[bwfcol]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media ... 67813.html

Talks a lot about Radio 1 in general and mentions the Will Young incident. The most interesting stuff was about Radio 1's target audience.
An interesting stat about the ages of Chris' listeners in there as well!

[Travis Bickle]

Interesting interview. I really dont understand this age group thing though. They should just focus on a young listener group and settle with that. Narrowing it down to age groups is wrong and stupid in my opinion.

[Andy B]

Because unless you define it it could mean anything. What's young to one person isn't young to another. This way they have a clearly defined demographic which they can aim for.

[C-Kay]

Interesting to read his comments about the future of Radio. Could Radio take on a more permanant visual aspect rather than just audio? I do enjoy the times they have cameras in the studio, though i'm usually at work when they do.

[Johnny 1989]

Interesting to read his comments about the future of Radio. Could Radio take on a more permanant visual aspect rather than just audio? I do enjoy the times they have cameras in the studio, though i'm usually at work when they do.

I seem to remember a BBC Digital (as they called it back then) advert which showed BBC Radio with a moving picture (dial up quality of course) which dated back to either 2000 or 2001

[Travis Bickle]

Because unless you define it it could mean anything. What's young to one person isn't young to another. This way they have a clearly defined demographic which they can aim for.

But that doesnt make sense. Categorising anybody by age is wrong. The idea that when you turn a certain age you then stop liking something is ludicrous.

You can have a certain identity, a certain target to aim for without narrowing it down to age. Mindset is far more important than numbers.

[Andy B]

Not to the BBC commisioners or to Offcom. To them it's all about numbers.

[MK Chris]

Marketing types always talk about demographics regardless of the companies they're working for and one of the main things they seem to target are certain age groups. I think it's positive that they recognise that they'll always get people a bit older than that though and aren't bothered about trying to change that. The problem with just saying 'we want young people', is that different people have different definitions of 'young' - there's no way of determining whether or not you actually are reaching your target.

[VoicesInMyHead]

If by definition "there's no way of determining whether or not you actually are reaching your target",then why bother aiming for a younger (or older for that matter) market at all ? Surely the best option is to aim at all targets, that way all bases are covered and everyone can enjoy listening to Radio 1 (and Chris in particular) without any bias.
It's the same as me listening to 1Extra, I know it's not aimed at me being white, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the programmes and the music played.

[Andy B]

What Topher (and I) were saying (I believe) was that without a rigorously defined age bracket it is impossible to tell whether you are reaching your target audience. An over simplistic target of just "Young People" cannot be defined so there for cannot be measured.

While it would be nice to have a free for all for all stations, because most stations are run for profit they need to be able to maximise their audience potential. Stations therefore have a specific remit of what their content will be comprised of and to whom they will be targeted. This gives the Radio Licensing Authority some of the information they need to decide whether to grant a license. They can't grant a station a licence if they will take away a significant proportion of another stations audience. There's a load of factors that get taken into consideration.

I could waffle on for ages on that but I'll shut up now.

[MK Chris]

I meant there's no way of determining whether or not you're reaching your target if you don't have a clear definition of 'young' - and that means certain age ranges. You can't aim at 'everyone' because if you don't have a clear target, how can you have any idea what to put on at all? The fact you're aiming at certain people doesn't make it disastrous if you pull in certain others, that's the point.

[Andy B]

You said it much betterer than what I did.

[bradcali]

no disrespect to him He'sbeen a brilliant controller,but I do wonder when Andy Parfit wil finally move on and let someone take over as Radio One boss.He's been in charge for 11 years now,which is far longer than anyone else has had the job,and Ben Cooper could do the job just as well if not better.You'd thin he would want to do something new after sall these years.I think certain changes that are long overdue eg moving Jo Whiley away from daytimes will onlyhappen when someone else takes over.