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Saturday, 19th December 2009

BBC Radio 4 big winner as listeners quit Radio Scotland

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Published Date: 30 October 2009
By Tim Cornwell
SCOTTISH regional radio stations have seen listener numbers fall back this year while the BBC's UK-wide programming – in particular Radio 3 and 4 – have seen audiences growing strongly, new figures show.
BBC Radio Scotland saw audience ratings dip by 13.2 per cent this quarter, to an estimated 822,000 people, from a year ago. Some Scottish commercial stations also saw significant falls.

The latest Radio Joint Audience Research (Rajar) figures sh
ow BBC Radio 4's mix of news, culture, comedy and quiz shows as the big winner, with 10.22 million tuning in each week, up by 750,000, its biggest total in at least ten years. The Today show alone had 6.6 million listeners.

"The move to Radio 4 is the story of the day," said Charles Fletcher, of Caledonia Media.

BBC Radio Scotland saw its reach – measured by the number of people aged over 15 tuning in for at least five minutes a week – fall to 822,000 in the third quarter of 2009, down from 947,000 a year ago and from 938,000 in the second quarter of this year.

Jeff Zyncinski, head of Radio Scotland, said the dip partly reflected the summer gap in Scottish Premier League coverage.

"I'm very proud of the programmes that we have been producing lately," he said, "from the Under the Influence season, looking at Scotland's relationship with alcohol, to host Brian Taylor's new debate format on Friday afternoons."

The Bauer radio group saw some of its commercial stations register falls, with its Clyde 2 audience 25.2 per cent down on last year, though its ForthOne station was up 8.8 per cent.

The BBC's classical station, Radio 3, also recorded its highest figures in five years, with 2.2 million listeners. Radio 1 rose marginally to 11.11 million while Radio 2 was also up to 13.62 million.





Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 29 October 2009 9:16 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Ciotach,

30/10/2009 00:28:53
So 'the summer gap in Scottish Premier League coverage' is partially responsible for the decline in the number of listeners to Radio Scotland. It might also be the fact that the station seems incapable of running more than ten minutes of news or current affairs without it being interrupted by a weather forecast, some sports 'news', or somebody without a life phoning in to say that the traffic's busy on the M8. After Lesley Riddoch's programme was taken off its regular spot they couldn't even provide a continuous hour of topical news/current affairs without introducing yet more damn sport at 12.45.
2

Fifi la Bonbon,

30/10/2009 00:35:05
I think we need to look at the programmes that Radio 4 is broadcasting and what's on on Radio Scotland at the same time.

Mornings - The Today Programme with people like John Humphries and James Naughtie. Meanwhile Radio Scotland is trying to do the same thing but without John Humphries and James Naughtie. Then a talk programme like start the week with Andrew Marr, or In Our Time or desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young, as opposed to a phone in on Radio Scotland monopolised by embittered taxi drivers with a grievance.

Then Radio 4 is vulnerable with Woman's Hour, but that's when Radio Scotland has Fred McAulay and his awful claque. Later in the morning there's often a wee bit of comedy or drama - recently the superb Stanley Baxter Playhouse. At lunchtime, Radio 4 is weak, with you and Yours consumer nonsense for a full hour - but Radio Scotland fails to respond with anything worth listening to, and so to one o'clock and the World at One which is essential. At two, Radio 4 has the Archers which turns off a lot of Scots, but Radio Scotland has Tom Morton playing pop music.

Then it's a play on Radio 4 and various bits and bobs till 5, and then PM, with the matchless Eddie Mair, who at one time did the slot on Radio Scotland that Fred McAulay did but did it well. And so on through the evening when Radio Scotland turns into a sort of Radio 2. The only Radio Scotland programme I half regularly listen to is Pipeline.

And have you noticed that Radio 4 has all the best Scots radio broadcasters?

I don't honestly know what Radio Scotland can do to compete. More serious programmes, less trivia, especially when Radio 4 is weak at ten and at noon, and sometimes in the afternoons. Much of Radio 4 is essential. Hardly anything on Radio Scotland is like that.

3

Fifi la Bonbon,

30/10/2009 00:59:31
Of course if Mister Salmond's party has its way, they'll close down all the transmitters broadcasting Radio 4 in Scotland, and we'll be reduced to taping the previous day's Radio 4 and playing it the next day, or trying to listen on long wave.
4

Fifi la Bonbon,

30/10/2009 01:01:36
Actually they'll probably try to jam long wave because Sandra White MSP will claim the cricket is damaging impressionable young minds.
5

GrahamR,

Edinburgh 30/10/2009 02:17:44
I'd almost forgotten that Radio Scotland existed at all. It is some time since I tried to find out where it was but it was almost as bad as Radio Forth.
6

Navvy,

30/10/2009 02:49:28
Surprise, FiFi has just about hit the nail on the head with her comment

And have you noticed that Radio 4 has all the best Scots radio broadcasters? YES

Radio Scotland is a dumbed down programme. People like Radio 4 precisely because it leaves most of the sport to other channels.

This is great news for Scotland since it indicates that we have a growing liking for good programmes. The rest can have their armchair sport all day. If we don't like the Archers then we can go out and get some exercise.

You can always listen to BBC online. Some small countries are gearing up with a 100MBPS cable network at very modest charges
7

Jose Hartley,

30/10/2009 07:36:54
#2 good analysis! Although you could just have said that Radio Scotland is an embarrassment...

Wonder if Naughtie, Marr and Mair would return to an independent Scotland? Would the Highland mafia who run Radio Scotland come under more pressure to deliver better stuff? And why, on DAB, are we subjected to hours of inane, airtime-wasting fitba drivel every weekday evening? And that's from someone who likes the game...

Given the number of intelligent Scots who seem to chose the (largley English) Today programme, Radio Scotland is failing to deliver effective current affairs coverage in Scotland. Such coverage is a prerequisite of a healthy, mature democracy, surely?
8

Mercutio,

FALKIRK 30/10/2009 07:48:12
Radio Scotland is just what you would expect it to be. Radio 4 is listening for grown ups.
9

EdwinB,

30/10/2009 08:04:02
Agree with Fifi - Eddie Mair is matchless, and with Graham and others about Radio Scotland.

Can't remember who said it, but Radio Scotland at least gave us the two funniest words in Scottish football reporting - 'We Neutrals', and that applies to politics as well. Radio Scotland is dire, just dire, from every angle.

Don't know if the rest of you listen to Radio 7, but there is a cracking Taggart spoof serial on it called Boxer and Doberman, which is far ahead of anything you hear on Radio Mince.

Oh and I believe you hear more about Scottish cricket - 3rd most popular sport in Scotland - on Radio 5 than from our so-called 'Home Team'





10

Gordon100,

Edinburgh 30/10/2009 08:13:08
If RS wants more audience share then it should consider putting sport on FM – it would not suit everyone as the posts here would confirm but most folk want is what they can’t get elsewhere – i.e. Scottish sport. The current MOR music and speech programmes are not that good so they are not popular. I have asked for the audience figures for MW (i.e. sports) and FM (mostly not sport) but didn’t get them. I think they would confirm how popular sport is – as per the reason for reduced listeners over the summer – but RS will be (somewhat understandably) reluctant to face this issue. Let’s have more sport on the accessible FM channel and other distinctive programme at other times.
11

Kirsty Boyd-Williamson,

New Town 30/10/2009 08:29:55
Bull's eye for Fifi! Very articulately argued. Well done.
12

Jose Hartley,

30/10/2009 08:59:52
#11, I was told that sport was on RS's one DAB channel because it was more popular than the evening music programmes. I'm not big on the music either but - other than when there's actually a decent game on - they're a better use of the airtime in my view.

I'm not even sure how much fitba there should be on RS. If it's so popular (and the 'magazine' format shows must be dirt-cheap to make) then maybe more of it should be on commercial channels and let the BBC spend their/our money producing high-quality but commercially-unviable programming.
13

Mike S,

30/10/2009 09:15:32
So long as Scottish national media, such as Scottish TV channels and the likes of the Scotsman, treat Scotland as a region and temper their output accordingly, the content of these media will be parochial in nature and less appealing than a "NATIONAL" channel.
14

mr broon,

Edinburgh 30/10/2009 09:43:34
In 2004, after years of gradually falling listener numbers, Radio 4 had around 8 million listeners.

In 2006, the government agreed to a reasonable licence fee increase, and the BBC injected an extra £11.5 million into ALL its radio programming, and hired many new broadcasters and commentators, including Radio 4.

(Source: BBC Radio Times)
15

Margaret L,

Edinburgh 30/10/2009 10:06:56
Good Morning Scotland just gets worse and worse. Soon the whole programme will be devoted to reading out inane text messages with occasional snippets of news in between. Drivetime is not much better hosted as it is by giggling schoolgirls.

A real and shaming comparison is with Irish broadcasting who manage on the same funding as Radio Scotland to turn out programmes that are almost on a par with Radio 4.
16

Anne,

Eaglesham 30/10/2009 11:38:42
I gave up on Radio Scotland when Ruth Wishart, Iain Anderson and Lesley Riddoch disappeared from daytime listening.

The tripe being broadcast now is mind-numbing.
17

Tracker,

30/10/2009 12:43:24
I agree that Radio Scotland is full of tripe and that I am not too keen on phone-in programmes which feature people who often have say little worth hearing. The station nonetheless employs a lot of people who need work.
18

JC1,

Glasgow 30/10/2009 13:07:46
FIFI right as usual, I can't remember the last time I listened to radio Scotland.
19

Jo Public,

30/10/2009 13:59:50
BBC Radio Scotland should have a long hard look at itself. The product is absolutely crep. I used to like it before they bloody feminised it. There is an unhealthy pro-wimmin bias - most days the main presenters are wimmin and they seem to go out of their way to track down other wimmin to interview. If there is a glass ceiling at this station then it's the men who are being held back.
20

The Col. of Monte Cristo,

30/10/2009 15:30:03
I love it how the Unionists all hate Radio Scotland...It is everything you would imagine they would want it to be.

A crappy underfunded, Brigadoonish, full cousin of twenty odd English regional stations.

It must be the name that bugs them!

Presumably the Hootsmon subscribes to RAJAR, so why not print the actual figures and we could see for ourselves how many watch which station?

For all we are told here, the "Big Winner" Radio 4 may be the seventeenth most popular Station in Scotland with an average share of 0.6% of the listeners.
21

Fifi la Bonbon,

30/10/2009 17:27:20
My goodness me but people have been awful kind with their compliments, but I wouldn't like people to think I dislike or disrespect BBC Radio Scotland. It's simply that in the important respects it isn't as good as BBC Radio 4, which is probably the best radio station in the world ever.

Now if BBC Radio Scotland was to try to provide a service that complemented and gave a genuine alternative to BBC Radio 4, giving listeners a proper choice, then it would need to improve its game. That doesn't mean trying to poach BBC Radio 4 broadcasters who happen to have Scottish roots. These people are the best in the world and undoubtedly enjoy working on the national stage across the UK. It should find and make better use of its stars - people like Lesley Riddoch, who ought not to be doing phone ins - and dump Tom Morton and Fred McAulay, who will undoubtedly find niches on Smooth FM or whatever.

Actually, phone ins are just fillers and the grumpy moaners that queue up to get on the phone-ins speak for nobody but themselves, a bit like the people who fill these comments columns. No offence. So scrap the phone ins.

Stop the record programmes during the day. That's what commercial radio is for.

And stop the traffic news and two hour rolling news - people in cars can use traffic information on FM and local radio can cater for their needs. As for rolling news and sport - that's what Radio 5 and local radio are for as well. At the very least, confine rolling news and sport to medium wave for those people who really need to hear a report about the latest outrage in Somalia read by someone with an Edinburgh accent.

Commission and broadcast drama and readings. There's plenty of playwrights and actors in Scotland and if Oran Mor in Glasgow can do a play, a Pie and a Pint then BBC Radio Scotland can broadcast a play a day, maybe broadcasting the Oran Mor show and developing similar things in other parts of the country. Do it at 10 am and at 12 noon and nobody need ever l
22

Fifi la Bonbon,

30/10/2009 17:27:52
Do it at 10 am and at 12 noon and nobody need ever listen to Woman's Hour and You and Yours ever again.

It can't be that expensive to broadcast an actor from the Traverse or the Citizens doing readings of Gutenberg classics, especially if you're not paying the kind of fees Fred McAulay probably commands.

And work with colleges and universities to do programmes about history, science, art and all that stuff. In Our Time isn't challenging and interesting because Melvyn Bragg is brilliant - it's good because of the academics, and we have lots of them who are experienced at giving lectures and will work for buttons for the chance to bang on about their subject.

You should all do a petition to get me onto the board of the BBC so you should. I'd soon learn 'em.
23

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 30/10/2009 19:13:02
Fifi. Have a couple of compliments from online posters gone to your head? Radio Fifi and see if listerers tune in.

Traffic news is important as a lot of the percentage figures are made up from drivers. Not everyone lives in a 1930's radio home time warp bubble you know.
24

Jock Tamson,

Scotland, Caledonia, Alba 30/10/2009 19:16:26
Is afterthought not wonderful?

I should have put counties in parenthesis between home and time @24.
25

It's life but not as we know it,

The Oort Clouds 30/10/2009 19:58:53
Women's Hour has debased itself to little more than discussion of one orgas-m after another and giggly jokes about men. Rubbish.

 

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