Three Year Strategy
I've spent most of today hunched over a hot keyboard hammeing out a three year strategy for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland. This has been requested by the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Director of Nations & Regions and it certainly does focus the mind. Short of a crystal ball and a really good set of Tarot cards, I have been forced to make predictions based on current trends, demographic data and good old-fashioned guesswork.
If, as seems likely, Scoland's population will get decline and age in the coming years, what will that mean for radio listening? Indeed, some of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s top thinkers suggest the word ' radio' may eventually disappear as we all go searching for different kinds of 'audio' on various digital devices.
Well, call me perverse, but I predict people will still want live news programmes and live football commentary. Perhaps, in a world of on-demand archive material, live programmes will seem like a bit of a novelty. Live music - remember that?
And what will happen to commercial radio stations? Most of them seem to be chasing an ever-vanishing younger audience who seem to prefer listening to music on MP3 players.
And will people always want local or even Scottish programming? Do people in Glasgow not have more in common with people in Manchester or Barcelona than they do with the good folk of Dingwall?
In any case, people are already making their own radio and television programmes and sending them to each other through broadband internet links.
Three year strategy? Who know what will happen in three months?
Please feel free to make your own predictions. Your guess is as good as mine.
