BBC vs Commercial Radio

BBC R4 extra

National radio station

Broadcast how? - TV, online, Mobile Phones (smart phone), MP3 player, radio

Spire FM

Local - Salisbury

Commercial 

Broadcast how? - FM radio only, 102.0 fm

BBC Wiltshire 

Local radio station -Wiltshire

Broadcast how? - online website, radio

Local, National or Commercial?

Local (Community) - Community stations serve geographic communities.

They broadcast content that is popular and relevant to a local, specific audience but is often overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters. 

Community radio stations are operated, owned, and influenced by the communities the serve.

National - Radio stations available nationally (Capital Xtra, Classic FM, Heart)

Commercial - Commercial radio licenses are awarded by Ofcom. They have large commercial stations typically reach the largest audience.

Commercialš

Large commercial stations typically reach the largest audience.

A single pre-recorded interview can kill many birds with one stone, as it will often be broadcast across a number of stations and many areas

Normally the interviews are edited down into sound bites, meaning the radio stations can select a short clip from a longer interview. The downside, however, is that the branding may be edited out too.

šLarger stations favour stories with celebrities

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Smaller stations tend to do longer interviews which are more in-depth and cover more of the research. The commercial radio approach usually shy's away from playing new artists 

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To help them make decisions about which songs to play, stations work with labels and promoters to get a better idea of how a song/artist is going to be marketed

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The more the exposure to the song, the more the station will be convinced that playing it will increase their ratings since it will be familiar to their listeners.

Adverts are played 3 different times every hour. Advert during this show are relatable to what the target audience would in be interested in purchasing.

BBC

šBBC is much stricter when it comes to brand mentions

BBCs are only allowed one brand mention during the course of an interview. It is likely that a guest will be cut off if a brand is mentioned more than a couple of times.

BBC mid-mornings often do live chats which are great for brand mentions and you get much more air time than you do with a pre-recorded clip.  

BBC Breakfast slots tend to be harder news stories, whilst mid-mornings tend to be more of a casual chat. 

The BBC believe in super serving the community with local news, guests and information

Stations are far more celebratory of new, upcoming artists

The BBC are fully aware that all commercial stations have commercials before the top of
the hour and as a result, they play current chart song deliberately while adverts being
played at this exact time. It makes the listener want to listen to a BBC show in comparison to
commercial stations because most people would rather listen to music than news and
boring commercials