The Scottish Programming Group has been part of Radio 4EB almost since its inception. It caters for a steadily increasing listening audience around south-east Queensland and around the world now that it can be listened to in ‘real-time’ through the Internet or ‘On-demand’ at a listener’s discretion.
Although Scotland, is only a small country a visitor there will hear a variety of dialects being spoken, including ‘Scots Gaelic’, (north-west and western islands), ‘Lowland Scots’ (Lallans), ‘Glaswegian’ and the ‘Doric’ of the north east. The dialects differ substantially from region to region and then within those regions from village to village. To many some of the dialects sound like a foreign language.
Conveniently our 4EB Broadcasters have Scotland covered as far as accents and local knowledge are concerned.
Jim Johnstone is from Ayr a little further north. Next from the Glasgow area is Heather Heron, our resident Scottish Country Dance Teacher, whose dad was born in Parkhead and from nearby Coatbridge is Tom Hamill. Margaret Malone and John Grant are from Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh. Further north we have two Doric speakers, Brian Bisset from Aberdeen and Grace Watkins from Buckie. Finally from the Western Isles, Scotland’s sunshine island, Tiree, we have Charlie MacLean. As you can see, “Scotland, we’ve pretty well got you covered”.
We have two programs every week. A Thursday Radio 4EBFM 98.1 program between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm and and ‘Global’ a Sunday Digital Radio program between 2.00 and 3.00 pm. We are heard live to air every week without fail including Christmas Day.
Radio 4EB “Scottish” has become the heart and voice of the local Scottish Community. Through a lot of hard work and encouragement, many members of the Programming Group have helped to build the program to what it is today, ‘the voice of the Scottish people in Queensland on air’. Scots are often referred to as the “Silent Immigrants” only appearing briefly for St Andrew’s Day, New Year or “Hogmanay”, Scotland’s National Bard Robert Burns Birthday in January or Tartan Day in July. However, we can be heard every week all year round.
Where possible, we attend Scottish community events and take along the ‘4EB Banner’ so that we are easy to spot. We also occasionally take the 4EB Outside Broadcast Van. We love talking to people about our programs, meeting and greeting our loyal members and listeners and hearing their opinions. We share our 4EB Radio world with volunteers from many other nations and cultures, all of us doing the same thing, helping our respective listeners to feel good about being a member and supporter of their Community radio station. That’s what being a volunteer of any sort is really about, caring for others and helping them to feel better and happier. In saying that, we really do appreciate being allowed into people’s homes and lives through our Scottish program.
We try to share as many topics of interest as we can during our two-and-a-quarter-hour Thursday program, which is affectionately referred to as, “A Wee Bit O’ Scotland On Thursday”. At all times we only have the listener in mind both with the information being shared and the music selected to play.
Every Thursday program includes most of the following:
A general knowledge quiz about Scotland, sometimes it is an indication of what will be being heard during the program.
Scottish History – usually what happened that week in Scotland’s past.
Scottish myths and legends
Scottish poets or poetry
Scottish recipes
On-air guests who have something of a Scottish nature to share with us.
Plus the latest Scottish News and the ‘Weather’. (Always good for a chuckle, the weather that is).
Scottish Sport including all of the Football Results and what Andy Murray is up to.
Diary Dates – Information about forthcoming events that have a Scottish influence, such as Club meetings, Highland Gatherings, Scottish Country Dance classes.
Also we broadcast “Get Well” calls for members who are on the ‘sick-list’.
The music always includes bagpipe tunes, bands, and a broad selection of all types of only Scottish music including male and female singers.
We try to keep a log of our members’ favourite songs, music and poetry and play these for them in the week leading up to their birthdays or anniversaries.
We always invite listeners to call us on 07 32 40 86 86 while we are on air and while music is playing if they have anything to share with us.
We are obliged to play less than 50% music to enable some much needed Federal Government funding to come our way and that is why we talk as much as we do.
All this has to be scripted into our one weekly spot on radio 4EBFM, which makes for a fairly busy but lively program.
We have a team of Broadcasters who are On-air on a rostered basis. The On-air Broadcasters are the “”Producers” of their own respective programs, selecting the music to be played and compiling the spoken content. All of our Broadcasters and Panel Operators On-air are licenced having been trained at no cost to themselves by a Radio 4EB Training Officer. You too could become a Broadcaster or Panel Operator if you are so inclined, you would be made most welcome. Just send us an E-mail to [email protected]
Our financial membership numbers of the Scottish Group allow us to have an air-time of two hours every Thursday. Should our numbers of paid up financial members drop we would see our air time reduced so a good membership base is essential if we are to stay On-air.
Our Scottish Programming Group Library has quite an extensive collection of Scottish Music and all of the broadcasters also have their own collection so we are able to satisfy most of the requests that are asked for by financial 4EB Scottish members.
We have a Facebook page “Radio 4EBFM 98.1 Scottish” where we keep you up to date with happenings on our programs.
We also can be contacted by E-mail at [email protected] if you have any questions, suggestions or just want to say hello.
We look forward to sharing our Scottish program with you for many more years.