Unit 14, P2, Describe the structure and content of BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts a variety of audio programmes such as: news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's headquarters at the Broadcasting House, London. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. 

They are funded by the UK licence fee and the BBC is not permitted to re-broadcast them from other countries. However, in some countries close to the UK (such as Ireland, France, Denmark, Belgium and Holland) it is possible to receive Radio 4 on 198 kHz long wave. 

Audience Profile:

According to research conducted on BBC Radio 4, data says that the station continues to have a balanced audience in terms of gender (49% Male/51% Female). The average age of someone that listens to BBC Radio 4 is 56 years old and skews towards and older audience. Their target audience is: 35-54 year olds ABC1 (Middle Class)  whom makes up 24% of the audience. 

From BBC Radio 4's schedule, I can make the assumption that the majority of BBC Radio 4's listening audience are an older White Christian majority. For example, in the early mornings of BBC Radio 4's schedule they have a 'Prayer For The Day' coming from St Paul's church which is a Christian place of worship. A lot of other of the programs on the schedule cover politics and discussions which the majority of this audience would enjoy. 

ABC1 in the UK isa  consumer of one of the three higher social and economic groups, which consist of people who have the more education and better-paid jobs than those in other groups. A lot of advertising campaigns targets ABC1s. For example, examples of programmes that broadcast on BBC Radio 4 cover a wide variety of genre including: news and current affairs, history, cultre, science, religion, arts, drama and light entertainment. A number of the programmes on Radio 4 take the form of a "magazine" show, such as: 'Woman's Hour', 'From Our Own Correspondent', etc. 

Woman's hour is usually broadcast at 11am, suggesting that the women listening in will be awake for late in the morning and have a lot of time on their hand; on the other hand, a programme such as Woman's Hour would not be targeted at a younger teenage audience as a majority of the audience would not be able to stay up so late in the morning as they have school, etc. A lot of the topics covered on Woman's Hour are targeted towards Women's benefits and reports, interviews, debates on health, education, cultural and political topic aimed at Women's and Mothers, something that a younger audience may find disinteresting. It also shows that the programmes on BBC Radio 4 are targeted at a higher earning target audience as the times that the programmes air are at times where lower earning audiences may still be working. (e.x. average 9am-5pm hours.) 

Listening figures:

BBC Radio 4 has continued to hold 10.8 million listeners a week. 

Quarterly Listening: 

Structure of BBC 4's Schedule:

BBC Radio 4's schedules start from the early hours in the morning, meaning the target audience listening into BBC Radio 4 have time where they can listen into the programmes that are being broadcast. 

BBC Radio 4 airs a lot of programmes that help benefit health and also airs entertaining programmes for the audience to listen to; the general audience would probably tune into Radio 4 on the way to work and listen to both some quick news and also listen to something entertaining on the way. 

In the evening, the times are longer for the programmes being aired on BBC Radio 4. At this time, a lot of the audience might of presumably returned from work and would have a lot more time on their hands to listen into the half an hour- 1 hour programmes.