Research
First of all I need to chose a slot that my radio drama broadcast will be broadcasted on the radio. I found out these are the following available slots on BBC Radio Four:
To find this out what I was going to do my radio broadcast on I carried out a lot of research into major events that changed and shaped the world in my target audiences lifetime. I found out about events like the Cold War which first occurred during (1947-1953) and then in (1985-1991) which was the phase of a deterioration in relations between the Soviet Union and the West arising from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
I also found out about the Vietnam War, the Chernobyl disaster and modern day terrorist incidents like the London 7/7 bombings and of course the most famous terrorist attack of all time 9/11. It was clear that 9/11 was a major incident and a event that completely changed the aviation industry, foreign relations with the USA and which ultimately lead to the Iraq War which famously Britain also got involved in. I also carried out primary research and interviewed my mother who is actually 56 (average radio 4 listener age) -I asked her about major news events that happened in her lifetime and the first thing she said was in fact the 9/11 incident so this emphasised to me how major this event was. It was clear from this research that 9/11 had such a major impact on the 21st century and this would be a very interesting factual drama to do a radio broadcast on. My aim was to ensure my audience became more informed about the hijackings and also to shock them, to emphasise the horrific nature of the attacks. Furthermore I thought that making a radio drama about this topic would be unique as I caried out many internet searches and couldn't find any radio drama's on the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 - the closest thing I found was a BBC World Service radio drama on how US President Bush and Vice President Cheney responded in the first few hours after the 9/11 attacks.
To ensure I knew how to layout a professional script, I researched scripts from real radio programmes such as "The Archers" and listened to one of these episodes, from BBC Radio Four.
I also listened to this Radio 4 archers episode so I got a better understanding of how radio drama's work. One of the key things I learnt from listening to this radio drama was how important background sounds were for setting the scene of the drama. For example the beginig of this radio drama is set in a cafe, so there are background sounds such as cutlery being used on plates, this really sets the scene. I am therefore going to ensure that as my radio drama is set on a plane that there will be background sounds such as the sound of the plane engines, and people talking on the plane.
Furthermore I found a document published by the BBC, that shows exactly how to set out a script.
Research on 9/11
15 Minute Drama - Short form (15min)
commissioned in multiples of 5, ideally a series with individual stories in
each episode or short term stories that mature over 5 or 10 episodes.
Monday-Friday 2:15-3pm Radio 4
Afternoon Drama - Daily narrative drama
strand. A complete story that is imaginative, accessible and entertaining.
Saturday 2:30-3:30pm Radio 4
Saturday Drama - Enjoyment and
escapism. For example: love stories, thrillers, and extraordinary personal
stories.
Sunday (time varies) Radio 3
Drama on 3 - Radical
drama, classics and new theatre productions.
Radio 4 Demographics:
It was vital that I understood the target audience for Radio 4 so that my radio drama would appeal to the listeners. This is the following information I found out from a BBC Audience Report.
Reach: 11.55 million adults listen to Radio 4 each week, 21.2% of the population.
Hours: Radio 4 continues to have a very loyal audience. The average Radio 4 listener tunes in for 11
hours 00min each week. In total that makes over 127 million hours every week
Share: Share takes all the minutes listened to any radio, and works out what proportion of this Radio 4
makes up. Radio 4’s share of listening is 12.3%, or one in every 8 minutes of all radio consumed.
Genre: News attracts the largest number of listeners at 10.34m per week, while factual reaches 9.41m.
Drama attracts 6.96 million average listeners a week, and comedy reaches 5.52 million.
Radio 4 attracts 1.8 million unique browsers to its site each week, the biggest of any BBC Radio
station. Of this 1.8m, 68% of these are on mobile or tablet. There are 5.4m million iPlayer requests for
Radio 4 programmes weekly, providing Radio 4 with a huge digital footprint.
The station continues to have a balanced audience in terms of gender (49% male / 51% female). The
average age of the Radio 4 listener is 56 years old and skews towards an older audience. Our target
audience of 35-54 ABC1 (commonly termed ‘replenishers’) makes up 24% of the audience. The station
also continues to have an upmarket bias – 75% of those tuning in fall into the ABC1 demographic.
Target Audience and research:
As the average age of a Radio 4 listener is 56 years old I want to have a drama that is based on true events, and major events that happened in their lifetime (events that changed the world). As I found out from the Radio 4 audience research study - factual broadcasts were the second most popular broadcast genre on Radio 4 (9.41 million listeners a week) after the news. I also found out that Drama attracted a large audience of 6.96 million listeners on average a week.
From this secondary research I learnt that if I combined two genres factual and drama, that this would appeal to a large audience and attract many listeners.
To find this out what I was going to do my radio broadcast on I carried out a lot of research into major events that changed and shaped the world in my target audiences lifetime. I found out about events like the Cold War which first occurred during (1947-1953) and then in (1985-1991) which was the phase of a deterioration in relations between the Soviet Union and the West arising from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
I also found out about the Vietnam War, the Chernobyl disaster and modern day terrorist incidents like the London 7/7 bombings and of course the most famous terrorist attack of all time 9/11. It was clear that 9/11 was a major incident and a event that completely changed the aviation industry, foreign relations with the USA and which ultimately lead to the Iraq War which famously Britain also got involved in. I also carried out primary research and interviewed my mother who is actually 56 (average radio 4 listener age) -I asked her about major news events that happened in her lifetime and the first thing she said was in fact the 9/11 incident so this emphasised to me how major this event was. It was clear from this research that 9/11 had such a major impact on the 21st century and this would be a very interesting factual drama to do a radio broadcast on. My aim was to ensure my audience became more informed about the hijackings and also to shock them, to emphasise the horrific nature of the attacks. Furthermore I thought that making a radio drama about this topic would be unique as I caried out many internet searches and couldn't find any radio drama's on the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 - the closest thing I found was a BBC World Service radio drama on how US President Bush and Vice President Cheney responded in the first few hours after the 9/11 attacks.
To ensure I knew how to layout a professional script, I researched scripts from real radio programmes such as "The Archers" and listened to one of these episodes, from BBC Radio Four.
I also listened to this Radio 4 archers episode so I got a better understanding of how radio drama's work. One of the key things I learnt from listening to this radio drama was how important background sounds were for setting the scene of the drama. For example the beginig of this radio drama is set in a cafe, so there are background sounds such as cutlery being used on plates, this really sets the scene. I am therefore going to ensure that as my radio drama is set on a plane that there will be background sounds such as the sound of the plane engines, and people talking on the plane.
Furthermore I found a document published by the BBC, that shows exactly how to set out a script.
Research on 9/11
- 2997 innocent people lost their lives, (2996 including the 19 hijackers).
- Two planes flew into the world trade centre - one into the North Tower, one into the South Tower.
- One plane was hijacked flew into the Pentagon in Virginia, USA near Washington D.C.
- One plane was hijacked and was heading for the White House (United Airlines Flight 93) however this crashed near Shanksville in Pennsylvania.
- The attacks were the deadliest terrorist act in world history, and the most devastating foreign attack on United States soil since the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941.
As I have chosen to do a factual drama radio broadcast, I had to do alot of research into the 9/11 attacks in particular the hijacked United 93 flight. In fact in my script I am going to incorporate some of the real words said by one of the air stewardesses (CeeCee Lyles) as she left her final voicemail to her husband. I also had do a lot of research into CeeCee Lyles (the air stewardess) and find out about her family so the script sticks to the truth and is realistic.
I found out alot about Cee Cee Lyles and the hijacking of United Airlines from this website. Here were some of the key information:
CeeCee Lyles was a FA on UA Flight 93. 15 mins after the plane took off from Newark, it was hijacked by 4 al-Qaeda operatives, Ziad Jarrah the hijacker-pilot, and his 3 muscle hijackers Ahmed Al-Haznawi, Saeed Al-Ghamdi, and Ahmed Al-Nami ( who had a bomb strapped to his waist ). Jarrah's target was the U.S. Capital Building, however, the passengers tried to take the plane back, and while doing so, Jarrah crashed the plane into a field in Stony Creek Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.
I have also made up conversations in the script that maybe the air stewardess would have had with the other air cabin such as talking about their children, which also makes the incident seem even more heart braking as we know that everybody on board dies, and that the people on board that plane such as the air stewardess won't ever see her children again.
I discovered her final voicemail that she left her husband on Youtube which I am going to ensure is in my script:
Primary research
To get more of an understanding into my target audience I interviewed them about major news events that happened in their lifetime. I interviewed my mother who is actually 56 (average radio 4 listener age) - I asked her about major news events that happened in her lifetime and the first thing she said was in fact the 9/11 incident so this emphasised to me how major this event was. Furthermore I also interviewed my father who again happens to be 56, he mentioned how one of the major news events when he was was the first ever moon landing, also he mentioned many terrorist attacks that occurred and the most famous one he said being the 9/11 attacks. It was clear from carrying out this primary research that 9/11 was a major event in my target audiences lifetime and therefore would be a good topic to do my radio broadcast on.
I found out alot about Cee Cee Lyles and the hijacking of United Airlines from this website. Here were some of the key information:
CeeCee Lyles was a FA on UA Flight 93. 15 mins after the plane took off from Newark, it was hijacked by 4 al-Qaeda operatives, Ziad Jarrah the hijacker-pilot, and his 3 muscle hijackers Ahmed Al-Haznawi, Saeed Al-Ghamdi, and Ahmed Al-Nami ( who had a bomb strapped to his waist ). Jarrah's target was the U.S. Capital Building, however, the passengers tried to take the plane back, and while doing so, Jarrah crashed the plane into a field in Stony Creek Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.
I have also made up conversations in the script that maybe the air stewardess would have had with the other air cabin such as talking about their children, which also makes the incident seem even more heart braking as we know that everybody on board dies, and that the people on board that plane such as the air stewardess won't ever see her children again.
I discovered her final voicemail that she left her husband on Youtube which I am going to ensure is in my script:
Primary research
To get more of an understanding into my target audience I interviewed them about major news events that happened in their lifetime. I interviewed my mother who is actually 56 (average radio 4 listener age) - I asked her about major news events that happened in her lifetime and the first thing she said was in fact the 9/11 incident so this emphasised to me how major this event was. Furthermore I also interviewed my father who again happens to be 56, he mentioned how one of the major news events when he was was the first ever moon landing, also he mentioned many terrorist attacks that occurred and the most famous one he said being the 9/11 attacks. It was clear from carrying out this primary research that 9/11 was a major event in my target audiences lifetime and therefore would be a good topic to do my radio broadcast on.
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