Basics - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 33

The press

BBC2, and three commercial channels: ITV1,
Channel 4 and Channel 5. BBC Scotland produces
news programmes and a regular crop of local-
interest lifestyle, current affairs, drama and comedy
shows which slot into the schedules of both BBC
channels. The commercial channel ITV1 (branded in
Scotland as STV), shows the same mix of talent
shows, soaps and celebrity-driven programmes as
the same channel south of the border, but with
regional news broadcasts and some locally made
shows slotted into the schedules. Channel 4 blends
hard-hitting documentaries with comedy series
and trashy fly-on-the-wall stuff, while downmarket
Channel 5 focuses on reality shows and celebrity
profiles. The vast majority of homes receive dozens
of additional TV channels and radio stations
through digital services like Freeview and Sky.
The BBC radio network broadcasts six main FM
stations in Scotland, five of which are national
stations originating largely from London. Only the
award-winning BBC Radio Scotland offers a Scottish
perspective on news, politics, arts, music, travel and
sport. Gaelic-language BBC Radio nan Gàidheal,
meanwhile, broadcasts news, chat, sport and music.
Note that in large areas of the Highlands and
Islands, some or all of these stations are impossible
to receive.
A web of local commercial radio stations helps
to fill in the gaps, mostly mixing rock and pop
music with news bulletins, but a few tiny commu-
nity-based stations such as Lochbroom FM in
Ullapool - a place famed for its daily midge count
- transmit documentaries and discussions on local
issues. The most populated areas of Scotland also
receive UK-wide commercial stations such as
Classic FM, Virgin Radio and TalkSport. With a DAB
digital radio , you can get all the main stations
crackle-free along with special interest and smaller-
scale stations.

Provincial dailies are more widely read in the
Highlands and Islands than anywhere else in Britain.
The biggest-selling regional title is Aberdeen's
famously parochial Press and Journal , which has
special editions for each area of the Highlands and
Islands. For an insight into local life, there's the staid
weekly Oban Times . More entertaining and radical
is the campaigning weekly West Highland Free Press ,
printed on Skye. All carry articles in Gaelic as well as
English. Further north, the lively Shetland Times and
Orkney's sedate Orcadian are essential weekly reads
for anyone living in or just visiting those islands.
Given the distances in the Highlands and Islands,
you shouldn't always expect to find a daily
newspaper arriving with your early morning cup of
tea, though unless you're in a particularly remote
spot or bad weather is affecting transport links, the
papers are normally around by mid-morning. Most
easily obtained are Scottish newspapers . Principal
among these are the two serious dailies - The
Scotsman , based in Edinburgh, and The Herald ,
published in Glasgow, both offering reasonable
coverage of the current issues affecting Scotland,
along with British and foreign news, sport, arts and
lifestyle pages. You should also be able to find a
selection of popular tabloids, including Scotland's
biggest-selling daily, the downmarket Daily Record ,
along with various national titles - from the
reactionary Sun to the vaguely left-leaning Daily
Mirror - which appear in specific Scottish editions.
Many Sunday newspapers published in London
have a Scottish edition, although again Scotland
has its own offerings - Scotland on Sunday , from
the Scotsman stable, and the Sunday Herald ,
complementing its eponymous daily. Far more fun
and widely read is the anachronistic Sunday Post ,
published by Dundee's mighty D.C. Thomson
publishing group. It's a wholesome paper, uniquely
Scottish, and has changed little since the 1950s,
since which time its two long-running cartoon
strips, Oor Wullie and The Broons , have acquired
cult status.
Scottish monthlies include the Scottish Field , a
lowbrow version of England's Tatler , and the widely
read Scots Magazine , an old-fashioned middle-of-
the-road publication which promotes family values
and lots of good fresh air.

SOME SCOTTISH RADIO STATIONS
BBC Radio Scotland 92-95FM, 810MW W bbc.co.uk/radio
scotland. Nationwide news, sport, music, current affairs and arts.
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal 103.4FM W bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba.
An opt-out from Radio Scotland, with Gaelic-language news and
phone-ins, and great traditional-music shows.
Lochbroom FM 102.2 & 96.8FM W lochbroomfm.co.uk. A small
local radio station broadcasting to the northwest coast from Ullapool.
Moray Firth 97.4FM, 1107MW W mfr.co.uk. Mainstream rock and
pop for the Inverness area.
Nevis Radio 96.6 & 102.3FM W nevisradio.co.uk. All that's
happening in Fort William and its surrounds, from the slopes of
Ben Nevis.
SIBC 96.2FM W sibc.co.uk. Shetland's own independent station.

TV and radio

In Scotland there are five main (sometimes called
“terrestrial”) TV channels : state-owned BBC1 and