Small scale radio

O Ofcom disponibiliza um relatório muito interessante sobre o cenário das "small scale radio" no Reino Unido.

Do documento sublinho as seguintes passagens:

The remaining 350 or so stations can be described as small local stations. They fall into two main categories, according to the way they are licensed.
• Around 140 of them are commercial stations, whose primary aim is to make profits for their shareholders, which they do by selling advertising. They are governed by licence conditions which require them to provide a certain amount of local programming. They also use this local programming to differentiate themselves from their commercial competitors that cover larger areas.
(...)
The remaining 200 or so are community stations. This is a relatively new type of station and almost all have been broadcasting for less than five years. These must be not for profit and must be funded by a diversity of funding sources: there is a limit of 50% on the proportion of their funding that can come from on-air advertising and sponsorship, and many receive funding in the form of grants from public and other bodies.

Sobre a Informação:

Micro-local information was considered unique to small-scale services. It was the kind of information that larger, less local, radio stations could not provide, but which kept small-scale listeners informed and up-to-date about what was going on in their local areas.

News – if there was a news event in their area, listeners would tune in to their small-scale station to find out the details about it and if there were any consequences for themselves as a result.
Listeners of GTFM in Pontypridd described how there had been a fire there during the day which has caused massive traffic jams, and the only place where they could find out what had happened was by tuning it to GTFM.

Práticas de gestão da rádio

Três autores da universidade de Sunderland escreveram um E-book sobre Práticas de Gestão da Rádio. O resultado é um extenso documento que vale a pena ler.

Numa primeira leitura retiro esta ideia interessante sobre a possibilidade das rádios passarem a emitir informação especializada e de acordo com a linha da emissora, em vez de insistirem em boletins de actualidade à hora certa. É uma ideia que fará sentido num contexto de fragmentação das audiências.

While a new service might not feel the urge to provide THE news each hour, listeners expect the radio station to be expert on its own particular field. Listeners to a jazz station could reasonably expect to be kept up-to-date with relevant gigs, new recordings, etc., while any community, local or regional service should strive to become essential listening for anyone wanting to know what is going on in their patch.

Um site para as rádios inglesas

No Reino Unido estuda-se a criação de um único site que disponibilize todas as rádios. O objectivo é fazer com que a rádio não perca o comboio das novas tecnologias:

There is a sense of urgency to the project because of the pace of technological change. The senior most figure in British radio has told The Independent that British radio “faces a real threat” of being “left behind” in a future media world where consumers obtain their music from free and legal websites.

Afinal os jovens não ouvem só Shakira !!!

A Classic FM, uma estação comercial britânica dedicada à música clássica, registou um aumento de 52% de ouvintes com menos de 15 anos nos últimos três meses.

Não deixam de impressionar os números revelados pelo The Independent se se tiver em conta que a programação da Classic FM gira em torno de grandes compositores, cuja música (pensa-se) está mais afastada dos interesses dos jovens.

A Classic FM tem uma audiência estimada em 6,5 milhões de ouvintes, sendo que 472 mil são jovens, segundo o The Independent.

Seria interessante perceber que números têm a Antena 2 e a Classe FM para apresentar nesta matéria.

Leitores de notícias com fim anunciado

A BBC vai acabar com os newsreaders. Até aqui a leitura de notícias no universo da BBC - rádio e televisão - estava atribuída a alguns profissionais da área da comunicação, mas que não eram necessariamente jornalistas. O director-geral da corporação anunciou, entretanto, que esse tempo terminou:

BBC News, News 24, the radio networks ... have changed over the years and the traditional role of the news reader, as opposed to a correspondent or presenter, has virtually died out over the services.

Fica o registo, apesar de em Portugal o cenário não ser esse, pois quem apresenta os boletins informativos na rádio e na televisão são sempre jornalistas.