Radio<\/a> Scotland is the only station in Scotland that has anything that comes close to that level of career-igniting clout. And within BBC Radio Scotland, it is the curated late-night shows that provide that space where exciting new music can be discovered, and new artists introduced to Scottish listeners.\u201d<\/p>\nThe letter calls for the BBC to \u201cpause implementation of these programme changes until meaningful consultation with Scotland\u2019s music sector (including artists, industry organisations and audiences) has taken place\u201d, echoing an earlier call from the Scottish Music Industry Association.<\/p>\n
The Musicians\u2019 Union has also criticised the plans, with Caroline Sewell, regional organiser for Scotland and Northern Ireland, saying: \u201cWe urge BBC Scotland to reconsider, to work with the music community to safeguard opportunities for Scottish musicians \u2013 not to contribute to the ongoing decimation of opportunities for our incredible musicians who consistently enrich our lives and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
When presented with the open letter, BBC Radio Scotland said in a statement: \u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for radio stations to undergo changes, particularly in an increasingly competitive audio market and, whilst we understand some audiences may be disappointed, it is important that BBC Radio Scotland continues to listen to audience feedback and evolve its offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The station said it \u201cremains proud to showcase the full breadth of Scotland\u2019s musical talent, from established performers to the next generation of artists, across its schedule. Specialist music remains a cornerstone of BBC Radio Scotland\u2019s music policy. Half of our total music hours are specialist.\u201d<\/p>\n
BBC Radio Scotland has previously stated: \u201cThe existing programmes are ending after a procurement process in which the current independent production companies making those shows did not bid for the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, organisers of the open letter argued that no such bids were made because BBC Radio Scotland had called for a substantially different and new style of show, featuring, according to a publicly available document inviting companies to tender for the shows, \u201cmore mainstream, easy-listening tracks\u201d.<\/p>\n
Up Late will be presented by Lynne Hoggan, taking over the time slot from veteran presenters Iain Anderson, Billy Sloan, Roddy Hart and Natasha Raskin Sharp. Hart will continue to present on BBC Radio Scotland in two new shows on Saturday and Sunday evenings, and Ashley Storrie will continue to present the same time slot on Friday evenings, though the other three presenters will be removed from the schedules at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n
The letter continues: \u201cA playlist doesn\u2019t give you an enthusiastic and globally respected quote you can use on tour posters, press releases or the sleeve of your debut EP. Neither does a playlist go to small gigs by unknown bands, or offer encouragement and advice to young, upcoming artists \u2026 No, it\u2019s the deeply passionate music-lovers, who have spent their working lives inside the Scottish audio landscape, who do these things \u2026 These are the trusted voices of our late-night radio. We do not want to lose them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Things have a value beyond listening figures\u2019 \u2026 James Yorkston. Photograph: Robin Little\/Redferns<\/p>\n
Posting on social media, Billy Sloan said he was \u201creluctantly\u201d leaving his role after 11 years, and added: \u201cI can honestly say \u2013 hand on heart \u2013 that I\u2019ve never played a single record I didn\u2019t think was great. But it appears that in the new format that is being introduced \u2013 reported in the press to be more of an \u2018easy listening\/broad mainstream appeal\u2019 \u2013 that is no longer what is required.\u201d<\/p>\n
Folk musician James Yorkston was among others taking issue with that planned shift in focus. \u201cI like easy going evening friendly pop music as much as the next ageing Fifer, but there are already plenty of places to hear it,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes things have a value beyond listening figures or fear of confusing someone. Fingers crossed the decision to lose those shows will be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defending its decision, BBC Radio Scotland pointed to a range of other specialist music shows including Travelling Folk and The Quay Sessions, and said it remained \u201cdeeply committed\u201d to championing specialist music. It also highlighted the ongoing BBC awards Young Traditional Musician of the Year, Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, Young Scottish Classical Musician of the Year and BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year.<\/p>\n
The new lineup of programming is currently scheduled to begin in the first week of 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Musicians including Eddi Reader, Nadine Shah, Hamish Hawk and members of Franz Ferninand, Del Amitri, Idlewild and more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-320438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}