Hi all, I felt so strongly that we didn't have any timely information on what was happening to fire up my Mac and write a blog on it. You can find it below, or at sheriffbrody.com

Thanks to all the local shops, especially the VG and Caldwells, for keeping us well supplied during the cut.

Andrew

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Happy new year all! I trust the blue tack and drawing pins that were once holding up your crimbo decs are now hanging idle on your walls, and that you’re living in the same mortal fear, as I am, of the credit card statement coming to a letterbox near you very soon.

Its been an interesting couple of days for radio. A huge low pressure moved in from the west and with it came winds in excess of 100mph. Roofs were blown off, wheelie bins emigrated and my neighbours cat joined the Paras. The electricity supply to my island and 99,999 other homes was ‘disrupted’ for over three days.

This presented some problems for those affected, but living on an island presents two major problems unique from the mainland experience; communication and logistics. When the power went off, it stayed off. Just like our ferry after 8:30pm at night, after that we were on our own. Kinda cool, but also kinda scary.

The only source of timely, relevant and up to date info I had came not from my Mac or iPhone (no lightbulb juice = no charge), but my battery powered radio. Yes, such things still exist!

Picture the scene: First Night Of The Cut – dark room but for a red light glowing from a Sony battery powered radio. Alas, salvation! Information on what happened, information on when it’ll be back on and god forbid some tunes in between….hazzar!

Well not quite.

At this point I should say that my island, surprise, surprise is at sea level, and doesn’t receive a lot of signal above 99 on the dial; so no commercial content, just the beeb.

“Not to worry though” Andy thought, Radio Scotland will be on the ball with live content, a guy in the hills with the engineers working on the leccy supply. Maybe another bloke at the council office reassuring folk that all is well and that you’re not cut off. But no. Nothing. Just the same schedule and the same prerecords.

Now, I enjoy hearing about early ninetieth century chin fiddle designs in Nova Scotia just as much as the next chap (this wasn’t actually on but you know what I mean) and I love hearing midmorning chats on how to prevent baldness. But when 100,000 homes are experiencing the worse blackout for over 40 years it may be an idea to cut to live and shake up the schedule to mirror the events.

Our local shops overnight stripped their window displays and put out front their candles, blankets and torches. What people needed to have. They adapted. So when radio comes into the fore as the only accessible medium for communication with the outside world it would have been a comfort to all if Radio Scotland had followed suit.

When parents have no hot water to wash their wanes (Scottish kids), or when the elderly living on their own have no means of communicating with the outside world cause the TV is dead, radio should and must come to the fore to inform people as to what is happening.

Connection is our business. Intimacy is our business. If we don’t deliver on it we’re doing something wrong.

Radio Scotland had an enormous opportunity to educate, entertain and inform (I’m sure I read that somewhere). And while my comments here and on Twitter may land me in stick when it comes time to apply for a gig at PQ, I stand by them.

My three nights in the dark with no iTunes, Spotify, Twitter or Al Jazeera made me think quite clearly about what radio should be. If I wasn’t committed enough, before the blackout, to work in the industry, I am today.

Andrew Smillie,
Producer, Student and financial backer of Guinness

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