Marketing Communications

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Marketing Communications
Advertising Media

RADIO AND TELEVISION: Radio and television stations are licensed by the Communications
Commission (a government controlled agency) to operate in the public interest. Some of their
characteristics are:

1. They use airwaves to broadcast messages that are received in homes by people who have
   bought receiving sets.


2. They are operated by private enterprises, licensed to broadcast programmes on radio and
   television.


3. They are time-organized – schedule programmes and commercials by hour of the day.


4. They sell units of time to advertisers.


5. They have networks of stations in order to broadcast simultaneously in many parts of
   the country.


6. They can broadcast internationally.

AVAILABLE TRANSMISSION FACILITIES ON RADIO

Radio stations are either AM – amplitude modulation or FM – frequency modulation. Broadcasting can
be classified into NETWORK, SPOT and LOCAL.

SIGNAL: the electrical impulses that are broadcast by radio or television are called the SIGNAL. If a
station has a good signal in a given territory, that means its programmes and commercials come over
clearly in that area. Thus reception is clear and audible.

FREQUENCY: all signals are transmitted by electromagnetic waves or radio waves; the number of waves
that pass a given point in a given period of time is the frequency.

AM or AMPLITUDE MODULATION: in AM broadcasting, the radio waves are primarily ground waves
which travel along the surface of the earth and are relatively unaffected by obstacles or even the earth’s
curvature. They lose energy to the ground as they travel and finally fade out. AM waves can travel in a
circle of 400 miles. The wave cycle is measured in kilohertz – thousands of cycles per second.

FM or FREQUENCY MODULATION: FM broadcasting came about fifteen years after the discovery of
AM and grew very rapidly. It has a fine broadcast tone and less affected by noise because the FM wave
is twenty times wider than the AM wave. This makes FM to produce better transmission and reception.
Because of the wide wave used by FM station, a large band in the spectrum will be assigned and it is
very high that its frequency is measured in megahertz – millions of cycles per second.

At that height, the FM wave is above static, fading, background noises and interference from station at
lower levels. The result is that it sounds pure enough for stereophonic reception of music which brings
greater joy to FM station listeners.