The Zones - And Why It's Time To Split
There's an article in this morning -and also on - about our plans for the future. By future I mean next week. That's when we'll be refreshing the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland schedule, introducing our new signature music and launching our new online audio streams - or zones.
We'll have a new business programme on Sundays, more new drama, more editions of the Investigation and fewer feature repeats in the daytime schedule.
Bryan Burnett's Get It On programme will be extended and - further down the line, we have new music programmes from the likes of Julie Fowlis.
So far the reporters I've spoken to have been most interested in the Zones, although these are a work in progress. In simple terms it involves stacking content around partcular themes. We've deiced on five such themes to begin with: Celtic, Comedy, History, New Music and Arts, Jazz & Classical. We'll launch one a day from next week each will be available online for a week.
A few weeks later these will become stand-alone audio streams, able to be received via Macs, PCs and internet radios as a continuous loop...almost, but not quite, like mini radio stations. It should make it easier for listeners to find the kind of content they are most interested in
And over the course of the summer these audio streams will find a home in our various online portals and so will be augmented with visual content - videos, slideshows - and written pieces relevant to different programmes. Look out also for forthcoming improvement to the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s iPlayer which will make it very easy to find particular programmes from any ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio network, including ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland.
It's a lot to get over and our publicity department has been lining up different interviews for me. They also decided I needed a new official ´óÏó´«Ã½ photograph to go with that. A couple of weeks ago Suzanne Vickers, from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland Press Office, told me she had lined up the brilliant to take these.
"Great, " I said, "just give me plenty of notice so that I can get a decent haircut and lose some weight."
"That's a deal," she said, "You have four hours...he's taking the photographs this afternoon."
Don't blame the photographer. Look what he has to work with.
