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Consuming Radio was much more different in 1967 then it is now. Back then Radio could only be listened to live, at the time is was broadcasting, whilst now we can listen to the Radio is a number of ways. We can: online/stream, downloaded the music, digital, traditional radio frequency. This gives us much more access, considering radio is not as popular nowadays anyway.
Radio's were also played less than they are now. in 1967 they would play from 5:30 am to 2:00 am leaving a 2 hours and 30 minutes gap. Although that doesn't seem much of a big deal in 2018, now we can listen to Radio 24/7. Furthermore was consume music much more differently than we used to. Back then you would have to consume the music via either a record player, which were rather expensive and most likely affordable for teenagers, or using a radio box either at home outside. Issue with that was the signal wasn't always available geographically. This would be a loss of audience. Now we have a much larger variety of radio's available providing niche products of our needs. Radio can now be consumed almost anywhere, so you can always find a signal. In addition Radio's can be accessed via internet, computer, phone, car anywhere. Although record players still stayed rather expensive. To consume music we no longer need radio as we can easily download or stream the music on our devices making radio unnecessary.
Many say radio 1 wasn't a public service as it was made purely for entertainment and the 24/7 pop music taught nothing to the young generation. Gerard Mansell in his 1981 podcast explained that Many asked “why should license money be used for this?” and “It should be done on commercial radios”. They're logic behind this is that since Radio 1 allegedly didn’t act as a public service there should be no reason for people who will probably never listen to Radio 1 to have to pay for it. On the other hand I agree with David Hatch's podcast from 1995 where he argued that Radio 1 should count as a public service. He said that Radio 1 added a 15 minute segment giving out important information on drug abuse, alcohol abuse and other popular issues at prime time. This would allow the teenagers to access the information. Due to the fact that Radio 1 was a trusted radio for teenagers they might actually listen to what it says. David Hatch further argued that Radio 1 was even more important public service that Radio 3 and 4 as he stated that “public service should be told to people who don’t know about this, rather than experts”. This way he argued that Radio 1 is trying to educate the young who would be taught this by anyone and should therefore not be canceled as they would lose a major audience, who needs their help. Nowadays Even now there is a constant debate over whether Radio 1 and now Radio 2 should be considered a public service. They Critise Radio 1 for having a too wide audience range and Radio 3 has recently has been attacked by commercial rivals.
Long Term Radio 1 succeeded immensely, they became the most listened to station in the world. They now have an audience of 20 million viewers.
This all happened after 1967 when pirate radio's become officially outlawed therefore their whole audience of around 5 to 10 million people had to find new stations to listen too. This is when Radio 1 saw it's opening. As commercial radio's, private radio's that could provide for a niche audience, were only legalized in 1973 the BBC had almost 5 years without any sort of competition allowing them to learn from their mistakes and to find content suitable fro audience and BBC's reputation. Later on though in the 2000's Radio 1's views drop due to new ways to access music such as Ox Cords, Youtube, Apple Music, Spotify and etc..
The BBC Radio just like the BBC in general is funded by it's license fee. In the 1960's this was £4 dollars and now it's £145.50.
When Pirate Radio were banned in 1967 the BBC decided it was their time to evolve, they now had 4 Radio stations.
In the 1960's most commercial TV and radio was owned by the BBC. The BBC usually looked more into news, information, light entertainment and children programs. This leaves a big gap of media for teenagers. The growing Rock 'n Roll movement was practically banished from British media.
This started the Pirate Radio Rebellion. Disc Jockeys (DJ's) would start business, illegal radio's, which they would reassemble old fishing ships and they would play Rock 'n Roll music and broadcast to the public. One of the most famous Pirate Radio ships were Radio Caroline, it played non-stop pop music. The DJ's were usually young and single and were treated as pop stars on shore. Rules were strict girlfriends were not allowed on the ship over night and in bad weather conditions DJ's could be stranded on the ship for months at a time. Pirate Radio's gave exposure to new artist which became now widely known such the Stones and The Dave Clark Five. The Pirates also played commercials for profit, which was very rare in Britain at the time. These Pirate Radio stations weren't just about music and love but also good old fashioned profit. Actually the two biggest pirate stations were run by American's and Irish who were trying the find a loophole through Britain's refusal to give radio licences to commercial broadcasters. In 1967, it became illegal to supply music, food, fuel and water to offshore broadcaster ships, this put an end to many pirate ships. But their significance was noticed and about one month after the law was set, BBC launched it's first pop station called BBC 1, actually many of the DJ's who previously worked on pirate ships ended up working for BBC 1. |
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September 2018
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