Explain why popular music radio programmes struggle to gain recognition as PSB.

Explain why popular music radio programmes struggle to gain recognition as PSB. Refer to the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show in your answer.

In your answer you must also explain how political, cultural and economic contexts influence the status of popular music radio programming.

I believe that radio programmes such as the Radio 1 Breakfast Show struggle to gain recognition as a PSB as they normally only cater popular music. This means that play the same music genres, which are typically only favoured by the same types of people for an extensive period of time, ie popular music. This then excludes the less popular and influential genres of that time period. Despite this, the show also includes promoting upcoming British musicians, such as previously promoting The Artic Monkeys. They still tend to promote a distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech to attract their young target audience. This system is good for appealing to the masses however a PSB’s primary task is to appeal to almost all of the public as the public are what pays for the whole of the BBC in the licence fee. Politically, this can be seen as a ‘waste of tax payers money’ but is inline with the very principles of how BBC Radio 1 formed over 50 years ago, using popular music to appeal to a wider target audience. As these breakfast shows do  appeal to the masses, it could be argued that they should be recognised as a PSB because it is appealing to the majority of people as the music they play is the most popular. However, these pop music programmes do struggle to be recognised as PSB because they usually consist of a young host, in the BBC 1 Breakfast shows case, Nick Grimshaw. These young hosts are usually only relatable to the younger audience while the older generations may struggle to understand why this host is appealing. This shifts the breakfast show slightly making it seem more niche towards the younger audience and ultimately drawing attention away from the fact that it is still part of a PSB. Another reason why the BBC 1 breakfast show could struggle to gain recognition as part of a PSB could be there strategic decision to exclude less favoured genres specific to the time period. For example, Rock/ Heavy Metal are almost completely excluded despite having a very large following in the UK. This suggests that BBC are not trying to appeal to everyone and just the stereotypical followers and audience demographic, which is 15-29 year olds. This can also be shown through the regular news reports throughout the show ‘News Beat’. These include a selection of news aimed to attract younger audience, involved news about both pop and celebrity culture varying to political, keeping their listeners updated and educated, which is one of the BBC’s core values. Despite this, the remit of popular music suggests that the show is of a low culture, contrasting the BBC's value to educate, suggesting the work they produce should be of a high standard and informing and educating, including music such as classical.