Voice, Radio, Field

This chapter uses interview and other original data drawn from research into how language might figure as an issue in the field of local radio in the Greater Manchester area. Unstructured interviews were held with representative figures on this topic, drawn from across the range of radio broadcasting in the Manchester area, using the idea of field-positional sampling. Like most local and regional fields of the media, the Manchester area yielded up representative institutions running across community, public service radio and commercial stations, as well as local offices of state regulators (in the UK this is OFCOM). This approach produced interviews of approximately one hour’s length with sixteen key figures involved in radio broadcasting in the area. As a result of this research the case of a community radio station, Caribbean Carnival Radio, presented a number of key issues in relation to the themes of this book.