Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland
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Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland is a developing area of the media in Scotland which deals with broadcasts given in
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
and has important links with the efforts of Gaelic revival in Scotland. As well as being informative, Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland has acquired some symbolic importance. Whilst
opinion polls An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...
show that the vast majority of
Gaels The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langu ...
feel they have been ill-served by broadcasting media,Summary of PVA Research
-
BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...
on behalf of the
BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...
. Scotland now has Gaelic broadcasting all over Scotland both on television and radio.


History


1923–1945

The first
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
radio broadcast in the Gaelic language was aired throughout
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
on Sunday 2 December 1923; this was a 15-minute religious address by Rev. John Bain, recorded in the High United Free Church in
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
. Two weeks later, a recital of Gaelic singing was broadcast, though it was introduced in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
. The first regular programme was singer
Neil MacLean Neil Maclean (1875 – 12 September 1953) was a Scottish socialist and an Independent Labour Party and later Labour Party Member of Parliament for Govan. Maclean was the first Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party, but was expelled in 1908. ...
's ('Stories and songs'), broadcast from the Aberdeen studio. The first Gaelic radio play, entitled , was aired in 1933. It is perhaps indicative of the status of Gaelic broadcasting at this time that the producer of knew no Gaelic. A series of lessons for Gaelic learners was broadcast in 1935. In 1936, Scotland's first outside broadcast was a Gaelic service from
Iona Abbey Iona Abbey is an abbey located on the island of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest Christian religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity t ...
. In 1939 a weekly Gaelic news review was launched. In 1935, Hugh MacPhee was appointed head of the BBC's first Gaelic department, which moved to Glasgow in 1938; this seems to have been the first attempt to put Gaelic broadcasting on a serious footing. In 1940, requested an increase of output to two news programmes and a children's programme each week. This was refused, which resulted in questions being raised in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
.


The post-war years

After the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Finlay J. Macdonald (later co-founder of ) joined Hugh MacPhee in the
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
studios; he was replaced in 1954 by
Fred Macaulay Frederick MacAulay (born 29 December 1956) is a Scottish comedian. For 18 years, until March 2015, he presented a daily BBC Scotland radio programme '' MacAulay and Co''. He has appeared on numerous TV shows. Background Born in Perth, MacAula ...
. With two full-time producers, the regular programming was expanded to 90 minutes per week. There was a Friday evening news slot which George Orwell, writing at that time in Jura, criticised for its "amateurishness". A number of radio plays were produced, including , a translation by Lachlan MacKinnon of Henrik Ibsen's ''The Wild Duck'' (1951).


Television

Because few areas of the
West Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland ...
and virtually none of the
islands An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
could receive television signals before the early 1960s, Gaelic TV was not an issue at first, though there had been coverage of the . As with radio, Gaelic TV broadcasting began with Gaelic songs introduced in English, such as ('Music of the Gaels'), introduced by
James Shaw Grant James Shaw Grant FRSE CBE (22 May 1910 – 28 July 1999) was a writer and journalist from the Isle of Lewis. He was strongly associated with the Highlands and Islands Development Board. Life He was born in Stornoway and educated at the Nichols ...
(1962). The first genuine Gaelic TV programme was in the light entertainment category: ('You're welcome') in 1964. The first current affairs television series, , was launched in 1970. Gaelic schools programmes began in 1975. The first Gaelic children's TV programme, , was aired in 1977, followed by ''Bzzz'' in 1981, and the first programme for pre-school children, , in 1982. The pre-school "classic" was broadcast from 1985.


Radio Highland

In 1976, BBC Radio Highland began broadcasting from Inverness. In 1979, BBC opened in Stornoway with starting in October 1985.


1980–2000

The Thatcher government increased the funding for Gaelic broadcasting, largely because of
Scottish Secretary The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for ...
George Younger George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Baron Younger of Prestwick, (22 September 1931 – 26 January 2003), was a British Conservative Party politician and banker. Early life and career Younger's forebear, George Younge ...
's personal enthusiasm for the Gaelic community. With the funding the BBC were able to produce a small number of children's Gaelic programmes during term-time starting in October 1985, with , and ''Bzzz''.
BBC One Scotland BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One. For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
broadcast the programmes in the morning usually before ''Children's BBC'' at 10:1010:30am, before moving to 9:45am in October 1986 as part of new BBC Daytime line up. Since then, the timeslots have varied for children's Gaelic programmes during the daytime hours varying from around 9am – 2pm on
BBC One Scotland BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One. For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
between 1987 and 1995, From October 1995, The new timeslots were mostly in the mid-afternoon (3pm – 3:30pm from October 1995 - June 1998 and subsequently 2:55pm – 3:25pm from January 1999 - June 2002) with an occasional lunchtime slot at around 12 - 1pm (12:05pm – 12:30pm from February 1996 - May 1996 and again in January - March 1997, 12:25pm – 12:50pm from October - December 1998 and 12:30pm – 1pm from February - June 1999 and briefly in November 2001). The BBC introduced a new two-hour Thursday evening Gaelic block on
BBC Two Scotland BBC Two Scotland ( gd, BBC Dhà Alba) was the national variation of BBC Two for BBC Scotland. It was broadcast via digital television and was the sister Scottish channel of BBC One Scotland and Gaelic-language BBC Alba. Unlike BBC One Scotland, ...
in September 1993, including , Gaelic comedy, documentaries, music, and current affairs . The programming block has continued until April 2011, virtually all the programmes were moved to BBC ALBA following the completion of the digital switchover with the exception of Children's Gaelic programmes which continued to be broadcast on weekday mornings during
CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...
until March 2013 and the long-running current affairs programme Eòrpa until January 2019. Eòrpa is currently being repeated on
BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliamen ...
on Saturday nights. The
Broadcasting Act 1990 The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, initiated in part due to a 1989 European Council Directive (89/552), also known as the Television Without Frontiers directive. The aim of the Act was to liberalise and deregulate the B ...
established a Gaelic Television Fund, administered by a Gaelic Television Committee (). The committee were given a £9 million budget, which was given independent producers, BBC, Grampian and STV. Grampian was required to broadcast in Gaelic for nearly an hour a day on average and STV for half an hour, which included a weekly 30mins slot in peak time. This was originally every weekday at 6:30pm before programmes were spread out, to late night and weekends. Programmes included (''
Win, Lose or Draw ''Win, Lose or Draw'' is an American television game show that aired from 1987 to 1990 in syndication and on NBC. It was taped at CBS Television City (one of the few non- CBS game shows to tape there), often in Studios 31, 33, and 43 at various ...
''), , , and more others. The
Broadcasting Act 1996 Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...
resulted in improved funding, and also renamed the funding body 'Gaelic Broadcasting Committee' (). In 1999 , the first Gaelic language TV channel was launched, which broadcast daily for one hour (between 6pm and 7pm) on Digital Freeview. was established in October 1999 as the first dedicated Gaelic TV channel in Scotland and provided a limited Gaelic service on Freeview until May 2011. Broadcasts were limited to an hour slot between the hours of 6pm and 7pm. The channel stopped broadcasting in May 2011 and was displaced by BBC ALBA.


21st-century Gaelic broadcasting


Television

On 11 February 2002, ''CBeebies Alba'' was launched as the new programming slot for Children's Gaelic Programmes, initially broadcast on
BBC One Scotland BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One. For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
at 2:55pm – 3:25pm every weekday from the initial launch,
BBC One Scotland BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One. For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
stopped showing Children's Gaelic programmes (which for some reason had
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's ''Natalie'' programme as part of the slot starting in 1993) in June 2002 (with the exception of the children's Mod repeat until October 2009) and they moved to
BBC Two Scotland BBC Two Scotland ( gd, BBC Dhà Alba) was the national variation of BBC Two for BBC Scotland. It was broadcast via digital television and was the sister Scottish channel of BBC One Scotland and Gaelic-language BBC Alba. Unlike BBC One Scotland, ...
during
CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...
under the name ''CBeebies '', beginning in November 2002, Like
BBC One Scotland BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One. For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
, The timeslot varied in the earlier years. Initially it was broadcast from 9am to 9:30am from November 2002 to June 2003, later at 8:309am from October to December 2003. For a while it was at 9:3010am from January - June 2004 but moved back to 8:309am from October 2004 until December 2012 and from 7:50am - 8:20am for a brief period in January - March 2013. In between it has come on at different times in the school holidays at 10:2510:50am in April 2003, 9:4010:10am in April 2004, and 7:308am from July 2006 to September 2010. Following the removal of children's shows from the mainstream channels BBC One and Two after the completion of the digital switchover, the programming slot was discontinued and all programmes moved to BBC Alba. Children's programmes along with other Gaelic programming can be seen every day on BBC Alba 57pm. It broadcasts until midnight (sometimes 1am due to sports coverage). BBC Alba is a joint venture channel between the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and . It is the first channel to be delivered under a BBC licence by a partnership. It broadcasts for up to seven hours a day in the evening. BBC Alba is broadcast on Freeview in Scotland as well as satellite and cable television providers and BBC iPlayer in the UK. The popular Gaelic drama '' Bannan'' was first broadcast in 2014.


Radio

is the most widely broadcast Scottish Gaelic radio station and is available on FM frequencies throughout Scotland; webcast on the
BBC website BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...
; and on cable and satellite channels in the United Kingdom. Gaelic language programmes are broadcast during the day from Monday to Saturday and the channel joins
BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, 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 opt-out service of the same na ...
after closing transmission. Gaelic and bi-lingual programmes also feature on several north-west coast local radio stations, including
Two Lochs Radio Two Lochs Radio is Britain's smallest commercial radio station, and community broadcaster for the Gairloch, Loch Ewe and Loch Maree areas of Wester Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland. The station broadcasts in stereo on 106.0 and 106.6MHz FM. It ...
,
Isles FM Isles FM is a local radio station operating from Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The station is operated entirely by a volunteer staff, from a building in the Newton area of the town. Isles FM is the trading name of Western Isles Com ...
, An Radio and . A bilingual Scottish Pop Chart show, produced to commission by MFR ( Moray Firth Radio) in Inverness is also broadcast each week on several of these stations.


Broadcasting for Gaelic learners

The broadcasting media have also carried Gaelic lessons for learners of the language. The first was a short radio series in 1934, six fortnightly Gaelic lessons in Gaelic by J. Nicolson. The weekly series ''Learning Gaelic'' by Edward Purcell with John M Bannerman and Archie Henry began in 1949.BBC ALBA - History Timeline
from
BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...
Among the early BBC TV courses for beginners' Gaelic was (1979). The current series for beginners is ''
Speaking our Language ''Speaking our Language'' is a Scottish Gaelic learners' television programme that ran from 9 January 1993 to 22 November 1996. Running for 72 episodes through four series, the series was produced by Scottish Television (STV Studios STV Stud ...
'', which is now repeated regularly on BBC ALBA. With the spread of Gaelic-medium units in
primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
, attended also by children from English-speaking households, there was a need for education series aimed at children in the early stages of
immersion Immersion may refer to: The arts * "Immersion", a 2012 story by Aliette de Bodard * ''Immersion'', a French comic book series by Léo Quievreux#Immersion, Léo Quievreux * Immersion (album), ''Immersion'' (album), the third album by Australian gro ...
-phase language-learning: (TV) and (Radio) both appeared in 1998.


See also

* List of Celtic languages television channels * Scottish Broadcasting Commission *
List of Irish-language media The following is a list of media available in the Irish language. Television Current channels TG4 TG4, originally known as Teilifís na Gaeilge (TnaG), broadcasts on terrestrial television in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland ...


References


Sources

* Mike Cormack, 'Programming for Gaelic Digital Television: Problems and Possibilities', in ''Towards Our Goals in Broadcasting, the Press, the Performing Arts and the Economy: Minority Languages in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland'', ed. by John M. Kirk and , 83–87. Belfast: , 2003. * * Robert Dunbar, 'Gaelic-medium Broadcasting: Reflections on the Legal Framework from a Sociolinguistic Perspective', in ''Towards Our Goals in Broadcasting, the Press, the Performing Arts and the Economy: Minority Languages in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland'', ed. by John M. Kirk and , 73–82. Belfast: , 2003. * Roger Hutchinson, ''A Waxing Moon: The Modern Gaelic Revival'', Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, 2005. . *William Lamb, 'A Diachronic Account of Gaelic News-speak: The Development and Expansion of a Register', ''Scottish Gaelic Studies'', 19 (1999), 141–171.


External links


Chronicle of Gaelic broadcasting on the BBC website
{{Scottish Gaelic linguistics Scottish Gaelic mass media