Homepage » Radio Basics » Meet your audience

Meet your audience

An introduction to who your audience are; some simple ideas about how they approach radio.

Why do we do radio? Unless you're in commercial radio the answer is listeners. If you're in commercial radio then the answer is advertisers. However, those advertisers demand you give them listeners so effectively you're doing it for listeners to please the advertisers.

Here are some facts about listeners: -

- They do not understand radio. Your average listeners can handle the concept of turning on a radio and moving the dial to the correct frequency to get some sound. Beyond that, they don't know and they don't care. At the student radio station I was involved in we advertised our frequency as "1350AM" and going around halls to get people tuning in we'd be told that people would love to listen but their tuner only at "FM and MW/LW"

- They do not care about radio. Radio is a free commodity. It's like the complementary magazines you get in aircraft or on the train - nice to look at but if they weren't there you'd hardly complain. If you get people to list things they could happily do without and then things they couldn't you wouldn't find radio on either list - it's not important enough.

- They do not know radio. Go out into listener-land and ask your average punter to draw a picture of a radio-studio. Most people would not have a clue what a studio looks like. Get them to draw a mixing desk and they couldn't do it. Get them to explain what happens when the music is playing in a studio and they don't have a clue.

- They are not bothered about what you do. When Channel 4 shows the wrong episode of the O.C. or even a Tuesday-night documentary they will receive several hundred complaints. You announce you're going to play Keane straight after the ads and then don't and no-one will phone-up. No-one will notice.

- They do not listen. Listeners to music-radio are rarely actively listening. Nine times out of ten they are doing something far more interesting and just happen to have the radio on whilst they are doing it. Most would probably not even realise they had the radio on. When was the last time you went into McDonalds or your local chippie and actually listened to what was on the radio. And yet more than likely the radio is on.

All of the above may sound like pretty depressing stuff; you are in an "industry" that no-one cares about and no-one takes seriously. Actually there are a lot of positives about this. It means you can get away with making lots of mistakes and no-one apart from a radio-anorak will notice. Just because you are broadcasting in your bunker with a couple of domestic cd-players and a mixing desk that would look old in a pre-war BBC studio you can still take on the same significance as Chris Moyles on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. But you need to take all these factors into account when you are doing your show.

Anoraks

And now a word about anoraks. You'll find I use the term "anorak" regularly. It is not designed to be offensive or derogatory. An "anorak" is anyone who is not a listener - someone who understands the concepts behind radio, knows what a studio looks like, can tell when a jingle has been misfired and cares if their local radio station afternoon jock gets the sack.

The term "anorak" should not be confused with the image of a train-spotter wearing an anorak. It has a superb origin, and I hope it is true. Back in the days when there were a lot of pirate radio stations based on ships one of the activities the stations would do would be invite listeners to come and have a look at the ship and the station. Every once-in-a-while a boat would turn up with a load of punters who wanted to see the workings of this station of theirs. Because it involved a sea crossing they'd tend to dress in waterproofs. Therefore the sight of a boatload of men (mainly) in anoraks arriving signalled a listener-visit. Once these people had visited the station they'd never be able to listen to the radio the same way. Hence the term anorak.

If you have been inside a radio studio for anything more than an on-air interview then effectively you are a radio anorak.