Local radio and television news under the spotlight in the Borders.
09 February 2010
In view of an impending digital radio switchover, the futures of Radio Borders, BBC Radio Selkirk and BBC Radio Solway and local news on ITV, all came under the spotlight when the 9th Borders Digital Forum convened in Hawick recently.
The UK Government's plans to switch off the FM signal and transfer everything to digital radio are also soon to be debated by MPs. This will be a major exercise since there are millions of radios in people's homes and cars whose future is uncertain.
The ninth meeting of the Forum, chaired by local MP Michael Moore (above) in the auditorium at the Heart of Hawick, gave over 50 local people and organisations such as Age Concern and Help the Aged in Scotland, Consumer Focus Scotland and Borders' Elderly Voice the chance to hear the plans and ask questions of those involved in all of these changes. Unfortunately, the industry regulator Ofcom declined an invitation to appear.
In the first of two sessions, the Forum heard from Lisa Kerr of Digital Radio UK, Alice Dickerson of the Radio Centre, the trade body for the UK's commercial radio companies and BBC Scotland's Head of Public Affairs Ian Small about the plans to move over to digital radio.
Over the past couple of years, parts of the Borders have been able to use digital radio for the first time, following a campaign by Mr. Moore and other local people, but the network is not complete and there were many concerns about the costs of converting all existing radios over to digital.
It was made very clear by a succession of speakers that should a digital signal be poor or unavailable, which is a distinct possibility given the Borders' topography, the FM signal would remain, but, many stations may choose to cease broadcasting on FM, and this could lead to a reduction in the number of available stations.
In the second session, the future of ITV regional news, always a lively topic at previous meetings of the Forum, given the recent TV switchover to digital, was debated. ITV has been hit by serious funding problems of late and says it needs to reduce the costs of providing local news bulletins such as 'Lookaround'. In response, Westminster is busy considering plans for laws which will prepare the way for new consortia of organisations to be able to provide the local news on ITV.
Following the locally unpopular merger between ITV Border and Tyne Tees, senior ITV manager Nigel Warner and News Editor Lahra Tyndall were on hand to explain how they put existing programmes, like ‘Lookaround' together and express enthusiasm for the new UK Government pilot scheme that could see a more localised news service return to the Borders. Susan Windram, Editor of the Southern Reporter, then gave the thoughts of her organisation, Johnston Press, which owns many of the newspapers in the Borders, on the future of local news gathering.
Commenting on the Forum, Michael Moore MP said: "Borders people care passionately about local news. I know that many are utterly fed up with the current arrangements with 'Tyne Tees' so we were hoping to hear something that would make a tangible difference and put the ‘local' back into our news. However, until we get much greater clarity on the options, either from the Government, ITV or others and an enhanced understanding of how the radio switchover will happen and what the costs will be, the Borders Digital Forum will continue canvassing opinion and lobbying for local people."
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