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Scot FM
Scot FM was a regional radio station serving Central and Southern Scotland. Broadcast from studios at Albert Quay in Leith, the station was billed as radio for Scotland's thinking classes but was unable to create a clear identity for itself, while changing its format to focus on more populist content, including less speech and more music. The station was relaunched as Real Radio Scotland in January 2002 following a buyout by GMG Radio. Real Radio has since been succeeded by Heart Scotland.
In early 1993, the Radio Authority invited applicants to bid for a new regional FM licence covering Central Scotland and serving a potential audience of 3.3 million listeners. Seven groups contested the franchise:
Central Scotland Radio was named as the preferred bidder on 10 December 1993. The Radio Authority argued that the station would extend listeners choice and could demonstrate financial stability and professional qualifications appropriate to launching and maintaining the service during its eight-year licence period. The company's founding chairman, Sir David Steel (a non-executive director of Border Television), pledged the majority of its programming would be a unique Scottish view of Britain, the world, and Central Scotland's place in it. We will be primarily a talk station with news, travel information, and weather reports. Sport, politics, and the arts will be covered and listeners will be heavily involved through regular phone-ins. There was some disagreement and even questioning of the decision to let two television companies already running regional ITV franchises operate the new licence.
Scot FM began broadcasting on Friday 16 September 1994, after two weeks of test transmissions. Problems arose even before the station went on air - none of the thirteen presenters listed in its original application schedule had remained with the company and its target of 50% quality speech output at peak times could not be achieved. The station's news service was contracted out to Reuters Radio, leading to some confusion over how a station promising a unique Scottish view of Britain was carrying most of its news bulletins from an agency producing syndicated bulletins in London.
Complaints about the station began to appear in the press. Meanwhile, Scot FM management went back to the Radio Authority four times to seek permission to reduce its speech obligations within the licensed format. The station itself had limited music resources with around 1000 tracks on its playout systems, leading to some members of staff reportedly visiting local music shops to buy CDs of artists who were appearing as guests on the station. The first official RAJAR figures released in early 1995 revealed that the station had a weekly audience of 8%, far short of the target 13% share, making it one of the least successful UK radio stations in terms of audience share. Within seven months of the station going on air, five different presenters had hosted Scot FM's breakfast show and a programme controller had left owing to ill health.
A major revamp of the station took place shortly afterwards with the entire presenting team being replaced by new signings including Alison Craig, Robin Galloway and Scottie McClue. Despite the new presenting line-up and a reported improvement in weekly listening figures to 350,000, complaints regarding format and regulatory problems led to another shake-up at management level. The station replaced its syndicated Reuters Radio news bulletins with an in-house service, although this had limited resources and was reportedly under-staffed with inexperienced young journalists who were even forced to travel by bus to help cut costs. In May 1995, Border Television pulled out of the company and sold its stake to Grampian, which became the sole owner of Scot FM.
In another attempt to improve its fortunes, Scot FM brought exclusive rights to carry live Scottish Football League match commentaries for £155,000 a year. This caused even further problems when Northsound (official broadcast partner with Aberdeen F.C.) complained as Scot FM did not cover the Aberdeen area.
After two years in the role, Scot FM's managing director Tom Hunter resigned, another programme controller became ill with stress, and most of the presenting line-up departed. In 1996, Scot FM reported losses of around £1 million.
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Scot FM
Scot FM was a regional radio station serving Central and Southern Scotland. Broadcast from studios at Albert Quay in Leith, the station was billed as radio for Scotland's thinking classes but was unable to create a clear identity for itself, while changing its format to focus on more populist content, including less speech and more music. The station was relaunched as Real Radio Scotland in January 2002 following a buyout by GMG Radio. Real Radio has since been succeeded by Heart Scotland.
In early 1993, the Radio Authority invited applicants to bid for a new regional FM licence covering Central Scotland and serving a potential audience of 3.3 million listeners. Seven groups contested the franchise:
Central Scotland Radio was named as the preferred bidder on 10 December 1993. The Radio Authority argued that the station would extend listeners choice and could demonstrate financial stability and professional qualifications appropriate to launching and maintaining the service during its eight-year licence period. The company's founding chairman, Sir David Steel (a non-executive director of Border Television), pledged the majority of its programming would be a unique Scottish view of Britain, the world, and Central Scotland's place in it. We will be primarily a talk station with news, travel information, and weather reports. Sport, politics, and the arts will be covered and listeners will be heavily involved through regular phone-ins. There was some disagreement and even questioning of the decision to let two television companies already running regional ITV franchises operate the new licence.
Scot FM began broadcasting on Friday 16 September 1994, after two weeks of test transmissions. Problems arose even before the station went on air - none of the thirteen presenters listed in its original application schedule had remained with the company and its target of 50% quality speech output at peak times could not be achieved. The station's news service was contracted out to Reuters Radio, leading to some confusion over how a station promising a unique Scottish view of Britain was carrying most of its news bulletins from an agency producing syndicated bulletins in London.
Complaints about the station began to appear in the press. Meanwhile, Scot FM management went back to the Radio Authority four times to seek permission to reduce its speech obligations within the licensed format. The station itself had limited music resources with around 1000 tracks on its playout systems, leading to some members of staff reportedly visiting local music shops to buy CDs of artists who were appearing as guests on the station. The first official RAJAR figures released in early 1995 revealed that the station had a weekly audience of 8%, far short of the target 13% share, making it one of the least successful UK radio stations in terms of audience share. Within seven months of the station going on air, five different presenters had hosted Scot FM's breakfast show and a programme controller had left owing to ill health.
A major revamp of the station took place shortly afterwards with the entire presenting team being replaced by new signings including Alison Craig, Robin Galloway and Scottie McClue. Despite the new presenting line-up and a reported improvement in weekly listening figures to 350,000, complaints regarding format and regulatory problems led to another shake-up at management level. The station replaced its syndicated Reuters Radio news bulletins with an in-house service, although this had limited resources and was reportedly under-staffed with inexperienced young journalists who were even forced to travel by bus to help cut costs. In May 1995, Border Television pulled out of the company and sold its stake to Grampian, which became the sole owner of Scot FM.
In another attempt to improve its fortunes, Scot FM brought exclusive rights to carry live Scottish Football League match commentaries for £155,000 a year. This caused even further problems when Northsound (official broadcast partner with Aberdeen F.C.) complained as Scot FM did not cover the Aberdeen area.
After two years in the role, Scot FM's managing director Tom Hunter resigned, another programme controller became ill with stress, and most of the presenting line-up departed. In 1996, Scot FM reported losses of around £1 million.