I had the radio bug. Listening wasn’t enough. I needed to understand how all the parts went together. The shows were impossibly sexy sounding. Dave Marshall on breakfast on Clyde sounded like he was high up a tower looking down … Continue reading →

I was born in 1963. That’s the year the pirate stations started broadcasting from just outside territorial waters, but in the town of Grangemouth in central Scotland there was no such challenge. Life was pretty simple. Mum was a teacher, … Continue reading →

I’m taking part in this event next month, asking lots of pertinent question of the great and the good after the lovely Stuart Barrie gets the evening going. Ay questions you want me to ask?   Glasgow’s dynamic and thriving … Continue reading →

About a year ago at the end of 2015 my blog went off line. It turns out it was hacked via the comments section of the site and was being used by bad guys to send spam. My ISP and … Continue reading →

I was driving home on Friday afternoon, listening to Julia Hartley Brewer on LBC. It was a fairly ordinary phone in about (I think) immigration or a similar topic that gets the phones lighting up at an otherwise slow time. … Continue reading →

I think I’ve calmed down a bit since last night when I followed the Radio Academy’s AGM on twitter and then read a few blogs. Two things stuck with me. Firstly the fact that while the need for change is … Continue reading →

Years ago, in a meeting with Ross MacFadyen at the RNIB’s wonderful Insight Radio in Glasgow I heard a phrase for the first time. “Yes we’re a community station, but what we serve is a community of interest”. He was making … Continue reading →

Ten years since his passing, I’ve realised that the more I worked with Jimmy Mack, the more I admired him. I first met him in the mid 80s but had already listened for years to his show on BBC Radio … Continue reading →

Everywhere I go to talk to music programmers the talk turns to the threats and opportunities of online. Rarely, if ever, do any of them engage me in chat about music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and the upcoming iTunes … Continue reading →

Shortly before Christmas I started moving to get the Scottish Media Podcast under way and went as far as recording an interview for it. As often happens with my diary, real life took control of my diary, notably the addition … Continue reading →