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A couple of weeks ago we discussed the problems the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation would face in covering the Scottish Independence referendum, and what would happen to the BBC if there was a ‘yes’ vote.
Well now we know, because in its White Paper on Independence the SNP says that it plans a separate Scottish Broadcasting Service (SBS), to be funded by a separate Scottish licence fee. The new service would make its own programmes and would also buy some from what remains of the BBC (would the Corporation have to be retitled the E (nglish) W(elsh) and N(orthern) I(rish) Broadcasting Corporation?)
Of course this assumes that the EWNIBC would do deals as favourable as the ones that now exist for Scottish viewers and listeners via the BBC, and that the sums available to a SBS from within Scotland would be sufficient to maintain the existing services.
The last thing the BBC’s Director General wants is for his organisation to be drawn into the argument. He will have enough on his hands covering the debate without participating in it.
However if you want to write to us about anything to do with the coverage of the Referendum campaign we would be delighted to hear from you.
It is always difficult for an organisation to report upon itself. In this week’s programme I had to interview my own boss at Whistledown Productions, which produces Feedback, about another of his series, ‘A History of Britain in Numbers’. The content has been widely praised, but some found the use of music off putting - in fact some switched off. I hope listeners feel I treated him as I would any other.
The main part of this week’s programme was given over to an interview with the Controller of Radio 2, Bob Shennan. His station is the most popular in the UK but ‘uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. As a public service broadcaster he has to maintain his station’s popularity but also ensure that it caters for an older audience and provides music not regularly available on commercially funded stations. As a result of his most recent schedule changes lovers of big band music and easy listening worry that their music does not have much of a future under Bob Shennan. Is that true?
Here is this week’s Feedback feature on Radio 2.
Next week I am off to Ambridge, aka the Mailbox in Birmingham, to talk to the Archers’ Archivist for a feature for the final programme of this run.
One of her jobs is to ensure that characters do not act out of character. I’ll ask her whether Nigel Pargetter really was the sort of man who would climb up on a roof.
Do let me know what you would like me to find out.
Roger Bolton
Listen to the week’s Feedback
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