Angelie New Media Technologies 08

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/paige/

Elaine Paige on Sunday is BBC Radio 2's Sunday afternoon show. It is broadcast between 1pm and 2.30pm. During Elaine's radio show, she interviews some of musical theatre's big names (last week she interviewed lyricist Tim Rice) and plays music from movies and musicals.

The website uses the same colour scheme as on all the rest of the BBC Radio 2 site: mostly white, with some light blue and purple and orange for the BBC Radio 2 banner. On the homepage, visitors are given the option to listen to the latest show (if they either missed it before, or just want to listen again). The 'Latest show' and 'Listen Again' areas on the hompage both give the option for visitors to listen to the latest show. Also on the homepage, are links to other pages on the site:

• On the next show
  
• Bonus material
  
• Break-a-leg (write in to Elaine Paige about a musical you're staging and she might mention it on her show)
  
• Your pictures (of you in musical productions or going to see musicals)


• Play with Paige (weekly quiz)


• Contact the show

Next to each of these links is a small icon which is also a link to the page. Underneath the main link is a small description of the webpage. This enables easy navigation for the website visitors, since it is made quite clear what each page contains.

On the right side of the Elaine Paige image which is prominent at the top of the page, are more links to other areas of the website. These are:

• Home


• Music played: a list of the music played on this week and last week's shows


• Play with Paige: another link to the weekly quiz


• Biography: Elaine Paige's biography

Navigation on the page is made very simple, since there are only a few pages on the website. This is probably because some audience members are likely to be older people who are fans of Elaine Paige or musicals in general, and they may find it difficult to navigate around a very complex website.

The main audience for Elaine Paige's radio show are musical theatre fans. If members of the audience heard a song that they really liked on Elaine's show, they might visit the site to find out what song it was, and may even consider buying the cast recording/soundtrack that the song came from. The audience would be most likely to use the website to listen again to last week's radio show, maybe if they missed it or Elaine Paige was interviewing someone they really like. The main benefit of this, would be that they can listen to the interview any time during the week after the show's original airdate. This means that if they missed the show on Sunday, they can listen to it whenever is most convenient for them.

The main institution involved is the BBC. Through Elaine Paige's show and the website, the BBC can appeal to a more niche audience. If BBC's radio programmes have many niche shows, then it could be possible for them to offer something for everyone. New technologies have enabled the BBC to distribute their radio shows in new ways. For example live online streaming of radio stations and the 'Listen Again' feature which the BBC has for most of it's radio shows. These two things would not have been possible without new computer technology.
Elaine Paige's radio show also enables the BBC to create symbiotic links with the theatre industry.

Key Concepts

1. Time-shift
   The 'Listen Again' function is an example of time-shift since audience members can listen to radio shows whenever is convenient for them
2. (potentially) Non-linear
   If using 'Listen Again', audience members can fast forward through parts of the show and just listen to the bits they want.
3. Interactivity
   Listeners can send in photos, do quizzes and tell Elaine Paige about a musical they're staging. These are all examples of interactivity.
4. Narrowcasting
   Elaine Paige's radio show is targeted at a fairly niche audience - musical theatre fans.