Janice Forsyth music show forced off air to make way for sport

By CRAIG BROWN
Published on Saturday 4 February 2012 00:00

FOR Scottish music fans, it was the perfect accompaniment to their Saturday morning. But after almost two decades, Janice Forsyth’s weekend BBC Radio Scotland show is to be axed to make way for more news and sport.

Yesterday fans of the show, including crime writer Ian Rankin, expressed outrage at the move, which they described as “short-sighted”.

The two-hour show, a mixture of music and chat, touching on all aspects of Scottish popular culture, has run for 18 years. It has now fallen victim to the station’s emerging policy of broadcasting talk radio during the day and music at night.

The eclectic programme, with guests including David Bowie, Debbie Harry, Tom Jones, Billy Connolly and Kirsty Wark, will not be replaced. Instead existing news and sport programmes will be extended to fill the slot between 10am and noon.

Forsyth said yesterday that she felt the show had developed a strong following. “I am disappointed, but we’ve had a great run,” she said. “We know these things don’t last forever, and it’s been a great team effort.

“I’ve always said that it’s like having a Saturday job, because it’s great just to play music. We’ve had a lot of feedback over the years from the audience, so we know there is a dedicated audience who like the mixture of music and chat, and the big-name guests we get from whether it’s movies, theatre or comedy.”

The cut is the latest move by BBC Scotland, which faces losing £16 million from its annual budget of about £102m by 2017 as a result of an overall 16 per cent cut in the corporation’s funding.

However, fans of the show questioned the wisdom of the decision, warning that the BBC was cutting one of its most popular programmes.

Music promoter Mark Mac-kie of Regular Music, who has brought the likes of Prince and REM to Scotland, described the move as “an outrage”. He said: “I think it’s a decision made by somebody who doesn’t listen to radio. Daytime radio is one thing, but at the weekend the Janice Forsyth show is an institution.

“We get enough sport and news, we have 5Live already. If Radio Scotland insist on going ahead with this, then we’ll all just tune in to Radio 2.”

Rankin was similarly disappointed: “I think it’s very short-sighted,” he said. “It’s an ideal mix. She splices up the interviews with a choice selection of really good songs.”

Simple Minds manager Bruce Findlay was “flabbergasted” . He said: “I love Janice, she’s topical, intelligent – it’s rubbish to say that it’s just music, because there is a lot of speech in it. I really don’t understand the thinking behind the decision.”

The BBC said that the show would be ending as part of a schedule change starting with the launch of Olympic programmes in July.

“BBC Radio Scotland has been evolving to become more speech-based during the day, with music scheduled for evenings, which is in line with the BBC Trust-backed strategy of offering programmes that are different from commercial radio and other BBC stations,” a statement said.

“Janice is a terrific broadcaster and continues with her two current shows, The Movie Café on Thursdays and The Comedy Café on Fridays. We very much hope to be starting a new series with Janice next year.”

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  YOU can see the logic of it, from BBC Radio Scotland’s point of view. “We’ve got to save some money. The person whose show we’re axing and the indie production company making it will still have other work from us, so we’re clearly not being nasty.

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Rocketsocket

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 06:04 PM

Congrats to the Scotsman for backing this show, one of the few gems left on Radio Scotland since to was left to Jeff Zysinski. And #9 - you would be right about all things eventually coming to an end, but the point here is that there's an audience that enjoys this show and doesn't want it to end. It's still attracting top notch guests but instead of being offered something of equal quality, we're being palmed off with more sport. I love my football, but even I call overload on this.

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9

True Scot

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 05:24 PM

well that's what hapens in radio -shows come and go- no broadcaster has a right in perpituity to a slot.

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8

westfield1

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:26 PM

If they want to have more speech based programmes fine, but not all listeners want to listen to football bores, this show is one of the best on Radio Scotland...why not give it a different time slot ? after all we are the ones funding the bbc

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7

Butterfliesandbeasties

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 01:42 PM

Try and keep Janny on the Tranny. http:www.change.orgpetitionsbbc-scotland-keep-the-janice-forsyth-show-on-bbc-radio-scotland If the BBC axe Janice, it will mean listening to local radio instead. http:www.heartlandfm.co.uk Not everyone wants to listen to rubbish like open all mikes and even off the ball has lost it's sparke,

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6

GerryMcGregor

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:11 AM

The main problems lies with the BBC Trust. Their review of Radio Scotland recommended that all music shows during the day time be cancelled. Instead of fighting this the powers to be have given in to them. Does this mean that Tom Morton will also be axed? The main problem is one radio channel in Scotland to cover news, sport, music & entertainment. It is not possible. We need a properly funded public service radio here in Scotland. You can not relay on the national radio stations to give you Scottish news & sports reports, they are too dominated by what happens in England. Also the likes of Radio 2 gives you bland top 40 music.

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5

JimmyCarlyle

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:20 AM

What a piece of nonsense, there is enough of Beattie (still don't understand why he is fronting the news, want to save money get rid of him) during the week. I used to like listening to Off the Ball but it is a bit old hat now and an afternoon of football commentary followed by Jim Traynor, please there is enough sport on Radio Scotland on a Saturday. We are not all sports fans.

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4

buckersdude

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 01:14 AM

God how clever are BBC Scotland. Cancel probably the best show they have on the radio. So is the plan to lose 16 million by ensuring nobody listens? Janice is a terrific, knowledgeable broadcaster....she and her audience deserve much better.

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3

buckersdude

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 01:13 AM

God how clever are BBC Scotland. Cancel probably the best show they have on the radio. So is the plan to lose 16 million by ensuring nobody listens? Janice is a terrific, knowledgeable broadcaster....she and her audience deserve much better. Shame on you BBC.

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2

BillDunblane

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:36 AM

God forbid that BBC Scotland would actually reflect Scottish life. Other than Labour and fitba'.

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Arthur G

Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:30 AM

Aye right, get rid of Janice Forsyth for more talking heads, talking ill-informed pysh about football on Saturday? Maybe BBC Scotland is clearing the decks for the arrival of the egregious Graham Spiers, whose political and football allegiences (LabourCeltic) will make him fit in perfectly at Pacific Quay.

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