MIKE Ritchie, a lifelong fan of Neil Young, is in the habit of starting his weekly radio show with the Canadian singer-songwriter. At 4pm sharp last Sunday, sitting alone in the studio, he pushed a couple of faders on his console. The red ‘On Air’ sign opposite him glowed vividly in the semi-darkness, and a track from Young’s latest album filled the air.

Ritchie is one of the presenters on Celtic Music Radio, the FM and internet-streaming Glasgow-based station that is celebrating its 10th anniversary of 24/7 broadcasting next month. Its home since February 2016 has been in Kinning Park’s Admiral Street. Earlier this afternoon, Stewart Fenwick had broadcast his latest Celtic Country show - five hundred of them and counting - and he in turn was followed by Bob Leslie, a veteran musician whose show is called Transatlantic Conversations.

There are no producers here; the presenters do everything themselves. Ritchie, whose show features Americana, roots and folk, has two screens before him. One contains the MP3 tracks that he uploaded into the station’s system earlier and brought in from home on a memory stick (he has also half a dozen CDs from which he will play tracks). The second screen lists the adverts he will play. To his right there’s a computer screen on which he updates his show’s Facebook page and replies to listeners’ comments. Beneath that are a number of A4 sheets with his script and running-order. “When I started doing the show,” he says off-air while Neil Young is playing, “I always started with a Young track, and have kept it going, because people come on through the week, saying, ‘What’s the Neil Young track?’, and I’ll say, ‘Listen in’.” Today’s broadcast is his 140th Sunday show.

Before the song has ended, Ritchie has donned his Numark headphones again. The “on air” sign glows once more as he talks to his unseen audience. “How many different songs does he interweave into that particular track?” he asks, and there’s further discussion of Young before the next song begins, without any introduction. He removes the headphones. “This is my album of the year,” he says. It’s by Amber Cross and is called Savage on the Downhill. “It’s just brilliant.”

Before the show he’d spoken about Celtic Music Radio. “It seems to be really liked, and I think it’s liked because it tries to promote Scottish artists as much as possible, and it keeps traditional music going, and they let people like me loose to do an Americana show, which is fun. When I first started I did everything off CD. There are two CD players in the studio but over the years I’m having a mix of songs uploaded to the system and some CD tracks.

“The beauty of it all here is that no-one tells you what to play. The only thing is there there can’t be any sweary words on records, but I suppose that sometimes slips in. The people here are from all backgrounds. Some are singer-songwriters in their own right. Sandy Semeonoff, one of the presenters, used to work as a music librarian at BBC Scotland.

“They’re really helpful here. I thought at first that I couldn’t really become involved because of my work and because my wife and I have a young kid. They said, if you can’t make it, we’ll teach you how to pre-record your show or put on a repeat show, so there’s no reason why you can’t do once a week.” His first Sunday show was during the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Last year a reader’s poll in the Americana UK website voted his show runner-up in the Best Radio Show category. The winner tweeted Ritchie to say ‘Well done, keep it up’. The winner’s name? Bob Harris. Yes, that one.

Celtic Music Radio has a combined streaming/FM audience of 80,000. “The station started more out of frustration than anything,” says Alex Jenkins, the founder director and chairperson, and the station’s Morning Mix host. He turns 63 on Saturday. “There are kids out there, talented kids, who are not getting heard. My son had played in a band. I’ve been involved in radio since I was about 15, but I couldn’t get his music listened to [on radio] even with all the connections I’d developed. Three like-minded people - myself, Ken Macdonald and Bob McWilliam - decided to do something.” The catalyst was the 2006 Celtic Connections festival; the trio obtained a Restricted Service Licence to tie in with it, and Celtic Music Radio, on 106.6 FM, broadcast for the first time from the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for the 22 days of the festival. More than 60 hours of live stage performance were broadcast.”

The station launched its internet service in September 2007 and in January the following year it began regular programming transmissions on AM. On July 1, 2014 it moved to 95FM, where it remains to this day. It has a combined audience - FM and internet-streaming - of around 80,000.

Celtic Connections, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next month, is a key part of the year for Celtic Music Radio. “That has grown and grown and grown,” says Jenkins. “Last year we did 85 additional performances for live broadcast on Celtic Music Radio from within the Concert Hall or our studios here. That gave artists an opportunity to be heard. And that’s in addition to the Danny Kyle Open Stage, which we’ve been presenting for 10 years as well. (Liz Clark, a station stalwart, comperes the Kyle concerts).

“The music that we play is not mainstream. If you hear it somewhere else you’re unlikely to hear it here. Musicians who have not been recognised as mainstream are still incredibly talented.” Sometimes the sound quality of recordings it comes across isn’t outstanding, but that doesn’t matter. “There’s an album there that came from Barbara Dickson, called B4 74: The Folkclub Tapes. And that’s literally what it is: cassette-tapes that her mammy found in the loft. We have an excellent relationship with musicians at that level. Rab Noakes did a benefit concert for us at the Glad Cafe last month. Rab, Findlay Napier, Gillian Frame and Jill Jackson. Jill actually came from Dubai to do the gig. It sold out fast. They see us as important, I think. Dougie MacLean’s a pal. That evolved from us brassing the neck and asking if we could do a broadcast from an event he was having at Pitlochry Theatre.”

In terms of funding, the station runs a small number of adverts, and its “very loyal and enthusiastic audience ... makes contributions to the running costs, and there is also some sponsorship,” Jenkins says. “We never set out to make a profit. Every single person you see about here is a volunteer; everything that happens is done by a volunteer. The people here are family, they’re part of a team. They commit so much.” He himself has loaned a “substantial” sum to the station. “I’m not doing it for plaudits, I’m not in it to make money.

The station is looking forward to Celtic Connections 2018. “It’s like Christmas in January. You have all these musicians coming into the city. Last year this place was like a fair during the weekends. It was buzzing: musicians, listeners, people coming in to see what was happening. Next month it will be the same. That’s what this place should be, a hub where people come in and enjoy what’s going on. The atmosphere is relaxed. Presenting should be fun.”

Allan Broom, who hosts the Monday-afternoon Broom Cupboard (“anything from Celtic music to singer-songwriters, really”), has worked in radio for fifty years, rising to become director of Q96 in Paisley. “Radio is in my blood, it really is,” he says. “I do one programme a week here, which I enjoy. We’re come a long way in 10 years,” he says of Celtic Music Radio. Stewart Fenwick got into radio via an after-school club and launched the Campus Country programme on Stirling University’s campus station before going on to work for Central FM for 15 years. His Christmas Eve show will feature an interview with Daniel O’Donnell. Both men’s shows have impressive reach: Broom has had listener reaction from Fresno, California, and Fenwick from Ukraine.

The red ‘on air’ light is still glowing intermittently as I leave the station. Mike has another hour to go. Up next is Gavin Paterson, then Mary K Burke. The station ceases broadcasting at midnight, but at midday on Monday it will start all over again.