My client for this project is Siren Radio, where the programme will be broadcast and the relevant content will be distributed on their website. Despite my best efforts in asking the relevant charities if they want to distribute the content only one got back to me to discuss what the project was about and where it would go, meaning I did not have a suitable client. As a result of this I then approached Siren Radio who said they would broadcast our podcasts if they were merged together in a 57-minute radio programme.
This means that having prior knowledge of what Siren Radio’s target audience and their key commitments is vital for me to make sure that the content is relevant to their audience.
Siren FM was established on the 11th of August 2007 and has a 10 year FM license to broadcast on 107.3 Mhz which was extended from 2017 t0 202. Siren FM is a community radio station meaning that it has to fulfil certain objectives, these are: To allow young people, students and community groups to become more media literate and improve their communication skills. Alongside this, it also means that there is a media outlet which reflects what the community wants to talk about.
In terms of benefits that Siren FM has brought to Lincoln is that it has allowed people of varying ages to express their opinions on a wide variety of topics and gain invaluable experience. By allowing people to volunteer on a working radio station due to its community radio status.
In terms of programming, its flagship programmes are the breakfast show and which broadcasts from 7am-9pm on weekdays. Due to it being a community station the scheduling varies from week to week due to people’s availability. In terms of daytime programming, this is mostly music output with hourly news. From 7 pm the output switches to more specialist programming in terms of music and speech programmes. For example every Monday from 7-8Pm there is an hour soul music programme. Siren’s Ofcom license states that it should broadcast a vast array of genres in terms of music e.g. Pop, Indie and Folk. Regarding speech programmes it this should come from News and discussion programmes. (Ofcom,2016)
Siren’s target audience is for under 24-year-olds, so its content should reflect this and allow the audience to engage with the station’s output. This is mostly through the content that produces with it being aimed at this audience and is reinforced by the music that is outputted for example Siren broadcast a majority of the top 40 music in their daytime programming to keep themselves relevant to a younger audience.
To extend their audience reach they also utilise social media platforms that allow them to link and promote their content to new people alongside their preexisting audience meaning that overall they extend their reach. Siren FM operates on both Twitter and Facebook meaning that they can appeal to both types of audience. This is because Facebook has the bigger amount of users meaning that Siren can appeal to the bigger audience, however, Facebook isn’t utilised enough in my view and is utilised in a different method to Twitter. This is because with Facebook they utilise long videos by recording items or make use of Facebook Live to live stream what is going on in the studio, finally, they use facebook to post photos and status’ about the weather, news and events.
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