Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The original Radio Scotland - silenced 40 years ago


Inveterate TM show listener Hugh Campbell got in touch today to reminisce about the first broadcast from Wunnerful Radio One, exactly 40 years ago....what, he asked, were you doing when Tony Blackburn spun Flowers in the Rain, way back when? On my way to school, I think, gazing out, as we prepared to turn right into Marr College's driveway, at the space once occupied by the good ship Comet, home until a few months previously, of the pirate station Radio Scotland.

I remember the jingle: "Just off the coast, no far frae Troon, there lies a bonnie wee boat/though it's nothin' much tae look at, it's the proudest ship afloat/it's the home o' Radio Scotland and it's every Scotsman's pride...."(can't remember the next bit, but it ended)"Radio Scotland is playing just for you/so beat the ban and join the clan on station 242." Medium Wave, of course.

I've just discovered this fantastic site, from which the picture above is taken, which has all kinds of pictures of the early DJs like Richard Park, Jimmy Mack and Stuart Henry, a history of the ship and snaps of the amazingly primitive studio. Radio Scotland closed before Radio One came on air, as the new Marine Broadcasting Act came into force and made it....even more illegal!

2 comments:

John McBrearty said...

Just off the coast, no far frae Troon, there lies a bonnie wee boat/

though it's nothin' grand tae look at, it's the proudest ship afloat/

it's the home o' Radio Scotland and it's every Scotsman's pride..

fur through the day and through the night they broadcast nationwide

Radio Scotland playing just for you/

so beat the ban and join the clan on station 242.
__________________________________

That's my recollection of how it went :-)

Anonymous said...

The next verse is
And now a debutation has went doon tae London town/ they'll fight wae pen and ink to pull the jolly roger down/ and wieldin acts o' parliament and sayin this is wrong it seems you need permission now tae sing a we bit song