Hollywood backs petition to save Janice Forsyth radio show
Janice Forsyth has attracted publicity from Hollywood
THE petition to save BBC Radio Scotland’s Janice Forsyth Show has collected more than 1,000 signatures as the campaign to keep the programme on the air gathers strength.
Yesterday more high-profile names joined the online clamour to save the long-running show with Hollywood actor Alan Cumming adding his voice on the micro-blogging site Twitter: “Janice Forsyth is a Legend!! Sign the petition tweeters. This is a national emergency.”
Labour front-bench MP Douglas Alexander also expressed his dismay at the move: “Simply can’t understand BBC Scotland’s decision to axe the Janice Forsyth Show. Saturday morning’s wouldn’t be the same. #hopethey’llthinkagain.”
In addition to the famous figures fighting to save the show, the fans who have been at the heart of the campaign continued to criticise the BBC’s decision.
Wilma Duff has doggedly tweeted and re-tweeted stories and links to the petition, targeting big-name Scots to help maintain the campaign’s profile.
She said: “It’s exciting. I’ve been tweeting and Facebooking any Scottish person I thought might have any sort of heft, asking them to help us out.
“Ian Rankin has been great, getting us into the newspapers, so I think we need more of that sort of thing.
“My reasons for doing this are quite straightforward: I just love the show and I don’t want any more sport on radio, certainly not during Saturday morning.”
Ms Duff, who was behind the Save Janny on the Tranny T-shirts that appeared within hours of the announcement, said that she was now looking at trying to arrange a live-music event in support of the show and to help take the campaign forward.
Paul Lewis, who masterminded the campaign to save the BBC’s 6Music channel, said its success had been down to supporters “making a nuisance of themselves” and, beyond a vociferous online effort, it had contacted the BBC’s director of audio and music, Tim Davie directly, to make listeners’ feelings clear.
Mr Lewis, who has signed the Janice Forsyth petition, also described how he had just run a successful campaign similar to that to save Janice’s show.
He said: “As of two weeks ago, Tom Robinson’s Introducing Show, which put 8,000 new bands through 6Music in the last four years, was going. I got 775 signatures on a petition within a day-and-a-half, and on Sunday night the Controller of 6Music phoned Tom and said ‘you can keep your show’.”
Forsyth’s show, which has run for 18 years, is being axed to make way for extended news and sport, in line with policy for speech during the day and music programming at night.
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Comments
There are 22 comments to this article
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FWFW
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 06:38 PMI want to start my own campaign to get rid of Cowan and Cosgrove "chorlte, chortle aren't we clever wee chaps" or at least do what the teacher would do and split them up and maybe then they'd be a bit less insufferable. How about the Janice and Tam show blending footbal anecdotes, listener comment and some easy listening with a wee Janice sparky interview for good measure. That might shake up the chemistry a bit !!
panayiotis
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 06:36 PMDoes anyone know if any radio or TV programs have made any mention that today the 8th of February is the Anniversary of the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1542 no 470 years ago. I would have hoped that as Scots it was worth an acknowledgment
Rocketsocket
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:26 PMAuld Meerkat - don't you tune into celtic connections coverage plus the insufferable sounds of Piping, and all that other stuff that bores the mcarse off me? Also there's a whole McAlba station catering to language. And if you actually listened to the Forsyth show, you'd hear that they make an effort to showcase scottish musicians. But you touch on a good point - Radio Scotland's high heids really don't understand or like music very much, do they. That's why they shuffle it off to evenings. The nearest they get to an arts policy is third rate comedy. Preferably third rate comedy about sport.
and I'm not making this up
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:22 PMGet rid of Good Morning Scotland - it is utter mince. Get rid of that awful Shereen Nanjiani programme - worse than mince. Keep Janice Forsyth and bring back Derek Bateman. Get rid of the people who made these cr@p decisions.
donald
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 12:09 PMKeep Janet. and dump wee Dougie the ventriloquist dummy and his EBC. propaganda machine.
Auld Meerkat
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:46 AMWhy all the fuss - there are dozens of radio stations playing symplistic popular music with banal chat.How many of these supporters care about the actual language and traditional music of Scotland which is in dire need of radio coverage.Did I hear any of them (or Janice) back continued financial support for the trad.music tuition at Plockton High School or the RSAMD in Glasgow?.How many times does Ms Forsyth play a song performed without an American accent.Isn't about time that Radio Scotland and the BBC in general became less mid-atlantic. Bring back desperate fishwives !!!!!!!!!
Cynicus
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:17 AM6 Roytenn Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 04:44 AM 1 Cynicus-------------------------------------------------------------------- This just shows the brain power of so many of the unionists who post on here. There is a difference between Hollywood and Holyrood. Hollywood is on the west coast or the USA and Holyrood is on the east coast of Scotland. but why bother with fact if you can attack the SNP or the Scottish Government with a lie or lies? ================================================== What on earth are you drivelling on about? Who mentioned Hollywood? I referred to The Tally of Bans.
Rocketsocket
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 11:15 AMThe really brave and pioneering thing for Beeb Scots would be to can the boring sports chat, not the wee wumman and her records. Incidentally, I don't know what channel Claymore has been watching, but sign me up. Come festival time the whole of Radio Scotland seems to decamp to Edinburgh, plus there's the culture show chinstrokers blethering about the latest Portugese opera.
Tintock Pete
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:41 AMWho listens to the tranny these days. Anyway most Scots don't get up until the afternoon so I doubt if she gets many listeners especially on a Saturday morning.
rory@mailinator.com
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 09:21 AMForsyth's show pushes new scottish music and her chats are with scots highlighting new arts performers and projects. But I agree that dropping Newsweek Scotland is a disgrace and another indication of BBC Scotland wrongheadedness. Why not start a petition of your own?
claymore's edge
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 09:06 AMCouldnt care less about Janice Forsyth. Shes had a very cushy gig at BBC Scotland for years, And hasnt contributed anything of note to Scotland culturally. Sometimes you would get her doing an annual piece on the Edinburgh festival with some locations shots inside the Old town, but for the life of me shes just another careerist who is smug and self serving. Also why has there never been any protest over BBC Scotland refusing to cover the Edinburgh International arts festival?! BBC Scotland is useless in representing the arts and festivals in Scotland. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Why didint we get this same level of protest for Newsweek, which was actually a needed show?!
rory@mailinator.com
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 09:02 AMIt's amazing that this petition has managed to get 1000 names in a few days. It was organised by members of the public, rather than a big media machine, so it doesn't seem big or clever to sneer at fellow scots when they try to tell BBC Scotland their feelings. @Bibamus, the 1000 represents many more but it was never suggested that 5m listen to the Forsyth Show. I wonder if you could boast of 10 people who would give a toss if you stopped posting here. And @Chares Linskaill, Radio Forth is fine but not listening to the BBC just because it's the BBC sounds a little daft. You might like some of the programmes and you might even enjoy Janice. However the point is that the BBC is trying to sneak in a cutback by axing a popular Saturday show and replace it with inferior twaddle. We pay for a licence, i think folk have a right to complain when the BBC gets it wrong
buzzer
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 08:56 AMMore alarming is the scrapping of Newsweek Scotland but I never heard wee Dougie Alexander shout unfair at that one
Roytenn
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 08:54 AM7 Vote No.....................................................................Thank you, thank you, thank you for proving my point. Now where is Califrna?
Ergo Bibamus
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 07:10 AMWhat a whole 1000, some of whom do not even live in Scotland, out of a population of 5.2 million - democracy at work !
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