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BBC Scotland (

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 as ...

: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of 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 the main

public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the

BBC English Regions BBC English Regions is the division of the BBC responsible for local and regional television, radio, web, and teletext services in England, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. It is one of the BBC's four "nations" – the others being B ...

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is b ...

and

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''BBC Norlin Airlan'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ire ...

. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, it employs approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. Some £320 million of

licence fee A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...

revenue is raised in Scotland, with expenditure on purely local content set to stand at £86 million by 2016–17. The remainder of licence fee revenue raised in the country is spent on networked programmes shown throughout the UK. BBC Scotland operates television channels such as the Scottish variant of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

, the BBC Scotland channel and the Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba, and radio stations

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish 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 name from 23 November 197 ...

and Gaelic-language

BBC Radio nan Gaidheal #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. ...

History

The first radio service in Scotland was launched by the

British Broadcasting Company The British Broadcasting Company Ltd. (BBC) was a short-lived British commercial broadcasting company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom. Licensed by the British Genera ...

on 6 March 1923. Named 5SC and located in Bath Street in Glasgow, the services gradually expanded to include the new stations 2BD, 2DE and 2EH, based at Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh respectively. Around 1927, the new Corporation, as the BBC now was, decided to combine these local stations into regions under the generic banner of the

BBC Regional Programme The BBC Regional Programme was a radio service which was on the air from 9 March 1930 – replacing a number of earlier BBC local stations between 1922 and 1924 – until 1 September 1939 when it was subsumed into the Home Service, two days be ...

. Regional programmes throughout the UK were merged to form the

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

in 1939, and, with a break for the Second World War, national opt outs remained on the station and its successor

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

until the establishment of a separate

in November 1978. Television in Scotland began formally on 14 March 1952 using the

405-line television system The 405-line monochrome analogue television broadcasting system was the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. The number of television lines influences the image resolution, or quality of the picture. It was ...

broadcast from the Kirk o'Shotts transmitter. In the beginning, all programmes came from London but some with Scottish content were made using an outside broadcast unit. By 1962, there were plans for television news interview studios in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Eventually, BBC Scotland established the right to "opt-out" of the network more and more. When BBC Two arrived in Scotland in 1966 (having begun in London two years earlier and spread across the country), broadcasts began in black and white on 625-lines

CCIR System I CCIR System I is an analogue broadcast television system. It was first used in the Republic of Ireland starting in 1962 as the 625-line broadcasting standard to be used on VHF Band I and Band III, sharing Band III with 405-line System A signals ...

from the Black Hill transmitter. BBC Two upgraded to

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

colour in 1967 (including Scotland) across the UK, with BBC One (network programmes only at first, with local output still in black-and-white) and STV following in December 1969, and in 1971, BBC Scotland's Queen Margaret Drive Studio "A" in Glasgow became one of the first regional studios in Britain to upgrade to colour. In September 1998,

BBC Choice Scotland BBC Choice Scotland was the national variation for BBC Scotland of the BBC Choice service, that was broadcast by the BBC. As with the local variants of BBC Choice in Northern Ireland and Wales, BBC Choice Scotland carried much of its content fr ...

was launched as BBC Scotland's first digital service. For many years, BBC Scotland has tried to increase the number of programmes it makes to be shown on the networks. This ambition was greatly aided by the move of BBC Scotland's headquarters in 2007 from Queen Margaret Drive to BBC Pacific Quay where state of the art digital studios were built and by the decision of the BBC centrally to move a number of programme departments, such as Children's, out of London.

Current services

Television

BBC Scotland broadcasts three television services to Scottish audiences.

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 ...

is a separate channel able to opt out of the network feed of BBC One to broadcast its own schedule of regional programming in addition to networked productions. The flagship news programme ''

Reporting Scotland ''BBC Reporting Scotland'' is the BBC's national television news programme for Scotland, broadcast on BBC One Scotland from the BBC Pacific Quay, headquarters of BBC Scotland at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. History Although BBC Television was esta ...

'' is presented by Laura Miller and Sally Magnusson. BBC Scotland operates BBC Alba, broadcasting programming in

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

for up to seven hours a day. The channel is a joint partnership between BBC Scotland and

MG Alba MG Alba is the operating name of the Gaelic Media Service ( gd, Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig). The organisation's remit, under the Communications Act 2003, is to ensure that a wide and diverse range of high quality Gaelic programmes is m ...

and is available across the UK on satellite and cable services and

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

in Scotland only. During downtime, BBC Alba simulcasts Gaelic radio station BBC Radio nan Gàidheal with an in-vision graphical overlay. Prior to

digital switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

, some Gaelic programming was carried 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, ...

, however this ceased following the switchover. Thirdly, the BBC Scotland channel commenced broadcasting at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday 24 February 2019. On 22 February 2017, director general Tony Hall announced plans to launch a dedicated English-language BBC Scotland channel in 2018, which would replace the BBC Two Scotland opt-out. It would broadcast from 7:00 p.m. to midnight nightly, and feature a lineup composed entirely of new and archived Scottish programming, including a new hour-long 9:00 p.m. weeknight newscast that will be produced from Scotland. The proposed newscast been considered a response to the perennial proposals for a local opt-out of the ''

BBC News at Six The ''BBC News at Six'' is the evening news programme bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on the BBC News channel and on British television channel BBC One on weekdays at 6:00pm. For a long period, the ''BB ...

''. Hall also announced that the BBC would increase its overall spending on factual and drama productions in Scotland by £20 million annually. The BBC Scotland channel was approved by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

in June 2018, and subsequently launched on 24 February 2019. The channel is allocated £32 million in annual funding, and its SD variant has displaced

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

on the Freeview EPG.

Radio

BBC Scotland also operates two radio stations covering Scotland:

and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. The former broadcasts English programming 24 hours a day on the frequencies 92-95 FM and 810 MW. The station has specific programming opt outs for

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

and

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

in addition to regional news opt outs for four additional sub regions - North East, Highlands & Islands, South West and Borders. BBC Radio nan Gàidheal in contrast is a Gaelic-language station broadcasting for the majority of the day on 103.5-105 FM and simulcasting Radio Scotland's MW service at other times.

Online and interactive

BBC Scotland operates a mini site on

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 ...

consisting of a portal to Scottish news, sport, programmes and items of cultural interest through BBC Online. The department also provides content from Scotland on these subjects to the website and for the

BBC Red Button BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to cl ...

interactive TV service. BBC Scotland previously offered a podcast download of the top news items of the week and the online streaming of several key sections of output. However following the widespread introduction of the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

service, which allowed the streaming and download of nearly all BBC programmes including news, these services were discontinued as defunct.
BBC The Social
is a digital content stream from BBC Scotland aimed at 18-34 year olds. Working with new and emerging talent, The Social develops daily content on a range of subjects including issues, comedy, music, lifestyle and gaming. Launched in December 2015, The Social won a Royal Television Scotland award fo
Best Digital Innovation
in 2016 and another in 2018 for the shortform drama Kidder. In June 2018, the BBC announced the formation of a third "digital hub" in Glasgow, which will facilitate design and engineering of BBC digital platforms.

Studios – past and present

When BBC Television first came to Scotland, there were no dedicated studios and Scotland shared an

outside broadcast unit Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes (typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video camera ...

with

BBC North BBC North (Group) is an operational business division of the BBC. It is also a brand that has been used by the BBC to mean: *The large ''BBC North'' region, centred on Manchester, that was active from the late 1920s until 1968 and was based u ...

in Manchester. Apart from a limited news service, all programmes about Scotland had to be transmitted from London and had to have an appeal to a UK audience. When the new commercial broadcaster,

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is th ...

(STV), was about to arrive in 1957, BBC Scotland managed to produce slightly improved news coverage by a complicated arrangement involving the newsroom in Queen Margaret Drive in the west of the city and the former Black Cat Cinema in Springfield Road in the east where ''

The White Heather Club ''The White Heather Club'' was a BBC TV Scottish variety show that ran on and off from 7 May 1958 to 11 April 1968 History It was an early evening BBC television programme. It started at 6.20, and Jimmy Shand composed a melody "The Six Twenty ...

'' was made. In the early 1960s, the BBC acquired land adjacent to its Queen Margaret Drive base and eventually three colour studios were built together with significant radio facilities and a Film Unit with its own film processing. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra had access to a large sound studio - Studio 1. A constant theme of the early days of BBC Scotland was where its headquarters should be sited – Edinburgh or Glasgow? On a number of occasions, Edinburgh had victory snatched from its grasp. BBC Scotland's headquarters are currently located at BBC Pacific Quay on the banks of the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

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 ...

. The studio centre was constructed between 2004 and 2006 and was opened in 2007. Designed by

David Chipperfield Sir David Alan Chipperfield, (born 18 December 1953) is an English architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985. His major works include the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire (1989–1998); the Museum ...

and reportedly costing £188 million, the studio contains three television studios and five radio studios as well as the first HD newsroom used by the BBC. Upon the launch of the BBC in Scotland in 1923, the service originally occupied Rex House at 202 Bath Street, Glasgow, before moving to properties in Blythswood Square and subsequently in West George Street. In 1929, the decision was made to move the headquarters operation to Queen Street,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, where the Edinburgh station had been based since 1924 following a move from the original 79 George Street premises. However, in 1935 the BBC acquired Queen Margaret College at North Park House, Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow, near to the

Glasgow Botanic Gardens Glasgow Botanic Gardens is a botanical garden located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace. The Gardens has a wide variety of temperate and tropical flora, a ...

, and the headquarters operation moved back to Glasgow in 1936 accompanying the Glasgow radio station. BBC Scotland remained based at these premises until the move to Pacific Quay in 2007. The Edinburgh operation remained on Queen Street until the move to The Tun in April 2002. The Tun building is near to the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

building and contains television and radio studios in addition to a newsroom. The college closed in 1935 and principal architect James Miller began adapting the Glasgow site for BBC Scotland in 1936, allowing for the site's buildings to be used in the production, administration and broadcasting of BBC Scotland's radio and television.(RCAHMS) In addition to the Glasgow and Edinburgh bases of the broadcaster, BBC Scotland also has offices and studios located 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 ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Portree Portree (; gd, Port Rìgh, ) is the largest town on, and capital of, the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Murray, W.H. (1966) ''The Hebrides''. London. Heinemann. Pages 154-155. It is the location for the only secondary school o ...

, Stornoway,

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

, Selkirk,

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

Kirkwall Kirkwall ( sco, Kirkwaa, gd, Bàgh na h-Eaglaise, nrn, Kirkavå) is the largest town in Orkney, an archipelago to the north of mainland Scotland. The name Kirkwall comes from the Norse name (''Church Bay''), which later changed to ''Kirkv ...

and

Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...

. Of these, the latter two locations operate radio opt-outs from BBC Radio Scotland while the Aberdeen, Inverness, Selkirk and Dumfries newsrooms produce local radio bulletins for the North East, Highlands & Islands, Borders and South West respectively. In addition to these premises, BBC Scotland operates a drama productions studio at

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

on the site of a disused whisky distillery. It is the main Scottish drama facilities where programmes such as '' Still Game'' and ''

River City ''River City'' is a Scottish television soap opera that was first broadcast on BBC One Scotland on 24 September 2002. ''River City'' follows the lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch. In November 2017, a s ...

'' are recorded. Also, the

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO) is a Scottish broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC), it is the oldest full-time professional r ...

is resident at

Glasgow City Halls Glasgow's City Halls and Old Fruitmarket is a concert hall and former market located on Candleriggs, in the Merchant City, Glasgow, Scotland. History The City Halls are part of a market complex designed by John Carrick in 1882, but the grand ha ...

having been based at Queen Margaret Drive until 2006.

Programming

BBC Scotland continues to produce a high number of local programmes for the Scottish audiences. Its flagship news and current affair programmes are ''Reporting Scotland'' and ''

Scotland 2016 ''Scotland 2016'' is a news and current affairs programme from BBC Scotland News, presented by Sarah Smith and Jonathan Sutherland. Starting 28 May 2014, it was called ''Scotland 2014'' before being renamed to reflect the year. It replaced '' ...

'' which provides over an hour of content each weekday. Drama in the form of ''

''. With sport on Radio Scotland, along with ''

Sportscene ''Sportscene'' is the name of a range of Scottish sports television programmes produced by BBC Scotland. History ''Sportscenes predecessors were ''Sports Special from Scotland'' and ''Sportsreel'', which was broadcast every Saturday at around 5 ...

'', cover a large number of local sports including football, rugby and bowls. BBC Scotland also produces over 20 hours of comedy programmers for radio and television. While features and documentaries is BBC Scotland's biggest output, with ''

The Beechgrove Garden ''Beechgrove'' (formerly known as ''The Beechgrove Garden'') is a television programme broadcast since 1978 on BBC Scotland. Over the years it has been broadcast on BBC Scotland, BBC One Scotland, BBC Two Scotland and Britbox. History ''Beechg ...

'', ''

Landward ''Landward'' is a long-running Scottish television programme focusing on agricultural and rural issues, produced and broadcast by BBC Scotland. Overview BBC Scotland had first produced its own farming programme, ''Farm Forum'', in 1965. This w ...

'', ''Sport Monthly'', ''

The Adventure Show ''The Adventure Show'' is a sport programme produced by Adventure Show Productions for BBC Sport Scotland, formerly broadcast on BBC Two Scotland and since 2019 on BBC Scotland. It is hosted by Dougie Vipond. In the show's original format, Vip ...

'', ''The Mountain'', ''

BBC Scotland Investigates ''BBC Scotland Investigates'' is a current affairs programme broadcast in Scotland by BBC Scotland. It is broadcast regularly on BBC One Scotland on weekday nights, currently with varying timeslots. Previously known as ''Frontline Scotland'', th ...

'' and many other covering all aspect of Scottish life. Output for the British network has included such recent high-profile dramas as ''

'', '' Hope Springs'', '' Waterloo Road'' and ''Single Father''. BBC Scotland also produces a high number of gamesshows which feature ''

The National Lottery Draws ''The National Lottery Results'' (previously ''The National Lottery Live'', ''The National Lottery Draw'', ''The National Lottery Stars'' and ''The National Lottery Draws'') is the television programme that broadcasts the drawing of the Natio ...

''. BBC Scotland also produces the Scottish opt-out sections of British-wide programmes such as ''

Sunday Politics ''Daily Politics'' was a BBC Television programme which aired between 6 January, 2003 and 24 July, 2018, presented by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn. ''Daily Politics'' took an in-depth review of the daily events in both Westminster and other areas a ...

'' and '' Children in Need''. Until 2010, a high number of Gaelic programmes were broadcast on BBC One and Two Scotland before transferring over to BBC Alba. Its flagship programmes, which both started in 1993, are ''

Dè a-nis? ''Dè a-nis?'' (pronounced: Jaay a-neash) is a Scottish Gaelic-language children's program produced by BBC Gàidhlig. It is broadcast on BBC Alba on Wednesday nights at 6:00pm. "Dè a-nis" is Gaelic for "What Now?" History Launched on 30 Septe ...

'' and ''

Eòrpa ' (Scottish Gaelic for ''Europe'') is long-running current affairs programme broadcast on BBC Alba. The series has been running since 1993 and has covered political and social issues affecting Europe and Europeans over that time including issues ...

''. ''Eòrpa'' hit the headlines in May 2008, specially mentioned in the Scottish Broadcasting Commission's report. "It was intriguing to note that without fail at every one of our public events, BBC2 Scotland's ''Eòrpa'' programme was raised, unsolicited, and by non-Gaelic speakers, as an example of a positive, well-respected programme", commented

Blair Jenkins Blair Jenkins (born 1957 in Elgin, Scotland) is a Scottish former journalist who served as chief executive of Yes Scotland in the campaign for a "Yes" vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Previously, he was Director of Broadcasting ...

, the Chair of the

Scottish Broadcasting Commission The Scottish Broadcasting Commission ( gd, Coisisean craolaidh na h-Alba, sco, Scots Braidcastin Commeesion) was established by the Scottish Government in August 2007. Its purpose is to conduct an independent investigation into television produc ...

. It continued to be given a broadcast on BBC Two Scotland as the only Gaelic programme on the channel until 2019.

Past programming

Over the years, BBC Scotland made a number of well known and much loved radio and television programmes both for the BBC networks and for transmission in Scotland only. In television these were known within the BBC as "opt out" programmes. At teatime in the beginning, there was ''A Quick Look Round'' with Leonard Maguire. From 1968, as well as the flagship evening news programme ''

'', presented by Mary Marquis and Douglas Kynoch, with contributions from

Renton Laidlaw Henry Renton Laidlaw (6 July 1939 – 12 October 2021) was a British golf broadcaster and journalist. Biography Laidlaw was born in Morningside, Edinburgh in July 1939. He started working as a copytaker, compiling sports results. Laidlaw then mo ...

in Edinburgh and Donny B. MacLeod in Aberdeen, there were popular current affairs series such as ''Compass'', ''Checkpoint'' with Professor Esmond Wright and

Magnus Magnusson Magnus Magnusson, (born Magnús Sigursteinsson; 12 October 1929 – 7 January 2007) was an Icelandic-born British-based journalist, translator, writer and television presenter. Born in Reykjavík, he lived in Scotland for almost all his life, a ...

, ''Person to Person'' with Mary Marquis, ''

Current Account Current account or Current Account may refer to: * Current account (balance of payments), a country's balance of trade, net of factor income and cash transfers * Current account (banking) A transaction account, also called a checking account, ch ...

'', '' Public Account'' and ''

Agenda Agenda may refer to: Information management * Agenda (meeting), points to be discussed and acted upon, displayed as a list * Political agenda, the set of goals of an ideological group * Lotus Agenda, a DOS-based personal information manager * Pers ...

''. Many comedy series have been made by BBC Scotland, including ''

Scotch and Wry ''Scotch and Wry'' is a Scottish television comedy sketch show produced by BBC Scotland and starring Rikki Fulton and a revolving ensemble cast which over the years included Gregor Fisher, Tony Roper, Claire Nielson, Juliet Cadzow and John B ...

'', ''

Rab C. Nesbitt ''Rab C. Nesbitt'' is a Scottish comedy series which began in 1988. Produced by BBC Scotland, it stars Gregor Fisher as an alcoholic Glaswegian who seeks unemployment as a lifestyle choice. Rab C. Nesbitt was originally a recurring character ...

'', ''

Naked Video ''Naked Video'' is a BBC Scotland sketch show that was aired on BBC2 from 12 May 1986 to 18 November 1991. The show was created by Colin Gilbert who had previously created '' A Kick Up the Eighties'' and ''Naked Radio'' (the latter being a radi ...

'' and '' Still Game'', while with dramas included ''

Hamish Macbeth Hamish Macbeth is the lackadaisical police constable of the fictional Scottish Highland town of Lochdubh, in a series of murder mystery novels created by M. C. Beaton (Marion Chesney). Considered by many to be a useless, lazy moocher, Macbeth ...

'', '' Monarch of the Glen'', and '' Sutherland's Law''. In recent years, BBC Scotland comedy shows such as ''

Mrs. Brown's Boys ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' is an Irish television sitcom created by and starring Brendan O'Carroll and produced in the United Kingdom by BBC Scotland in partnership with BOC-PIX and Irish broadcaster RTÉ. The series stars O'Carroll as Agnes ...

'', '' Two Doors Down'' and ''

Mountain Goats The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a hoofed mammal endemic to mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to alpine species, it is a sure-footed climber commonly seen on cliffs and ...

'' have been lambasted by critics. BBC Scotland has also produced two highly controversial programmes, '' Scotch on the Rocks'' and ''Secret Society'', with the latter resulting in BBC Scotland being raided by the police.

Television continuity announcers

BBC Scotland started using their own television continuity announcers voicing over specific BBC Scotland station idents for all evening and weekend afternoon junctions around 1977. Before this, announcers only introduced occasional opt-outs, which resulted in the London announcer being heard most of the time. The announcers were "self-op" - they had to speak and press the buttons to change the sound and picture and cue in telecine (film), videotape recordings (VTR) and live programmes. From 1979, their duties were expanded to cover reading the lunchtime news bulletin in vision at 12:40, just before the network ''Midday News'' at 12:45. There was one announcer who was never seen. Robert Logan was also a Conservative local councillor. Consequently, he never read the news summaries, nor did he ever give his name at closedown. From 1985, the announcing team started doing a news summary just before children's programmes at around 15:53, and within a few weeks, additional news summaries at 21:25 were introduced. From 31 October 1988, newsroom staff started to read the news summaries instead of the announcers. Inevitably, though, viewers started to spot their little idiosyncrasies. Mark Stephen often came perilously close to sending up programmes with his good-natured humour; links of his included:

Controllers and heads

Directors and Controllers of BBC Scotland: * Herbert A. Carruthers (1923), Glasgow 5SC Station Director *

David Cleghorn Thomson David Cleghorn Thomson (9 October 1900 – 23 April 1980), was a Scottish journalist, author, poet, playwright, and Liberal and Labour Party politician. He was notably Director of the BBC's Scottish Region. Background Thomson was born in Edinb ...

(1926–33), Northern Area Director (incl N. Ireland), then from 1928 Scottish Regional Director *

Moray McLaren Moray David Shaw McLaren (1901–1971) was a Scottish writer and broadcasting executive. Life He was educated at Merchiston Castle School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and spent time in Paris. He worked as assistant editor on the '' Lond ...

(1933) * Melville D. Dinwiddie (1933–57), Controller, Scotland from 1948 * Andrew Stewart (1957–68) * Alasdair Milne (1968–73), later BBC Director General * Robert Coulter (1973–75) * Alastair Hetherington (1975–78), former editor of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper * Patrick Ramsey (1978–82) * Patrick Chalmers (1982 – December 1991) * John McCormick (January 1992 – April 2004) * Ken MacQuarrie (April 2004 – 2016), Director, Scotland from 2009 * Donalda MacKinnon (December 2016 – October 2020) * Steve Carson (October 2020 – present)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Scotland Govan Television channels and stations established in 1952 Organisations based in Glasgow

History

Current services

Television

Radio

Online and interactive

Studios – past and present

Programming

Past programming

Television continuity announcers

Controllers and heads

See also

References

External links