Calling Out Around The World
I'm about to tell you a half-truth. Every month the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland website records half a million page impressions and, by the by, this wee blog of mine accounts for "a whopping" five percent of that. Those are the official figures because, nowadays, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ doesn't include overseas traffic when publicising those statistics. If it did, the numbers would probably be twice as big.
There are reasons for this modesty, including the fact that people in other countries don't pay the licence fee, but I think it's a pity. I like to believe that we have a role in telling the world about Scotland and not just for the many thousands of ex-pats who come to us because of nostalgia for the 'old country'. I think we should be sharing all sorts of stories - historic and contemporary - and showcasing Scottish talent on the international stage.
Of course to do that properly would take a bit more dosh. Your dosh, to be precise. Oh, stop with the tut-tutting.
Now, just about every one of my predecessors as Head of Radio has complained about tight budgets. Thirty years ago, when Radio Scotland broke free from the Radio 4 mothership, the funding allowed for only so many hours of home-grown output per week. There were whole parts of the weekend when the programming reverted back to London. Over the years, bit by bit, the schedule has expanded and now we also have all these online bells and whistles like our Zones, podcasts and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer.
We're able to do this because the investment in technology makes it easier to make more hours of programming despite the fact that the money available for content continues to shrink. It's called 'Value for Money'. Compared to commercial radio, of course, we're very well off. Compared to the U.K. networks, we're not so rich.
Finances will always limit creative ambitions but if some deranged accountant suddenly handed me a big cheque then I would pass it to programme makers so that they could travel further and tell the bigger, global stories. Yes, yes, I know. There's already the ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service and it does a brilliant job, but, I don't think people around the planet should hear a version of Scotland that's always filtered through London.
Or Salford, for that matter. Or even Glasgow.
This, I hasten to add, is not a party political viewpoint, it's about self-confidence and an ethusiasm for Scottish culture and talent.
Oddly, I got to thinking about this after a trip to my local Blockbuster store the other night. I don't know if you've noticed, but when they have a foreign movie on the shelves they put a big warning sticker on the front telling you that it's subtitled. You usually get a secondary, verbal warning when you go the counter to pay for it.
That's what happened when I rented Katyn - in the early years of World War II. The film also provides a glimpse of Poland during the post-war period of Soviet control and how the people took different approaches to preserving their culture and identity to "build as much freedom as we can".
It's a tragic, stirring and important story and I noticed that the film was partly financed by Polish television. It made an impact on me and I don't think that's just because of my own ancestry. Some stories simply speak to the world.
So here begins my campaign for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Scotland International. Given my current state of health it may not happen in my lifetime, but I'm sure we'll get there.
With or without subtitles.
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