BBC Radio 5 Live

BBC Radio 5 Live was launched by the BBC in 1994 in an attempt to remarket BBC Radio 5, which was launched in 1990, but received few listeners. It is known to specialise in radio phone-ins, sports and in depth news analysis. It is the UK’s principle radio station for sporting events.

The news comes across as reasonably unbiased, and although no statistics were available regarding the age of listeners, it seems to me as though it would attract an older audience than Radio 1, but a younger audience than Radio 4. When discussing the student protests, for example, Radio 5 did mention violence and arrests on several occasions, whereas a report from Radio 1 focused on the reasons behind the protest and even had a reporter protesting with the students. There was barely a mention of violence and the word ‘riot’ was not used. During ‘606’; a football based phone in shows, aimed at people travelling home from football grounds after watching their team, the language seems very colloquial throughout. The presenter seems at one with his callers as ‘laddish’ banter is shared between them. Hosts such as Richard Bacon, and recent guests including Tim Minchin and Alesha Dixon also point to a reasonably young audience, potentially listening whilst driving to and from college or work, or listening online whilst doing other things. It is uncommon today, for a young person to be solely listening to a radio, when a television is likely to be available as an alternative.

Although there was no data available regarding gender or social class, the fact that ‘5 Live Football’ is the most downloaded podcast on BBC Radio 5 and the seventh most popular podcast n ‘BBC iPlayer’ we can assume that this is an audience largely dominated by men. We cannot say much about social class from this statistic but it seems as though it would attract more ABC1s than Radio 1 and fewer ABC1s than Radio 4. It could be argued that some of the programmes on Radio 5 could easily fit in on Radio 4, for example ‘wake up to money.’ This does however show Radio 5 to be the primary radio station for current affairs, Radio 4 seems more concerned with Arts and high brow comedy.

The news agenda on Radio 5 differs quite substantially from that of The Times. They tend to contain the same or similar stories, but in a different order, this is because a Radio can be constantly updating its news agenda, as news changes and develops throughout the day. For example on the 24th of November 2010 The Times ran a picture of North Korea bombing a South Korean island. This story was not even included on Radio 5’s midday news, as it had actually taken place the day before. Radio 5 instead led with news that a paedophile gang had been convicted; this news had come through just shortly before the news bulletin was aired.