"The Archers" is a programme which is on the station BBC Radio 4. The radio programme has over 18,750 episodes making it the worlds longest running radio soap opera. The Archers is described as a "contemporary drama in a rural setting".
The original purpose of The Archers was to educate however this changed in 1972 and nowadays the radio programme is there to entertain its audience. There is still a form of education in the programme as it strives to reflect the real nature of rural life through research that is carried out through the programme. The genre of radio that the Archers falls into is a radio drama, through the genre alone you can see that the main purpose of the programme is to entertain. You can see this due to the storyline within the radio show. Throughout the episode there is a mention of "village gossip" which is something that is informal and what we would expect to happen in the likes of a programme such as Eastenders as the main purpose of this show is to entertain. Another place where the storyline reflects the purpose of the programme is where the character Tom asks Hannah if she wants to attend a presentation in Glasgow with him, perceived by Hannah as a date, she rejects his offer. This type of scenario is something which, as an audience, hooks us making the Archers a key source of entertainment.
Episodes of The Archers air on BBC Radio 4 at 7pm Sunday to Friday. The episodes are repeated at 2pm the next day, excluding Saturdays. The reason why the programme is scheduled to air at this time is because of the type of programme that The Archers is. As it is a radio soap opera, the programme is on in the evening as its main purpose is to entertain. 7pm is the time that most people would start to settle down and watch television, which is a form of entertainment. The audience of the archers, however, have got home from work and can listen to the short 12-minute episode as an alternative to watching TV. By the programme being repeated the next day it means that it is available to be heard by a different audience giving it more listenership, also allowing those who have missed the episode to catch up. Every episode is also available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days after they have aired meaning that if you are unable to listen due to a holiday or you just miss one episode, they are available for you to listen to. This is important for this genre of radio show as it means that you build a stronger connection with the characters and plot lines.
As The Archers is a BBC Radio 4 programme there are lots of different platforms which the show can be advertised on. The BBC is a large conglomerate which can use their different channels in order to advertise, these include the BBC website, television and other radio programmes. On their radio shows there are adverts for the different stations that could be tuned into, this means that people are diverted to listening to a variety of their content. Advertisements are not played during The Archers as they are 12 minute episodes but are heard before and after each episode. “Bunk Bed” is a radio comedy on Radio 4 which is aired at 11pm, this is something that you may hear after The Archers episode has finished. By advertising on the different platforms that the BBC own it means that they save money on advertising. As the BBC is a public service broadcaster, it means that they don’t broadcast commercial adverts. They instead are funded by public money which the government allows as long as they use their platform to educate, inform and entertain. This means that the income received by BBC Radio 4 is public money.
Content within The Archers is key due to it being a radio drama. Each episode is scripted out and includes many codes and conventions. There is a theme tune which plays to at the beginning and end of each episode, this makes the radio drama recognisable meaning that when people hear it they know that it is The Archers coming onto the radio. Radio dramas share many of the same conventions as television programmes, especially TV dramas. Dramatisation is prominent in television as well as radio soap operas, especially within The Archers. This is because the programme is based on farm and village life in “Ambridge” a dreary topic which is made very interesting by the use of dramatisation. The script is written and voice actors are used in order to create content which engages the audience
When creating a radio show, staff and resources are important but this is especially prominent when the genre of the programme is a radio drama. Unlike a normal radio show, dramas do not have a presenter but instead voice actors. There job is to make the characters within the script come alive making the audience engage and connect with each character. There is a large cast of voice actors in The Archers due to the range of different characters, the likes of characters are Jill Archer who is played by Patrica Green and Brian Aldridge paused by Charles Collingwood. Directors are there to look over the work that the voice actors are doing, to make sure that they are on task and working to the highest standard. They also look over the editor, whose job is to piece together the radio drama to make it flow, also adding in sound effects, some of which are created by a foley artist. Foley artists are there to create sounds which are needed to strengthen the narrative that the show follows. There is also a team of script writers which come up with the plot, within The Archers the script writers make sure to include events which are happening in the present within the world of Thew Archers. The person who looks over the whole production of the show is the producer, they make sure that the whole thing runs smoothly.
The audience of The Archers is aimed at 40 to 60 year old aimed at a mixed gender but more so women then men. It is expected that an ABC1 audience listen to the programme due to it being aimed more at educated professionals, with this being the target audience for Radio 4 as well. The audience is mainly aimed at white British people with there not being characters of different nationalities within the radio drama. You can tell the target audience of the show due to the characters within it as the audience will relate to many of them.
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