#Define radio silence download#
Instead, many people use online streaming services to listen to music and they download podcasts to listen to comedy or discussion programmes.Amateur radio Wilderness Protocol As online services become more popular, fewer people, in particular the young, are listening to the radio. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent agency of the US government, operates the Voice of America, which brings information about the US, its culture and language to people around the world. At certain times of year public radio stations run pledge drives in which they ask listeners to donate money to the station. Public radio stations often have public affairs programming and classical music, which is not common on commercial radio. Many towns also have a public radio station, which is usually part of the NPR (National Public Radio) network. Many colleges and universities have their own radio stations, which anyone can listen to. Some stations broadcast religious programming (= types of programmes). Radio stations operated by people from particular cultural groups offer programmes in languages other than English. Other stations have talk radio and phone-in programmes, in which radio presenters discuss an issue and invite people listening to telephone the station and take part in the discussion. Some stations play a particular kind of music, such as ‘top 40’ (= popular songs) or country music. Each station has a specific format (= style of programmes), which it hopes will be popular with its listenership ( NAmE for ‘audience’). Many stations make their name from their call letters or frequency, for example Sunny 95. The FCC also gives a station its call letters, the letters that it uses to identify itself. The FCC ( Federal Communications Commission), a part of the US government, issues licences to radio stations and says what frequency (= what part of the range of radio waves) they can use. The network affiliates (= stations in the group) use some of the same programmes. There are no national radio stations, but there are networks, groups of stations that are associated with each other. Many people listen to the radio during drive time (= the time when they are travelling to or from work).
In the US there are more than 13 000 radio stations. Ofcom issues licences to commercial broadcasters. Smaller stations are run by students or by hospitals for their patients. Local radio stations concentrate on local news, traffic reports and pop music. Radio Cymru broadcasts in the Welsh language and Radio nan Gaidheal in Scottish Gaelic. The BBC has 40 local radio stations, and six stations broadcasting in the national regions: Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Many programmes, both from the BBC and commercial stations, can be listened to on the internet. Independent radio stations which broadcast in competition with the BBC and are paid for from advertising include Classic FM talkSPORT, Heart and Capital FM. The BBC also operates the BBC World Service, which broadcasts to most parts of the world.
The other BBC stations, which can be listened to only on digital radio, are 1Xtra, 4 Extra, 5 Live Sports Extra, 6 Music, and Asian Network. Radio 1 plays new rock, pop and dance music, Radio 2 broadcasts popular music, Radio 3 offers classical music (= serious music written by Bach, Beethoven, etc.), jazz and arts programmes, Radio 4 broadcasts popular news and current affairs programmes, drama and arts programmes, comedy and documentaries, and Radio 5 Live has sport and news.
There are ten national BBC radio stations. A large percentage of the British radio audience listen to the BBC the rest listen to independent commercial radio, which has advertising. They can listen to a radio show while it is being broadcast or later, by downloading it to their phone, tablet or computer. Culture radio radio People in Britain listen to the radio a lot, especially in the morning and the early evening or while they are in their cars.