´óÏó´«Ã½

Fresh off the train from Inverness this morning and into Pacific Quay to lead a branstorming session on new programmes and services. I'd asked staff across Scotland to come armed with their best ideas and was thrilled to discover that so many people wanted to take part that we had to organise another session next week.

It's always fun imagining future possibilities, but this time I was looking for concrete proposals in advance of our official commissioning round in November.
I'm particularly keen on ways to make more of our programmes available online and build on the success of our recent podcasting launches. In fact, at a meeting in London last week, I was chuffed to discover that ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland's podcasts are among the most popular that have been launched recently.

That, plus some amazing figures for our football coverage online, and tens of thousands of people 'listening again' to the commentary clip of James McFadden's winning goal against France.

At this morning's session we talked about news programmes, history, comedy, drama and there was an interesting difference of opinion about the kind of programmes that appeal most to female listeners.

"No one wants a 'burdz-zone' " said one of our news journalists.

Well maybe not from the ´óÏó´«Ã½, I thought, but I'm sure I could make money with that title in the commercial world.