Radio evolution - ICS - Universidade do Minho

Band FM of Journalism of São Paulo – Emergence and consolidation of a new segment and a new audienceNonetheless, there is a facet that goes the other way. Communication corporate groups do move onlyaccording to economy’s winds. The conglomerates themselves, being part of the market, can make economy turnand create an economic reality. In other words. News radios have always made their mission to speak to the elite.And that was so not only because the elite has the purchasing power to buy the products being advertised in thecommercials and therefore is able sustain the advertisers’ profit that, on its turn, will support the radio’s survival.The deliberate choice for the upper class (social classes A and B) is due to the fact that amongst these listeners wefind the so-called opinion makers, the specialists, the creators of trends, the names to which we attach the mostcredibility. The broadcast stations’ programme is, without the shadow of a doubt, directed at this audience.CBN’s project has evolved toward a vertical and horizontal segmentation. Parallel to elaborating its newsprogramme through a radio news bulletin, with one news programme following another, it sought as anaudience target the A and B segments in society, or the “manager”, as insiders say. That was elected the priorityaudience target, 24 hours, with no switching to the housewife or the soccer aficionado that tune into the radioat other times than the “news hour”, usually in the early morning or in the late afternoon. (Meditsch, 2001: 20)The other channels analysed here also point to target audience and achieved audience such as –approximately – men and women (men rather than women) aged 25-49, undergraduate degree, belonging to theupper classes A and B. Durimg interviews with the stations’ directors – the following topic – that becomes veryclear. The listeners to news radio programmes in frequency modulation listen, conclusively, to their pairs and tothose on which they deposit their credibility. They know this, they are constantly informed by the radios on thischoice and they turn to it conscientiously.Should this audience be sufficiently numerous and wealthy to attract publicity, in the levels desired by thebroadcaster, its isolation from the population as a whole could reach extremes. Thereby, in a metropolis like SaoPaulo, the informative radios may approach the subject of a strike in public transportation from the disturbancesit will cause to the automobile traffic, they may treat the population of a favela or those imprisoned at a policestation as “undesirable neighborhood” to the upper/middle classes and they may, as well, debate health andeducation politics from the viewpoint of those who can pay for these services at private institutions. (Meditsch,2001: 97)To conclude, it is worthy to note that, once launched, the radios suffer a very intense competition. In 1997,when it reached the FM, CBN reigned alone at tranquility because it did not suffer threats from other broadcastersin that band. In that time, the challenge of the 90,5 MHz was to consolidate its space, maintain customer loyaltyand attract advertisers.CBN Sao Paulo was the lever to change the paradigm according to which the frequency modulation is destinedto diffuse music (…). With CBN’s entrance into FM, in 1997, a new epoch began in the conquest of the marketand in the facing of competition with the broadcasters that remained confined at AM. (Meditsch, 2001: 21)Nevertheless, few months afterwards, Jovem Pan AM began to retransmit its news programme and flagshipthrough the group’s broadcaster in the frequency modulation, Eldorado followed its example and Bandeirantesstruck hard by taking over Vip FM, the dial’s neighbor, and allocating in its place the traditional programme ofBandeirantes AM. The reader should by now acknowledge that we are dealing with a radio journalism war. Thebroadcasters had noticed that CBN had opened a strand until then explored and was exploring it masterly.Marcelo Parada, Director at Bandeirantes AM, on the occasion of its migration to frequency modulation, literallysays that CBN’s sound was so good, reached so many people, that Bandeirantes simply had to do somethingabout it. The other journalistic radios in Sao Paulo had to get into the dispute. Each with its own arms, but all withthe determination to have its share in the cake – speaking in financial terms – and a portion of this audience sodear to the broadcasters, as it has already been said, an audience that is at once qualified and wealthy.ECREA: ‘Radio Evolution: technology, contents, audiences – conference 2011 | 239