Hollywood Radio
I was once mistaken for a famous film director . This was a few years ago and I was sitting in the Hamburger Hamlet on Hollywood Boulevard with Tom Morton when a well-mannered young man approached our table, apologised for disturbing us and asked if I was . I had to disappoint him, of course, and I felt bad about that. Then Tom pointed out that the mistake was understandable given that I was wearing glasses, a baseball cap and, as he put it, could lose a few pounds. I felt bad about that too, but then my triple decker cheeseburger with extra fries arrived and I decided to get on with my life.
I was reminded of this trip to Los Angeles when I read Lawrence Donegan's witty column in The Herald this weekend. He has spent some time working in California and has been comparing his experience of American talk radio stations with their counterparts in Scotland. Lawrence is of the view that U.S. style phone-in shows simply don't work in this couuntry because we're less inclined to vent our anger over the airwaves. I'm not sure I agree. Besides, there's something else about the American radio market that interests me and that's the illusion of choice.
Sitting in my hotel room in L.A. I was able to tune in to seventy different stations on my bedside radio. I'm sure the number has increased since then. Yet, that sheer number didn't guarantee variety. Most provided pop music of one kind or another - Top 40 or Gold formats - and then there were the variations of country music - classic country, hot country, new country.
In Scotland we've seen a similar explosion in radio over the past few years, but I'm not convinced that has resulted in more choice for listeners. Instead I've seen many commercial radio stations retreat from whole programme genres such as drama, comedy and documentaries. You can't blame them; the stations have to be run as viable businesses. They need programmes with big audiences and pop music will give you that.
Now, through digital platforms and the internet, audiences have access to more radio stations than ever before. That, in theory, should offer real choice.
So tell me, where does ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland fit in to this global village? Should we fall back on our unique selling point of 'Scotland' and retreat from the kind of international topics that you can hear elsewhere. Our experience tells us that would be a mistake, that listeners in Scotland don't want a service they perceive as parochial.
But you're the boss...you tell us.
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