Elaine Paige Research

Elaine Paige Research

We decided to do a radio show based on musicals as we felt that many college students, Stratcast’s listeners, are interested and entertained by musicals as the performing arts courses at college are very popular.

Elaine Paige on a Sunday is a two-hour show that is said to ‘put the cool back into musicals’. It is broadcasted on Sunday afternoons at 1pm on BBC Radio 2. Radio 2’s audience is all age groups over 35.

Paige is a known musical theatre performer and therefore knows a lot about the shows subject and this allows the audience to gain trust in what she is saying. She presents the show informally but suitably for the age group by saying a few jokes and anecdotes. She also laughs a lot which gives the show a casual feel.

She is in close proximity to the microphone and therefore creates a direct presentation approach that could make the audience feel as if they are being talked to personally. Another way she interacts with her audience is by responding to emails and texts that she has received.

In her links she talks a bit about the musical and a little bit about the actor, what he’s been in before. There are no soundbeds for her shows as this allows the listeners to concentrate on what Elaine Paige is saying. Also a few of the tracks played on the show are instrumentals. If the programme was to have soundbeds then listeners might get confused with what was a soundbed and what was an instrumental as the soundbed would be of a musical theatre style.

Most links she gives some information about the musical and the actors in the track. This gives the audience a small understanding for the musical and the person singing it. She also gives information about current musical shows that are on in the West End. This gives listeners extra content for the show as they can go visit a musical that most likely is included in the programme.

She plays musical tracks from all different types of musicals that are aimed at a range of audiences. Also, not just songs from the stage are played but also tracks from musical films such as High School Musical. This helps the diversity of the show as it could appeal to a different maybe slightly younger audience that watches these types of movies.

In our show we decided to take some aspects of Elaine Paige on Sunday and base out show on them. One such part was the absence of soundbeds as we feel that this creates a different and more formal feel to the show compared with previous shows we’ve produced.

Also we have decided to present our links in a similar way by giving information about the musical that the tracks we are playing are from.