AFTER only two days on the job, Scot FM's managing director returned from a full day of meetings in Glasgow to find his desk in Edinburgh buried under reams of paperwork.

Given his intention to take the Leith-based radio station to higher levels, Norman Quirk's plate is amply filled. He and programme director Jeff Graham will begin their tenure at Scot FM with a complete review of operations.

Mr Quirk's decision to spend his second day in the job meeting the station's Glasgow-based employees is indicative of the thoroughness with which he will tackle the review. It will cover all areas of programming, including competitions, interviews, sport and news bulletins.

The objective is to create a ``seamless'' product, but Mr Quirk would not say how long that might take to achieve.

``One thing there is not going to be is any knee-jerk reactions,'' he said. ``What we are going to do is review every part of the programme.''

Mr Quirk and Mr Graham were appointed to head Scot FM by Independent Radio Group (IRG), the Manchester-based owner of regional and local radio stations throughout the UK. IRG purchased Scot FM in July for #5.2m.

Mr Graham comes from Q96 in Paisley, which was owned by IRG until it had to sell its controlling interest as part of the Scot FM acquisition. He has also worked at Radio One, Radio Luxembourg and Capital.

Between 1974 and 1984, Mr Quirk was financial controller and head of administration for Radio Clyde. He then left radio for almost 11 years before becoming a consultant to Central FM in 1995.

Mr Quirk was subsequently made a director of Central FM and served as chairman of the Stirling-based station since last year.

His goal at Scot FM will be to boost the station's audience reach significantly to create the most popular radio station in Scotland.

``We already have the biggest reach of any regional radio station in the UK,'' Mr Quirk said. ``What I want is people's dials rusted on to Scot FM. I want them to listen to us all throughout the day and not just tune in for one particular segment.''

Under the terms of its licence, approximately 50% of Scot FM's programming must be speech-based. Mr Quirk said he was not intimidated by working within that format.

``Quite the reverse,'' he said. ``That is something I actually relish. We look at the world through the eyes of the people living in the Central Belt of Scotland. You can't do that through playing music.''

Mr Quirk, who was born in Motherwell, is also determined that the station will maintain its Scottish slant. He pointed out that IRG was ``very definite'' about wanting a Scot running it.

``IRG are committed to Scotland and they are committed to Scot FM,'' he said. ``The decision-making is going to be in Scotland.''

The new managing director will apply a gentle ``but not a soft touch''. He believes his primary role is to create the stability necessary for Scot FM to flourish.

``I am not here to do everyone else's job,'' Mr Quirk said. ``We have talented and dedicated professionals here who know what they are doing and they do it very well.

``My job is to ensure that those professionals have the resources they need to do their job properly.''