Does Scotland need a new public radio station – er yes!
I was in the audience at a broadcasting conference today in Edinburgh and was starting to bite the carpet when almost an hour and three speakers had passed without the word radio being uttered more than once. I know the big bucks are in TV – but actuallyin TV stats show radio has more listeners and that more people get their news from radio than TV. But never mind the numbers game – radio is not just TV without pictures. It can handle complex thought and ideas, it's more immediate and versatile and more interactive than the box. But currently, the same lack of competition and lack of space in TV identified by Blair Jenkin's Scottish Broadcasting Commission exists in radio as well.
Anyway, I asked a question which was swiftly picked up by the eagle-eared Mike Wilson of allmediascotland.com, which organ is liable to post the following...
One of Scotland's best-known journalists is calling for a review of radio similar in ambition to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission which, despite its title, was mainly about television. Lesley Riddoch yesterday warned that radio in Scotland is facing contraction on a number of fronts – commercial radio is abandoning speech programmes and news content as the credit crunch bites and advertising revenue falls, and some independent radio producers like her own company, the Dundee-based Feisty, have not had existing commissions renewed by BBC Scotland.
She said: "I sense more speech radio output is being taken in-house by the BBC, not for any sinister reason. There are simply not enough available broadcast hours on Radio Scotland to accommodate the range of programme ideas and radio talent in this country. Unfortunately at present, speech-based independent radio producers have very few other places to go. It's taken my company three years to get registered as suppliers to Radio 4 -- and despite an enormous effort we have got nothing commissioned so far. Of course indys aren't owed a living. But on present trends, there could be very few independent radio producers around in Scotland next year."
Riddoch was among around 80 delegates at a conference yesterday, looking at the future of Scottish broadcasting, which included a keynote speech (here) from a Scottish Government minister and panel sessions involving, among others, Stuart Cosgrove, director of nations and regions at Channel 4, and former First Minister, Henry McLeish, a member of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission. She runs Feisty Productions whose current commissions include the weekly Riddoch Questions and a business series New Hands on Sundays at 10.30am from Feb 22nd.
She received support from the chair of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission, Blair Jenkins, who said he suspected a review of radio in Scotland will happen quite soon. But Jenkins added that, within the Commission, a debate about radio "didn't really kick-off", the Commission's plea for information and evidence attracting representatives only of community radio and people complaining about individual programmes on Radio Scotland. Continued Riddoch: "I was a member of the Prison's Commission last year, and currently chair a Taskforce on the Island of Rum – so I know how time consuming and intensive the Scottish Broadcasting Commission's work must have been. The radio fanatic in me would love to see the same amount of care and thought devoted to a medium that actually beats TV for immediacy and size of audience – but I don't expect it'll happen. A more modest review however would be easy to set up quickly – and very welcome."
Just to make it clear, I have absolutely no desire to chair any Radio review! I think I'm far too close to the whole thing. But someone needs to wrap their brains around the difficulties facing ALL the media in Scotland – print too. There may be a really inventive and creative way to pool resources across the normal paper/radio/TV boundaries to create a very different kind of media beastie.
Thoughts?
