DAVID Torrance (“Political power grabs make it hard to address BBC’s future”, The Herald, July 27), The Herald, July 27) gives a measured account of the issues which really need to be discussed to improve BBC Scotland's services to listeners and viewers in all corners of Scotland. There is far too much politicking getting in the way.
Good Morning Orkney has managed to survive the radio cutbacks in recent years and I found it tremendously informative each day when I was there recently. Radio Shetland and Radio nan Gaidheal provide similarly valuable service to their communities. Elsewhere the local touch has largely been lost. We don't have the "BBC local radio" into which the BBC 1 weather forecasters suggest we tune for more local updates when there are severe weather events.
Radio Highland (and other centres such as Aberdeen) used to have a half-hour programme of news, sport and comment at 7.30am. This was cut back to 10 minutes and now a mere six minutes and on Mondays and Fridays there is more sport than news. The bulletins were formerly grouped with the national news at the top of the hour but have now been isolated to the half0hour. The ability to listen again if you just miss tuning in to a bulletin has also been withdrawn.
Even Radio Scotland's national news, sport and weather at 8am has been gradually cut from 10 minutes to a mere eight minutes now. At weekends weather forecasts are over-summarised and miss out vital elements such as wind direction, and there are no longer bulletins at the traditional and convenient-to-mealtimes hours of 1pm and 6pm. Surely sport does not have to be totally dominant and news could be provided on either the FM or MW channels?
Scottish communities have lost much of their local radio news and information because of a redistribution and concentration of reduced resources to Glasgow. This is totally inappropriate to such an extensive and regionally diverse nation as Scotland.
R J Ardern,
26A Southside Road,
Inverness.
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