Lack of Scottish talk radio - the REAL democratic deficit

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Let's increase the variety of voices heard on the radio and faces
seen on television. Excite the listener or viewer and don't
switch them off!

Talk radio is proving to be a popular phenomenon in many different geographical areas. In the Republic of Ireland, Newstalk is their most well known independent talk radio broadcaster. The BBC focuses on talk based programming through it's own output on stations such as Radio 4. And in London, who can forget the popular LBC?

Scotland is about to face the biggest decision in it's entire history in just under three weeks from now. Much debate has been had on television screens, in town halls and on the streets of every city and town across this country. Yet, despite all this, the country can sadly not boast that it has it's own independent national talk radio station. Frankly, this is a national obscenity as well as a tragedy.

A good friend of mine and I had a deep conversation about this whole issue on the phone last weekend. Like me, and I say this with modesty, he has a constructive and analytical outlook on the referendum. Personally, I'm getting more and more fed up of seeing the same faces and hearing the same voices on my television and radio every day, particularly with regard to coverage of the Scottish independence referendum. I'm getting fed up of listening to the same soundbites from politicians on both sides time after time. And I'm also getting fed up of the petty point scoring that overshadows many broadcasts on the issue of the referendum (and on other issues within politics in general). Why can't the broadcasters and other media outlets start looking further afield to other people and commentators to seek their constructive opinions? Are people like me just not interesting enough?

To be fair, I have to feel grateful to the BBC at Pacific Quay for allowing me on numerous occasions to come onto Morning Call on BBC Radio Scotland and speak about the issues featured on their show (of which not every issue that I've discussed on that show has been specifically related to the referendum on independence). But BBC Scotland can only do so much and has to cater for all of it's listeners as Radio Scotland is not specifically a talk radio station. The advantage with having an independent national talk radio station is that it'll enable a platform for a variety of different people to come on air and put their opinion in the public domain. It's wrong to suggest that people don't care about politics. They do - for goodness sake, look at the number of people who have registered to vote for this forthcoming referendum. I know some of you will point me to Talk 107, which was a talk radio station serving Edinburgh, Fife and the Lothians in the 2000's. Sadly it's no longer around, because, in my opinion, it did not reach out to the whole nation and only broadcast to a selected part of the country - that was a fundamental mistake from the start.

If I'm being really honest, the need for Scotland to catch up with the likes of London and the Republic of Ireland in having, exclusively, a talk radio station of it's own is overwhelming. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a country that such a service does not exist in it's own entity. I hope somebody with experience, expertise and passion for such an idea can bring about whatever is required for Scottish talk radio to thrive again and contribute a fundamentally important element to the nation's media.