This document compares the codes and conventions of real radio stations like Lincs FM and BBC Radio 1 to the student's media product, a radio news broadcast called Waves FM. It examines elements like jingles, presenter style, target audiences, and news stories. The student found that overall, codes and conventions like jingles were similar across real radio stations to introduce the brand and genre. However, aspects varied between Waves FM and Lincs FM to better suit different target age demographics - Waves FM had a younger presenter and less serious lead news story to appeal to its 15-28 audience.

1. 1. In what ways does your
media product use, develop,
or challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
Chloe Read

2. Codes and Conventions
• For our genre research task, we listened to 3 radio stations: Lincs FM, BBC Radio 1 and
Radio Humberside and compared specific aspects of them. Codes and conventions
are the common elements of a radio station such as an ident, a jingle, a presenter,
the language that presenters use. This was useful as it gave us inspiration on what the
codes and conventions of our radio news broadcast would be, for example, what our
jingle should sound like in relation to our radio news, how we should structure our
radio broadcast, and also how the presenter should address the audience in relation
to the tone/pitch of their voice. It was also useful to research these radio broadcasts
as we knew we needed to include the key codes and conventions of a radio
broadcast, which are a sound bed, a variety of vox pops, a sting an outside
broadcast and a specialist interview.

3. Jingle
• Overall, the codes and conventions of each radio station were very similar, as they
all have a jingle at the beginning of the show. This is important to any radio
broadcast as a jingle helps to establish the genre of the radio station and what the
radio station is called, and also the frequency. When researching Lincs FM, BBC
Radio 1 and Radio Humberside, it was clear that all jingles were similar for the
purpose of introducing the radio station and establishing the genre. They were all
similar in the sense that each radio jingle used a serious tone so it was appropriate
in relation to the seriousness of the news they were broadcasting.

4. Comparison
Our Jingle for Waves FM
This is our jingle which was
created on Adobe Audition using
copy right free sources. Our jingle
consists of classic and
contemporary music.
Local
Radio 2 Jingle
This jingle is slightly more upbeat
than ours due to possibly the
content of the news stories that
they have done are considerably
lighter stories than what we’ve
done and therefore there is a less
serious tone
National

5. Presenter Style - Comparisons
Similarities
• Formality - Both presenters of Waves FM
(Our radio news broadcast) and Lincs FM
speak with formal language due to the
seriousness of the news stories.
• Tone – Both presenters speak with a low
pitch voice, again, due to the seriousness of
the news stories. However, when talking
about a positive, light hearted story both
presenters voices increase in pitch to make
it sound more exciting and enthusiastic.
Differences
• Age – The age of our presenter is considerably younger
than the Lincs FM presenter due to differences in the
target audiences. Our target audience is 15 – 28 due to
the genre of music we play (Indie/Rock) which is
generally listened to by younger people and therefore a
younger presenter seemed more relevant and
appropriate whereas Lincs FM presenter is older (mid
50/60’s) due to the fact they play older music such as
classical and contemporary and therefore an older
presenter is suited.
• Language – Although both presenters speak with
relatively formal language, the language differs slightly
due to the fact that Lincs FM uses more explanatory lexis
possibly due to their older target audience.
Here is a preview of both Waves FM and Lincs FM. It is
clear that both differ due to these reasons:
LINCS FM WAVES FM

6. Comparison: News Stories
Waves FM and Lincs FM’s top headlining stories differ in the sense that we have used a less
serious story due to our younger audience of 15-28 than Lincs FM’s story as they have used a
more serious, hard hitting story as they have a significantly older target audience and therefore
the headlines are different due to the different audiences. For our first story, we have spoke
about a new TV programme appearing on Channel 4 known as ‘skint’ which is based in the
Grimsby area, however Lincs FM have used a story of 2 people in court who had allegedly
murdered a young woman and therefore this story is more hard-hitting than ours. Here are both
radio’s headlining stories.
LINCS FMWAVES FM

7. Comparison: News Stories
- Both Lincs FM’s and our radio news broadcast Waves FM stories both compare in the sense
that Waves FM is based in a small, local area (Grimsby) and Lincs FM is broadcasted regionally
and therefore their stories are going to cover a larger area scale hence they are less likely to
broadcast a headline story on the TV programme skint being based in Grimsby as it is less
relevant to the area they are based in which is the whole of Lincolnshire.

8. Comparison: News Stories