What Next?
A day of back-to-back meetings at Pacific Quay and every one of them has been about the future. There's no doubt that the new technology we now have at our disposal will allow us to develop all sorts of new services. But which ones? This is the fun part - imagining possibilities - and programme makers seem enthused by this new working environment. We hope to make some exciting announcements in September.
Yet, as I look out at the River Clyde, I'm struck by the complete lack of activity on the water. Not a single ship or boat in sight. How very different from the day, about forty years ago, when my Dad took me for a stroll through the Clydeside shipyards. As a welder he was well used to the noise and bustle, but I was awe-struck by everything I saw.
Will broadcasting go the same way as shipbuilding? Who knows? But it's easy to take it all for granted.
This afternoon I was giving Tom Morton a tour of the building. It's an open plan environment and no one has an enclosed office. Not even my boss, Ken MacQuarrie who we encountered next to the preserved desk of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s first Director General, John Reith. How technology has changed since Reith's day, but his original vision of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s purpose remains intact.
Ken is just back from the International Press Institute Congress in Instanbul where broadcasters from around the world told stories of repressive regimes, murdered colleagues and the complete repression of free speech.
Free speech.
Here in Scotland, we tend to take that for granted too.
