Evaluation!Radio Dave Evaluation.

Radio Dave Evaluation.

The Stories at Six program we made, uses the idea of a news program which appeals to younger people and yet delivers the news to all listeners in a format, that is meant to be fast, and attention grabbing.
It develops the idea of news stories, with the most important, in this case, the story with deaths taking the top headline.
As Radio Dave is a local station, we have first national news, then items of important or interesting local news.
We made up our own jingle, which is quite an instant piece of music, but was also meant to attract attention.
The vox pops we did were taken from a selection of different people, age groups and view points.

I think that this project represents various social groups, from the young (commenting on the 24 hour bar) to concerned listeners wanting more information on the train crash.
You also have listeners who may be from the older age groups, who are interested in the developments regarding the 24 hour bar opening, and the possible closing down of the local BBC radio station.
With our story on the Russian affair, we also covered the group of people, who are interested in politics, and at the same time, with our foreign correspondent, we made the story more understandable for a wider audience, and more accessible and interesting for those, who either do not have an understanding of politics, or who just have little interest in such matters.
For example, the people on the vox pop were represented by age, and sex and opinion.

The type of institutions which may choose to distribute this program would be radio stations such as:
BBC radio one, Six Music, or One xtra. Or alternatively, by most main stream commercial radio stations, who are generally aiming at a younger audience.
This is due in part, to the way that the product is presented. It is fairly rapidly spoken, and covered a range of stories, some of which would appeal to slightly older people, and some which would more directly affect the younger generation.
Also, younger sounding people were used to do some of the recording, which may give the program more appeal to a younger audience.
The way in which the program was scripted would have more than likely helped to attract a younger listenership. The language used, was mainly simple, understandable English, that neither aimed at the less optimally brained people, or the overly clever either.

We were aiming at an audience of about 16-40 year olds, which is why the delivery of the product was done in the way it was. We felt we needed to keep it lively, but make the content at such a level that it was neither condescending nor too over the top.

I think that we did a good job of attracting an audience, and from the feed back we received, it seemed clear to me that the program was interesting, lively and made you want to listen, as it was not long winded, and there were elements of humor involved to lighten the mood.

I now have more of an understanding of editing techniques and what is the best thing to do as for what to keep and how to structure the final project.
Dave did a lot of the editing, but eventually I felt that I was able to edit confidently, and with accuracy, quality and including the right materials.
I also had a good time learning to use the digital recorder and the best position to have the recorder while doing interviews.

I think the most important thing that I learned in the progression from one task to the other, is that time isn’t wasted if you are using it well.
In my first project, I just messed around and put it all together last minute, but with the amount of material Dave and I collected, it was necessary, maybe even essential that we could both trust in each others decision making and choices for material.
I think also that with the way we produced this product, we created a narrative, which was both easy to follow, but at the same time, conveyed the meaning of the stories we were running.