Why is Radio Scotland so shite?
It’s difficult to know if Radio Scotland needs salvaged or put out of its misery. But in the context of Creative Scotland’s warning that it may have to cut in half the number of companies and organisations it provides long-term funding to, the threat of the station to cut its cultural output of jazz, classical music and piping seems a dire blow to an already beleaguered brand.
Scotland’s Makar, Kathleen Jamie, has said: “Radio Scotland seems to be in full retreat from Scottish culture. Where is the poetry and literature? Now they are threatening to cut jazz, classical and piping programmes. We have a thriving arts and music scene in Scotland – why not on our national radio?”
Saxophonist Tommy Smith – the founder-director of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and head of jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow – has spoken out against BBC Radio Scotland’s plans to axe its Sunday evening Jazz Nights programme:
“It’s only a matter of weeks since Georgia Cécile won both the UK Jazz Act of the Year and Vocalist of the Year titles at the Jazz FM Awards and pianist Fergus McCreadie won the Scottish Album of the Year Award. And yet our national radio station is withdrawing a programme that gives these talents an essential platform.”
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“I support the arts across the board and it’s great to see Scotland excelling in so many disciplines. But I especially urge Radio Scotland to keep this invaluable programme, Jazz Nights in place and to continue shining a light on Scotland’s jazz scene, which is currently the envy of many countries around the world.”
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Now Donald Shaw, director of Celtic Connections has spoken out about the proposed cuts and an open letter to Angus Robertson MSP have been signed calling on the Scottish Government to intervene over cuts they say will have a “devastating” impact on the country’s classical, jazz and piping scenes.
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You don’t need to be a supporter of (or even like) jazz, classical music or piping to understand that the role of a national/public broadcaster must be to support indigenous creativity that isn’t overtly commercial. This output needs supported and defended but the stagnant pond of Radio Scotland also needs completely overhauled. That’s putting it politely. Inane comedy, phone-in drivel, dullard mainstream editorial and mind-numbingly poor editorial and production are the least of the problems.
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The controversy about the axing of Jazz Nights, Classics Unwrapped and Pipelines is a valid one – and the argument that this is a ‘first world problem’ and that priorities lie elsewhere doesn’t wash. But it needs to be put in a wider context.
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As Kathleen Jamie notes we have a thriving music and cultural and poetry scene – ‘world beating’ despite government intransigence – and where is the connectivity between the arts and broadcasters? It’s just missing in action.
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But apart from the withdrawal of support for key cultural projects the wider questions for BBC Scotland are: where is the content for young people? Where is the throughput of new talent? Where is the high-quality arts coverage other than the dirge of low-brow chat that is churned out ad nauseam? Where is the serious news and current affairs content on BBC Scotland?
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We are facing a situation where there is the prospect of a cultural wasteland ahead of us. The recent closure of the Filmhouse and Edinburgh Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art are harbingers of the not so distant future. The Scotsman reports that: “Creative Scotland was forced to raid its national lottery reserves after being hit with a 10 per cent cut in its direct funding from the Scottish Government to avoid passing this on to the 120 organisations employing more than 5,000 workers in its £34 million “regularly funded organisations (RFO)” network.”
“Chief executive Iain Munro has told the Scottish Parliament around 60 organisations could lose support – effectively putting 2,500 jobs at risk – unless there is a rethink over backing for the cultural sector.
He said up to further 300 companies and organisations who are without any long-term support – increasingly seen as essential for the stability of venues, events and performing arts companies – would also have to be turned away if Creative Scotland was targeted for cuts again.”
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Many companies face insolvency. The current economic crisis has hit many venues ahead of the massive impact of the lockdown on live performance and the virtual collapse of audiences.
You can support the petitions to save these programmes here:
Jazz Nights
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Classics Unwrapped
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But saving these programmes is only a fraction of the problem for the radio station which feels tired, low-brow and out of touch. Much of the time listening to it is to experience and suffer from cultural cringe. It remains to be seen whether BBC Scotland is salvageable or will slowly be deserted for independent media, podcasts and the alternatives emerging out of quiet despair.
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BBC scotland tv news are not fairing much better.. last night was hilarious the low, low was a story about a dug being dug up and relocated cause it once played Greyfriars Bobby.. in a movie.
In the name of the wee man.. of all the things going on in Scotland they are keen to wind the clock back to the 1950s know your place.. Tory laird dominated Scotland. What will it take for staff to walk from this uk state broadcaster towing the Tory party line. The editorial formula: seems to be – bash the snp, feature about a murder outside the courts, then a story to demonise the Sturgeon with no one from SNP interviewed or allowed to comment, then a feature that report stories on the Uk and seem to make them apply to Scotland point only put the differences at the end, then give the Tories a final bash at Scottish government then, a daft interest story sic Dug, fitba, fitba and more about some fitba about England ..
I usually only listen to radio when driving.
Invariably when I click on Radio Scotland I hear nothing but football drivel from one inarticulate drongo after another.
Needless to say, it gets switched right back off again.
I resent intensely the amount of exposure football gets on TV and Radio.
There are so many other sports which could benefit from more exposure and it was only recently that woman’s football got a look in.
The same applies to many aspects of Scottish culture..
As far as I can tell Scottish fiddle and Harp music get practically no exposure either.
Something needs to be done – and soon.
Iain – I agree – and I love my football. Even in the summer when the football is off there’s still programmes about football … that’s really weird. In media terminology it’s called ‘super-serving’ an audience
How else would fans know if Celtic or The Rangers win the summer transfer window shield?
They could buy the Daily Ranger aka the Daily Rebel !
Someone need to light a fire under BBC Scotland’s ass. If only Scotland’s member on the BBC’s Board had the skills to do it.
Scotland’s ‘member of the BBC Board’ was given the post because he/she would NOT promote Scottish culture in any way and would advance UK propaganda.
I choose my time to listen in because for me there is generally an unacceptable overload of ‘fitbaw’ and phone-in drivel. The afternoon programming is generally good though and I positively choose ‘Drivetime’ over ‘Pm’ on Radio 4 for a roundup of Scottish news. Totally agree with the need to keep these programmes mentioned above and will sign the petitions
On the Broadcasting Commission, years ago, I asked the then Head of BBC Governors “What is your vision for Radio Scotland and what is it’s targets?” There was a very long pause before he replied “I think it is fair to say that that is a question we could give more attention to.”
For London, BBC Scotland is a local radio station like Radio Gloucester or wherever, its airwaves to be filled with cheap muzac and daft conversations with the sort of local people who like phone-ins. Once in a while a decent programme manages to slip by the schedules without anyone noticing, but that’s by accident more than design.
The comedy show I’m sorry I’ll Read that Again, years ago, ran a spoof station called Radio Prune “broadcasting for mum, dad, granny and the kids”. I’m afraid that’s the template Radio Scotland seems to follow.
This is part of the ‘culture war’ (sometimes known as ‘the war on the woke’) being waged by the UK Government and its right wing cronies.
There’s one programme I’d nominate as standing out on rScotland. That is Scotland Outdoors on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. I might add On the Ball actually though I’m not really in to football. Anyway Scotland Outdoors deals with a lot of environmental questions, interviews local groups and delves into history. I would defend that programme to the hilt!
Wholeheartedly agree but, by broadcasting the programme at 6.30 am on Saturday it seems Radio Scotland doesn’t value it very highly.
I listen on catchup to defeat the marginalisation of Scotland Outdoors. All the channels are pretty awful to be honest – some worse than others. Channel 4 news for instance interrupted a fascinating interview about climate change to do yet another item on the Royal Red Herring. It was like that moment in the film Dont Look Up where they distract the audience from hearing about imminent destruction.
There are serious issues at stake. The BBC and Channel 4 have public service duties. We know that as far as we are concerned they dont fulfill them properly. This is particularly concerning when they fail to report extreme weather accurately or road traffic incidents in a timely manner.
I agree it’s not all bad. There’s some good stuff and plenty of good people working there. But I mean … c’mon … the state of it …
Totally agree Cathie. Scotland Outdoors is a great show which covers a really wide variety of outdoor topics across the whole of Scotland – it’s the only radio show that I always listen too (albeit on catch up as it is on very early …). Over the years it has also covered lots of items relating to our “thriving arts scene” with musical, writing and sculptural stuff covered.
They’ve interviewed a number of writers whose books I’ve followed up – that’s rare to gain so much so consistently from a programme.
The member for Scotland, Muriel Gray, gets £33,000 for being in the committee, and £5000 extra for being the chair. I worked with the Adult Learning project for 32 years and it grew to having multiple branches. at one point it had 12 branches with 51 office bearers and probably another 60/70 members at committees/steering groups. No one received a penny. Her Production company sold last year for £12 Million.
Not happy with BBC Radio Scotland? Write to Muriel Grey. This is a deliberate and sustained belittling of Scottish Cultural and Civic life! An indicator of colonial power, from a Labour Party supporter.
Saw her on the (excellent) program about The Proclaimers recently, desperately trying to deny that Letter From America was in any way Scottish – (I’ve seen people crying, people who have nothing to do with Scotland) – it’s a Scottish song Muriel, written by Scots, specifically about Scotland and her history (Scotland’s, not Muriel’s.) Why on earth does she try to deny that? And watching her wriggling when speaking about Cap in Hand – pathetic.
The football coverage on radio Scotland is good, particularly off the ball and sacked in the morning if you want to include podcasts. This is no reason to extend the football coverage through the summer. Scotland outdoors is a superb programme, lang may its lum reek. It strikes me that the Scotland outdoors format is portable to the arts and culture sectors, Scotland Indoors if you like. Both the jazz and classical music programmes should be preserved and reinvigorated. News coverage is woeful. The news output should be scrapped and rebuilt completely. Drive time is little more than a phone in show.
Every day’s a black psy-op waged against those who live in Scotland. Every. Single. Day. It’s so transparent, so insufferable, it’s no surprise people turn off in droves – not a service reflecting the country but one distorting the country and serving further to render a country that doesn’t even know itself, not allowed to known its own riches, triumphs, joys and talents.
It’s a truly standard colonial black psy-op. I know the discussion around Scotland being treated like a colony is complex and contested, but I come from a former British colony and it damn well reeks of it to me, so often, so hideously, I’m so glad I’m not in Scotland right now – the effects on my mental health of the general overall situation, in which BBC Scotland plays a highly significant role – as Alex Massie once wrote ‘and so it should’ were becoming utterly ruinous for my mental health and it’s hard not to extrapolate out and see at least some of the causes of serious drug and alcohol problems. Can’t even watch their own football games on their own god damned national station for free? Would drive a person to drink and no f**kn wonder. Again, denuding and degrading local culture? So colonial, so black psy-op, so glad I’m away for now.
Cultural hegemony, on steroids.
It’s been as described for many years. The news is just blatant propaganda…there is no hint of the support for independence or the reasons for such support anywhere on any relevant programme. It would be respectful of folk like myself to hear a balanced informed debate regularly from acceptable representatives of interested parties plus folk off the street. It must be horrendous to work there knowing full well you are contributing to the political and cultural denigration of your country and people.
When Radio Scotland was launched, it was a beacon of excellence. Down to the quality of its journalists as it was poorly funded.
It has gone downhill ever since.
It should not be forgotten as part of the deflection from the “Scottish 6”, there was “official” talk of Radio Scotland 2.
I am astonished that the SNP do not make more of the bias in funding toward Scotland: at the appalling lack of ambition of what programmes are made here: at the obvious cultural genocide.
Does anyone remember when Scottish Labour used to promise the SNP—-“fight on culture, and we will be with you”!
Another lie, like the “Claim of Right”!——Aye right, more like!
‘Why is Radio Scotland so shite?’ British Bulllshit Corporation innit. You’ll never hear a positive thing said about Scotland on ANY of their channels, and yes, way too much football.
”Why is BBC Scotland shite ?” That’s it fulfilling its Mission Statement !
That is indeed the point. The British strategy across the board is to cripple or destroy standards on any public platform which might host mature debate on Scotland’s condition in any field. That now appears to include Holyrood judging by the behaviour of the Tories recently. It is a scorched earth policy from a state with nothing else to offer. Make a desert and call it peace.
Politically staunch unionist, it rarely portrays anything positive about Scotland.
Tune in at the weekend for a wall-to-wall football.
Brian Burnett is the only show worth a listen.
An embarrassment.
Back in the day, cultural nationalists like David Cleghorn Thomson, Moray McLaren and George Bruce secured positions of seniority and influence in BBC Scotland, contributing to the quality of cultural output on the Scottish Home Service. The BBC has learnt its lesson. It won’t be allowed to happen again.
Superb article, exposing the Tory media assault on Scotland and her culture. Will be reposted. Many thanks Mike & Co..
…and don’t get me started on the mostly empty BBC Scotland tv channel.
A notable exception was the excellent “The Mystery of Anthrax island”, utterly enraging, but great. Also, check out BBC Alba for the also excellent “Poilig na bord” (apologies if I’ve got the spelling wrong) about the chemical weapons testing off Tolsta in 1953, in which a Blackpool fishing boat sailed through a biochemical cloud and was allowed to disembark, then carry on it’s journey with no testing of any of the crew, to avoid Westminster embarrassment. Again, enraging, but if you look hard enough, there are gems.
Radio Scotland has been in severe decline for years with only one or two quality programmes shining through the daily guff. To get a feel for the failings of Radio Scotland try listening to their political podcast Podlitical, and then listen to the Newscast podcast from BBC news. Two podcasts trying to do the same thing. Podlitical is a mishmash of conversation that reveals nothing new, ever. It has no shape, form, and very low production values with no overall theme and bereft of any storytelling skills. The Podlitical podcast ends with a self congratulatory list of credits – which gives the impression that this long meaningless role call is the real purpose of the show.
The Newscast and Podlitical comparison sums up the state of Radio Scotland, and indeed the shocking state of Scottish broadcasting in general. As for tele…….
BBC Scotland is a subsidiary (branch office) of BBC London with very little control over its own schedule. Mega hours of shite from all the English regions (irrelevant to Scotland) beamed into our living rooms whether we like it or not. The arrangement is not reciprocal. Very very few BBC Scotland productions ever get an airing in rUK. As for football…..how is it possible that Scottish viewers get English international friendly games and early English F.A. Cup ties in preference to Scotland’s international competitive games when played at the same time? These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. There are another 1001 examples just bubbling away under the murky surface.
Why is Radio Scotland so shite?
Is it perhaps because it is, at it’s core, fake? It is not actually “Radio Scotland” is it? It is something else. “Radio Elsewhere”? “Radio Not Here”?
I can’t articulate it properly, but it’s exactly the same reason that Scottish Labour are shite. It’s not allowed to be good. It doesn’t have permission.
May I suggest the news is biased and poorly delivered. Glen Campbell. Hayley Miller. If you do stay tuned you then have to cope with Kay Adams. If by chance you haven’t switched off by now then you have the delight of the most exciting Johnny Beattie …..whippeee. At the weekend there is the football and the strange pairing of Stuart Cosgrove and Tam Cowan. I found Off the Ball an entertaining programme especially through the pandemic. They always had on Professor Leach giving us an update……this was very clever and very informative. Then Tam over stepped himself one afternoon. He often sailed close to the wind…..Stuart Cosgrove being the brains…….a disgusting joke and I mean utterly disgusting joke was spouted. I wrote and complained twice …three times …..zero reply …….not even an acknowledgment. Therefore maybe the only programme I tuned into got switched off. So Radio Scotland a station I have / had in my listen to list was deleted from my radio and car. Strangely enough I don’t miss it. But then I don’t miss Today Woman’s Hour The Archers In Our Time………is it BBC ? Mmmmmmmmm?
That’s a pity you packed in “Off the Ball”, Stuart Cosgrove is a world-class broadcaster in my view.
I think I can guess the joke that turned you off. Did it feature Danny McGrain? If so, I agree it was very rude and innapropriate. I’d give the “Odd Couple'” another chance, people are human and fallible. I don’t like football but I listen to this particular show.
Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw Haw would gave no problem getting a job with BBC Scotland.
In answer to Wul the joke ( though it was not what I consider a joke) was not about Danny McGrain. It was simply horrid and crude. I believe Stuart Cosgrove is a very clever fellow but his fellow contributor isn’t. The joke exemplified what Radio Scotland has become which was sited by the title of this article. Hence my mentioning it.
RS is so Glasgow-centric that they often don’t even bother to broadcast a weather forecast that covers all of Scotland. Very often seems like the South-East coast and the Borders don’t exist outside the ever-present sports (football) coverage. Presenters and interviewers that can barely string a sentence together. And John Beattie, a man who could bring a discussion on world poverty round to sport and continue as if he is still on subject. Don’t get me started on that unfunny t**t Des Clarke. Where did they dig him up?
And, for the record, do I really have to gjump through half a dozen ‘I am not a robot’ screens to get to register comment here????
Sorry Mike – that’s not in my control
No, just one.