Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media - Volume 15, Issue 1, 2017

In public service media (‘PSM’) literature and policy documents, many assumptions are being made about the increasingly active relationship users have with the media that they ‘consume’. Moreover, in recent years public broadcasters have adopted a more consumerist logic, often conceptualizing users as consumers and not as citizens. This study aims to bring in a user-centred approach in PSM theory and empirical research. More specifically, we study the motivations and thresholds for people to actually interact with online PSM content, asking questions such as: ‘What drives users to share or comment upon PSM content online?’ and ‘How do these motivations and thresholds relate to their role as citizen?’. To answer these questions, we focus on innovative public service radio formats more specifically, a field that is largely understudied. In the theoretical part, we differentiate between personal, social and altruistic motivations to interact with PSM content. For the empirical part, we conduct ten focus groups with radio listeners between the age of 15 and 34. In conclusion, we argue that media users are very often aware of their different roles as both consumer and citizen and that the latter is especially manifested in their motivations to share public service radio content.

Since the 1960s, public service broadcasters have attempted to meet the demand for music by young listeners. As commercial radio offerings have expanded, and as public broadcasters are monitored more closely than before, the question arises as to what degree and in which ways public service radio should differ from commercially formatted stations. This article analyses the differentiation strategies applied in music programming by major radio stations in targeting youth and young adults in Finland. Employing a multi-measure approach in the analysis of the content, the results confirm that YleX, a popular music station of the public broadcaster YLE, differs significantly from its major commercial rivals Energy and The Voice. The article argues that even a radio station focusing on the latest hits can fulfil a public service mission.

Public radio broadcasters are mandated to act as vehicles for supporting and promoting national culture, including music. Despite a predominately national focus, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has partnered with public broadcasters from other nations in a song-sharing initiative called ‘Songs You Need to Hear’. The initiative includes a monthly blog post with embedded audio and brief descriptions of the music by radio hosts from CBC (Canada), BBC (UK), NPR (US), ABC (Australia), and RTÉ (Ireland). This article explores the ways in which a mobile, transnational song-sharing project emerged between 2000 and 2015 and what it reveals about the pressures and new models developed in this period of digital transmission. ‘Songs You Need To Hear’ represents the current state of public media in which the need to digitize, globalize, and universalize, combined with unreliable funding models, has resulted in the treatment of music on the radio as inexpensive and highly accessible content that straddles the line between the global brand extension of public media institutions and ideas about the fundamental role of public media in their support of national culture.

The present article aims to address one specific issue concerning public service media: how does public radio approach under-the-radar musicians? Throughout its history public radio has continued to discover and support upcoming musicians, who, by definition, have few promotional opportunities due to their position on the periphery of the music industry. This research is developed by comparing various public radio initiatives regarding under-the-radar musicians in the United Kingdom and Spain at national and regional level. Within the framework of comparative media systems, it provides case studies of BBC Introducing (BBC Radio, United Kingdom), Sona9 (CCMA, iCat.cat, Catalonia, Spain), Maketa Lehiaketa (EITB, Gaztea Irratia, Basque Country, Spain) and Proyecto Demo (RTVE, Radio 3, Spain). This subject is approached by using a mixed methodology of content analysis and interviews. The findings elucidate how these initiatives are based upon a strong public service commitment, through the combination of public service media and live venues, with particular relevance to young local music scenes and the national music industry. It is concluded that providing support to under-the-radar musicians could be a valuable lifeline for public service broadcasting in seemingly permanent crisis.

Between 2007 and 2017 in the United Kingdom, BBC radio services were regulated by the BBC Trust, with the performance of BBC radio stations monitored against the so-called ‘drivers of public value’. Utilizing the Reach, Quality, Impact and Value for Money performance framework (RQIV), periodical reviews of BBC Radio Service Licences were carried out. This article considers two such reviews, of BBC radio stations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and BBC Local Radio services in England. The use of the public value approach in the governance of public service radio in the United Kingdom is assessed. It is argued that the public value approach places a serious focus on audience responses, but that the use of the RQIV framework is problematic when considering the cultural nature of broadcasting. It is suggested that the BBC is increasingly being forced to make decisions for political-economic reasons, rather than for reasons of public value.

This article examines the BBC Asian Network digital radio station, which is tasked specifically to serve the ‘hard to reach’ British Asian diaspora. The station was established as a national digital service in 2002, expanded in 2006 and saved from closure in 2011. In 2016 the BBC’s Royal Charter included diversity as a key public goal, which requires the BBC to better reflect minority ethnic communities in the United Kingdom on-screen and behind the cameras. The BBC Asian Network needs to increase listener figures. However, interviews with staff working on the BBC Asian Network highlight how top down policies conflict with the needs of British Asian audiences. Specifically, this article argues that that long-standing core public service values that emphasize news and current affairs programmes and minority language promotion conflict with the BBC Asian Network’s goal to attract young audiences.

Britain pioneered the idea of broadcasting as a commercial-free and culturally uplifting monopoly, which its imperial progeny in South Africa and India adopted. But all three soon found themselves vulnerable to entrepreneurs broadcasting commercials and pop culture from accommodating locations just across national frontiers. Listeners in all three countries tuned in by the millions and advertisers rushed to sponsor shows and buy commercials. Radio Luxembourg outdrew the British Broadcasting Corporation on Sundays in the 1930s, Radio Ceylon easily bested All India Radio in the 1950s, and Lourenço Marques Radio dominated the white South African youth market in the 1960s. Governments tried to fight the cross-border broadcasters through diplomacy, economic pressure and petty harassment, but in all cases popular ‘light’ culture and, eventually, advertising prevailed. This article details the common experiences and connections among these broadcasters, and points the way for future research.

Russia in the Microphone Age: A History of Soviet Radio 1919–1970, Stephen Lovell (2015) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 256 pp., ISBN: 9780198725268, h/bk, £35.00

John Vassos: Industrial Design for Modern Life, Danielle Shapiro (2016) Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 296 pp., ISBN: 9780816693412, p/bk, $35.00