Unit 14 P2 describe the focus on a chosen radio station

 Background

BBC radio 4 is a British national radio station that is owned and operated by  BBC , it is funded by the UK license fee  . It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken word programmes including news ,drama , science and history  . It replaced the BBC home service in 1967 . BBC Radio 4 broadcasts throughout the UK, isle of Man and the channel islands on FM , LW and DAB and on BBC sounds , it has been on air since 30 September 1967 . They cover a wide variety of genres such as news and current affairs , many programmes take the form of a 'magazine radio 4 ' . Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station by total hours . Most of the programmes are available 4 weeks after broadcasting as streaming audio from Radio 4's listen again page and via BBC sounds . 

Audience profile   

The target age group for BBC radio 4 are adults that are age 35 or above . Radio 4 has been able to their numbers of listeners steady at 10.8 million listeners a week . BBC radio 4 is funded by BBC through 86% of their license fees . The age of the average of the radio 4 listener is 56 years old and skews towards an older audience . Since the target audience are grown up and watch / listen to programmes that are more likely to appeal to this specific age group as they mainly listen to these whilst going to work . As well as the content that are broadcast they are mainly legal and political issues which are more likely to be listened to by adults . These are more likely to be listened to by highly educated individuals who are more likely to understand these sort of topics rather than ordinary adults . 

structure of a days schedule 

BBC Radio 4 has their schedules stretched out throughout the day into different sections : early , morning , afternoon , evening and late . These sections broadcast throughout the day and contain various different live spoken - word programmes such as news , drama , comedy ,science and history . They broadcast from Monday to Friday from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and from 7:00 am till 9:00 am on Saturdays . this appeals to the target audience as they are older audiences meaning that times will be more suited to when they wake up as well as the type of genres they cover genres that are more suitable for an older audience rather than a younger audience who aren't as likely to listen to broadcasts .           

Broadcast schedule