl into major films with him doing lines of other characters to change the movie. This were very popular and very amusing.
The success of the Ricky Gervais Show can further be seen by the dedication put in by fans by creating their own fan Wikipedia website on the show at:
http://www.pilkipedia.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
The shows main topics of discussion are:
• Educating Ricky
• Knob News
• Cheeky Freak of the Week
• Rockbusters
• Monkey News
• Songs of Phrase
• White Van Karl
• Karl’s Diary
• Song for the Lovers
• Song for the Ladies
• Hip Hop Hooray
• That Film Sounds Good
• Do We Need Them?
• Karl’s Film Quiz
The show has many features that are comedy based and revoler around Karl as the central comedian. However the show has a very relaxed feel to it and it sounds like it is just three mates having a conversation and the microphones just happen to have been left on.
It is this feeling that drove so many listeners to the show and to eventually download it as a podcast.
The show also has many competitions and phonein’s for the audience to get involved in. Two of the most famous competitions were Rockbusters and Karl’s Film Quiz.
Rockbusters gives a cryptic clue that the audience has to work out what which results in a band or artist. For example: exploding pet. Answer: Atomic Kitten.
Karl’s Film Quiz involved inserting Karl into major films with him doing lines of other characters to change the movie. This were very popular and very amusing.
The success of the Ricky Gervais Show can further be seen by the dedication put in by fans by creating their own fan Wikipedia website on the show at:
http://www.pilkipedia.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Talk Radio - Derek Guille Evenights 774am Review
Derek Guille’s program on 774 ABC radio is broadcasted across Victoria nightly from 7pm-10pm. It is a mix bag of a show that complies several main ingredients for its success. There is:
• Talkback
• Live music
• Quiz
• Guests
• Weekly segments
• Comedy segments
• And listener emails
What makes Derek’s program such a success is his connection with his listeners. He really talks directly to them and often asks them to call up to hear their opinions on the matters.
Each evening Derek poses a question or statement at the start of the show that has affected him during the day or political news for example. He then asks the listeners to phone in and give their opinions on the matter. While I was there Derek discussed the Ute-Gate incident, Nicolas Sarkozy’s opinion on Middle Eastern dress standards and the global crisis to name but 3.
After the hour of talkback they play some music usually from the music guest that will be joining them that evening.
At 8.30pm he has the 10min quiz with callers. When the 10min is up whoever is on live radio wins.
Derek will then for the last hour have the live music and talks with the musicians about their tours or upcoming cd to be released.
What I think that makes Derek such a success on radio in the evenings is that he invites you to come on the journey for the night with him. And to enjoy the live music as he does and ring up if you have anything to say. There is a very 2 way feeling throughout the show between the host and listener.
• Talkback
• Live music
• Quiz
• Guests
• Weekly segments
• Comedy segments
• And listener emails
What makes Derek’s program such a success is his connection with his listeners. He really talks directly to them and often asks them to call up to hear their opinions on the matters.
Each evening Derek poses a question or statement at the start of the show that has affected him during the day or political news for example. He then asks the listeners to phone in and give their opinions on the matter. While I was there Derek discussed the Ute-Gate incident, Nicolas Sarkozy’s opinion on Middle Eastern dress standards and the global crisis to name but 3.
After the hour of talkback they play some music usually from the music guest that will be joining them that evening.
At 8.30pm he has the 10min quiz with callers. When the 10min is up whoever is on live radio wins.
Derek will then for the last hour have the live music and talks with the musicians about their tours or upcoming cd to be released.
What I think that makes Derek such a success on radio in the evenings is that he invites you to come on the journey for the night with him. And to enjoy the live music as he does and ring up if you have anything to say. There is a very 2 way feeling throughout the show between the host and listener.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
German Doco
Radio Doco Plan
“Learning a language”
Topic: Learning a language
Synopsis:
I am currently learning German so this is personal journey of me struggling to understand and grasp a new language. But at the same time I live in a house with other internationals so it will be a tale of how they have struggled to get comfortable with English and become fully emerged in the English culture and that it is constantly a learning experience.
Interviews:
Myself
Anna
Hijiri
Pauline
Tessa
Actuality:
Talking German in the background
Research:
101 million native (88 million Standard German, 5 million Swiss German, 8 million Austrian German), 60 million second language in EU[13] + 5–20 million worldwide.
German is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.
Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide.
German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish.
Intro:
German is one of the world’s major languages and the most prolific spoken mother tongue amongst the European Union. Approximately 185 million people can speak German native speakers and non-native speakers alike and it is widely taught in schools and universities.
“Learning a language”
Topic: Learning a language
Synopsis:
I am currently learning German so this is personal journey of me struggling to understand and grasp a new language. But at the same time I live in a house with other internationals so it will be a tale of how they have struggled to get comfortable with English and become fully emerged in the English culture and that it is constantly a learning experience.
Interviews:
Myself
Anna
Hijiri
Pauline
Tessa
Actuality:
Talking German in the background
Research:
101 million native (88 million Standard German, 5 million Swiss German, 8 million Austrian German), 60 million second language in EU[13] + 5–20 million worldwide.
German is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.
Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by about 80 million non-native speakers. Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide.
German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish.
Intro:
German is one of the world’s major languages and the most prolific spoken mother tongue amongst the European Union. Approximately 185 million people can speak German native speakers and non-native speakers alike and it is widely taught in schools and universities.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Triple M's Football vs 774 Grandstand Cricket Radio Review
Maybe it is just the sport that made the commentating different and the association that people have with particular sports that made the differing broadcasts of sport very contrasting. When I compared Triple M’s football broadcast and 774’s cricket there was a vast difference.
This can be attributed in some part to the nature of the sport. For example football (AFL) is a rough man’s man sport. It is often thought of as Australia’s past time but similarly it has attached itself sometimes to a violent nature and an uneducated person. While contrastingly cricket invented by the British is thought of more as a gentleman’s game where fights and bad language do not enter the equation.
These differences were only exemplified by the fact that Triple M’s radio team for Monday’s clash between St Kilda and Collingwood was over the top masculine. Firstly Jason Dunstall referred to Shane Crawford and James Brayshaw as “poofs” for wearing the color pink. This kind of innuendo isn’t really required on a football commentary and seemed very unprofessional and actually quite bigoted. They discussed this “poof” issue about pink for about 5 minutes until Stephen Quatermain really regained the control of the show.
On the other hand 774’s Radio Grandstand Cricket in the summer is informal to an extent but not this kind of banter. The jokes that they would make between the commentators are usually factual about cricket or what is happening currently on the pitch. They do not refer to their home life or joke about appearances of each other for example.
774’s Grandstand in my opinion is a class above Triple M’s commentary of the football. While they are more serious they are not too solemn with their commentary and still have jokes and banter between the hosts. It is more that the level and in-depth commentary that 774 presents is informative and enjoyable to listen to while Triple M’s is juvenile.
This can be attributed in some part to the nature of the sport. For example football (AFL) is a rough man’s man sport. It is often thought of as Australia’s past time but similarly it has attached itself sometimes to a violent nature and an uneducated person. While contrastingly cricket invented by the British is thought of more as a gentleman’s game where fights and bad language do not enter the equation.
These differences were only exemplified by the fact that Triple M’s radio team for Monday’s clash between St Kilda and Collingwood was over the top masculine. Firstly Jason Dunstall referred to Shane Crawford and James Brayshaw as “poofs” for wearing the color pink. This kind of innuendo isn’t really required on a football commentary and seemed very unprofessional and actually quite bigoted. They discussed this “poof” issue about pink for about 5 minutes until Stephen Quatermain really regained the control of the show.
On the other hand 774’s Radio Grandstand Cricket in the summer is informal to an extent but not this kind of banter. The jokes that they would make between the commentators are usually factual about cricket or what is happening currently on the pitch. They do not refer to their home life or joke about appearances of each other for example.
774’s Grandstand in my opinion is a class above Triple M’s commentary of the football. While they are more serious they are not too solemn with their commentary and still have jokes and banter between the hosts. It is more that the level and in-depth commentary that 774 presents is informative and enjoyable to listen to while Triple M’s is juvenile.
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