BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 1978. The station is broadcast from the BBC Scotland studios at Pacific Quay in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Radio Scotland is broadcast in English, whilst sister station Radio nan Gàidheal broadcasts in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

. According to

RAJAR Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR; ) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and Radiocentre. RAJAR's predecessor was c ...

, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 801,000 and has a listening share of 5.8% as of March 2024.

History

The first BBC Radio Scotland broadcast was on 17 December 1973, a fortnight earlier than planned. BBC Radio Scotland was founded as a full-time radio network on 23 November 1978. Previously it was possible only to opt out of

, and the service was known as Radio 4 Scotland or, formally on air, as "BBC Scotland Radio 4". Although on some occasions Radio Scotland used to use BBC Radio 2 as a sustaining service at certain times, most notably during the ''Sport on 2'' Saturday afternoon programme with a BBC Scotland opt-out on 202m known as "BBC Scotland Radio 2"; however, this has been discontinued since. The establishment of a separate network was made possible when Radio 4 became a fully UK-wide network when it moved from medium wave to long wave and new VHF (FM) transmitters were brought into service, so that Radio 4 and Radio Scotland no longer had to share on FM. However, it was not until the early 1990s that Radio 4 was available on FM across all of Scotland; so for its first decade on air, the station only broadcast during the day so that Radio 4 could be heard on Radio Scotland's transmitters in the evening to compensate for poorer AM reception after dark. Kirsty Wark launched her career on BBC Radio Scotland, first as a researcher and then as a producer.

Programmes

Radio Scotland broadcasts a wide range of programming, including news, debate, music, drama, comedy and sports. It is broadcast from the BBC Scotland headquarters in the Pacific Quay in

. The station simulcasts BBC Radio 5 Live during its overnight downtime.

Local opt-outs

BBC Radio Orkney and BBC Radio Shetland opt out of BBC Radio Scotland for 30 minutes each weekday to broadcast a local news programme and during the winter months this is supplemented in both areas by an additional hour-long programme. Local news and weather bulletins are also broadcast as opt-outs from news studios in Selkirk,

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and Inverness on weekdays.

Notable presenters

* Kaye Adams (news) *Iain Anderson (music) * Bryan Burnett (music) * Stuart Cosgrove (sport) * Tam Cowan (sport) * Vic Galloway (music) * Richard Gordon (sport) * Gary Innes (music) * Stephen Jardine (news) * Mary Ann Kennedy (lifestyle, features and documentaries) * Fred MacAulay (lifestyle, features and documentaries) * Cathy MacDonald (music) * Michelle McManus (music) * Natasha Raskin Sharp (music) * Ricky Ross (music) *Billy Sloan (music) * Graham Stewart (news) * Ashley Storrie (music and chat show) * Grant Stott (music) * Des Clarke

Past presenters

* Dougie Anderson * John Beattie * Colin Bell * Ken Bruce * Jackie Brambles * Andy Cameron * Ross Finlay * Archie Fisher (music) * Jim Gellatly (music) * Armando Iannucci * Jimmie Macgregor * Anne MacKenzie * Jimmy Mack * Eddie Mair * Bruce MacGregor (music) * Sally Magnusson (lifestyle, features and documentaries) * Sheena McDonald * Brian Morton* Tom Morton (music) * Tom Morton (music) * Shereen Nanjiani (news) * Charles Nove * Iain Purdon * Robbie Shepherd (music) * Ken Sykora * Jim Traynor *Gary West (music) * Kirsty Young

Heads of Radio, Scotland

The title "Head of Radio, Scotland" was applied to cover not only the Radio Scotland service but also BBC Scotland's radio productions for other networks.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Coord, 55.8580, -4.2909, display=title, region:GB_scale:5000

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Radio stations established in 1978 Radio stations in Glasgow BBC Scotland 1978 establishments in Scotland Radio stations in Scotland