2. SUB QUESTIONS
How do people receive radio?
Have genres changed as far as technology has changed
Has the traditional form of radio been affected?
The recent popularity of Internet radio stations
What is the future of radio?

3. METHODS OF RESEARCH ( PRIMARY)
The three methods of primary research I chose to do were a one to one interview, a focus
group and historical research. I decided to use these methods because with my question
I needed in depth answers so I could gain as much detail as possible therefore I did not
choose to use quantitative research such as questionnaires and pie charts because I
felt that you can only gain limited information.
Issues..
When It was my turn to do a focus group I unfortunately became ill so I wasn’t able to speak
clearly to ask my focus group questions so ‘Johnny’ had to read my questions out for
me which didn’t give me the opportunity to elaborate on the questions I wanted to ask.
Looking back on my primary research methods I would have liked to have done a
questionnaire so I could have created pie charts which would have been easier to
compare.

4. FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS
Who listens to radio frequently? (everyday/every other day)
Do you listen to mainstream or community radio stations?
How do you listen to the radio?
Who listens to podcasts?
Who has interacted with radio stations before (text, call, tweet)
Do you know of any apps that allows you to get radio all
Would you rather listen to your own music or radio? Do Presenters make a
difference?
Who has been to an event put on by a radio station example (Radio 1’s big
weekend)
How do you find out about new music?

5. ONE TO ONE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1)When did Brit FM start and what was the reason behind starting BRIT FM?
2)When BRIT FM first started how did you go about advertising to gain listeners?
3) How do you keep the station current to appeal to the younger audience?
4) How has new technologies effected BRIT FM?
5) What social media rescources do BRIT FM if use if any, and how do you keep
this up to date?
6) How can listeners ineract with BRIT FM?
7)What would you say the ‘genre’ off BRIT FM is?
8)What do you think is the future is for BRIT FM and how will it expand?

6. METHODS OF RESEARCH (SECONDARY)
All of my secondary research I found via the internet by using google as my main search
engine. I used my sub questions to find websites that included the key words and I
found a total of 11. I had a few issues with the reliability of the sources because most of
them are not necessarily current so there may have been changes to the information.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1234860/Popularity-online-radio-soars-UKs-adult-
population-tunes-internet.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/siteusage/
http://www.voices.com/podcasting/history-of-podcasting.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWJ5e1rk0pY
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/846797-hd-is-the-future-of-radio
http://www.mediauk.com/article/20411/the-history-and-development-of-radio-in-the-uk
http://www.transmissionzero.co.uk/radio/london-pirate-radio/
http://tunein.com/about/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/30/digital-radio-switchover
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/main-rajar.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/02/latest-rajars-radio-listener-figures

7. HOW DO PEOPLE RECEIVE RADIO?
My Research shows that there are many ways of receiving radio other than the traditional form of tuning in on a radio
station. For example DAB radio, Through the television and Smart phone apps, but by far the most popular way is
online (Reference 1).
DAB radio currently account for 28.2% of all radio listening (Reference 2) this is via DAB radios in peoples homes and
possibly cars. Since smart phones have become available there have also been a number of apps you can download to
listen to the radio such as ‘Tune in’ “TuneIn is a free service that lets you listen to anything in the world from wherever
you are. TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations for you to choose from. From finding local stations to discovering new
stations from around the world”. (Reference 3). Podcasts are also a form of listening to the radio online but they are
not streamed live, they are old shows pieced together (Reference 4) - “In June 2005, Apple released iTunes 4.9 with
native support for podcasts. While this made receiving podcasts more convenient, it effectively ended advancement of
the podcast medium by independent developers” (Reference 5)
References:
1)How do you listen to the radio? (Focus group)
3) Author and year unknown, Tune in, Online, available from http://tunein.com/about/, accessed on (February 14th 2012)
(Secondary Research)
5)Historical Research
4)Author and year unknown, History of Podcasting, Online, Available from http://www.voices.com/podcasting/history-of-
podcasting.html , accessed on (10th February 2012) (Secondary Research)
2)John Plunkett, 2011, Digital radio switchover, Online, Available from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/30/digital-radio-switchover , accessed on (14th February 2012)
(Secondary Research)

8. 3

9. HAVE GENRES CHANGED AS FAR AS
TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED
There are many different genres within radio and each station has a specific genre that they abide by which
is far from how radio use to be. Some radio stations combine genres to target a wider audience for
example Brit FM is classed as “Speech, Music radio” because it is a mixture of music and Issues
(Reference 1).
According to my research there are 107 Pirate radio stations on record, These are radio stations that are not
legal and are targeted at a very niche audience, they have only become recently popular due to the new
genres of music (Reference 2).
In my opinion there will be more styles of music that take form and there are always topics and issues to be
discussed so there will be more small scale radio stations with niche genres in the future- they will be
audio based but maybe not on traditional FM/AM radio.
References:
2) Author and year unknown, London pirate radio stations, Online, available from
http://www.transmissionzero.co.uk/radio/london-pirate-radio/ , Accessed on (3rd February 2012)
(Secondary)
1)What would you say the ‘genre’ off BRIT FM is? (One to one interview)

10. HAS THE TRADITIONAL FORM OF RADIO BEEN
AFFECTED?
My research shows that the traditional form of radio has been effected greatly due to the rise in technology and
How people can now access radio. “Traditionally radio was the main source of news and entertainment and
many people relied and depended on it”, For example World War 2 was announced via the radio(reference 1)
When radio was broadcast you had to be listening to it at the time to get information because there wasn’t any
other way in which you could retrieve the information like you can now, Certain people within the industry
would say that “The immediacy of radio has been lost” which is the whole point behind radio and it has
redefined it completely (reference 2). “The current commercial radio has become more of an investment for
major media companies trying to digitalize radio rather than for the love of radio”.(reference 3)
Getting in contact with radio stations has also changed dramatically. Traditionally you could write into radio stations
but now there are several ways in which the listeners can get in contact with radio stations with social media
such as twitter and facebook being the main way to get in contact followed by phone calls and texts. I also
came across in my research that the majority of my focus group would rather listen to their own music than
radio because sometimes they don’t like what’s being played,Or they don’t like the presenter (Reference 4).
This wouldn’t have been the case when radio was first broadcast as buying your own music was a lot more
expensive and there was not a great selection unlike what was played on the radio, plus you had more of a
connection with the presenters.
References:
1) Information from my Historical Research
3) Author unknown, 2005, Development of radio in the UK, Online, Available from
http://www.mediauk.com/article/20411/the-history-and-development-of-radio-in-the-uk , accessed on (14th
February 2012) (Secondary)
4) Would you rather listen to your own music or radio? (Focus group)
2) How has new technologies effected BRIT FM? (One to one interview)

11. THE RECENT POPULARITY OF INTERNET RADIO
STATIONS?
Receiving radio over the internet is now the main way of getting radio. In 2009 the Latest figures showed that “17.4 million
people have accessed the radio online, compared to 16.9 million in May and 14.5 million eighteen months ago”.
(Reference 1) Using the internet to broadcast is also an easier way of tracking who is listening to your station which in
turn will help you target your audience(reference 2)
technology is growing and more and more people are online therefore they have access to faster and better broadband.
This is cheaper and easier than finding a frequency to broadcast your radio station on hence its not just the
mainstream radio stations that are doing it, for example BRIT FM has been online for 12 years now. (reference 3)
During my focus group it was evident that everyone uses the internet to listen to the radio or has previously (reference
4) This is because listening to the radio online is easy and “it can be done while surfing the web and doing other things”
(reference 5).
You can also set up your own radio stations online without having to broadcast via frequency, you can do this for free and it
is easy to do as I found quite a few you tube tutorials on how to do it (reference 6). Internet also allows the use of
podcasts which is a more detailed and in depth recording about a topic that is available for downloading (Reference 7).
The BBC radio site usage shows that monthly live stream requests have gone up dramatically just from 2011 till 2012
(reference 8)and this shows no sign of decreasing with technology on the rise, so I predict that internet radio will soon
over take traditional radio if it continues to be improved.
References:
4)How do you listen to the radio? (focus group)
7)Who listens to podcasts? (Focus group)
2) How has new technologies effected BRIT FM? (one to one interview)
3)How can listener’s interact with BRIT FM? (one to one interview)
5)Liz Thomas, 2009, Popularity of Online radio, Online, Available from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
1234860/Popularity-online-radio-soars-UKs-adult-population-tunes-internet.html , Accessed on (10th February 2012)
(Secondary Research)
8) Author and year unknown, BBC radio site usage, Available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/siteusage/ , Accessed on
14th February 2012) Secondary Research)
6) Author unknown, 2008, How to create your online radio station, Online, Available from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWJ5e1rk0pY , (14th February 2012)(Secondary Research)

12. WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF RADIO?
According to my research it shows that the future of radio is only looking to continue finding new ways to
improve radio and make it more accessible .As far as the radio stations themselves go they are currently
looking to continue expanding their programming to keep current (reference 1).
It is claimed that “the digital switch over will not be fully complete until 2019 so therefore internet radio will
need time to improve because it simply can’t cope with too many people tuning in. The internet doesn’t
scale very well. If all Chris Evans’s Radio 2 audience switched, it would just about cope but if all of Chris
Moyles’s joined, Britain’s broadband network would collapse.” (Reference 2).
HD radio is something that is also being talked about because they have mainly been focusing on
television in HD but have left radio behind. Britain is heading into a sound revolution, one that not only
heralds HD radio but will one day let us listen to The Archers in 3D. “HD Sound uses an extremely
efficient codec at a rate of 320kb/s, which loses only a small amount of data. This is mated to the new
Coyopa system, designed to code audio at respectable bit rates and handle AAC technology
publicly they are right behind switchover and by the end of 2013 all new cars will be fitted with digital
radio as standard” (Reference 3).
References:
1)(One to one interview) What do you think is the future is for BRIT FM and how will it expand?
3) Oliver Stoolwood, 2012, Future of radio in HD, Online, Available from
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/846797-hd-is-the-future-of-radio , accessed on (5th February 2012)
(Secondary Research)
2) John Plunkett, 2011, Digital radio switchover, Online, Available from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/30/digital-radio-switchover , accessed on (14th February
2012) (Secondary Research)

13. CONCLUSION
It suggests that the accessibility of radio has changed according to the rate of
technology. As soon as there is a breakthrough in technology there is a new way
of listening and connecting with radio and it’s the young generation that is keeping
up with the current trend and making it what it is today and what it will be in the
future. There is no doubt that radio has lost its importance over the years but it is
still a valid form of entertainment. On the other hand I didn’t find a specific
moment in radio history that things changed but I gathered from my research that
It has been gradual and large media companies are at the heart of it.