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BBC Radio Scotland announces music-centric pop up, as former Xfm Scotland licence goes to all-new Rock Radio

By | Published on Friday 28 October 2016

BBC Radio Scotland

The BBC has announced another one of those pop-up radio stations, this one in Scotland celebrating the country’s “richly diverse musical landscape” in the run up to St Andrew’s Day. BBC Radio Scotland Music Extra will broadcast from 23-30 Nov on DAB, online and on the iPlayer Radio app.

Across the schedule there will be time for “everything from rock and pop to country, traditional and jazz”, with presenters on the temporary station including radio DJs Jenny Farish and Bryan Burnett, actor Sanjeev Kohli and Ricky Ross off of Deacon Blue. There’ll also be repeats of shows from the archive and live sessions from the likes of Simple Minds and Travis.

Says Head Of Radio at BBC Scotland, Jeff Zycinski, of the eight day venture: “This is a fabulous opportunity for us to celebrate the brilliant music that is made and heard right across Scotland. You will hear the familiar, from Americana and classical to country and folk, but the station will also showcase new talent and explore the issues that impact the Scottish music industry”.

The BBC exec also alluded to the fact that the temporary station was in part assessing the appetite for such a service longer term, adding that BBC Radio Scotland Music Extra would “give listeners the chance to tell us if they would welcome a station that offers an alternative to BBC Radio Scotland’s successful speech schedule”.

Elsewhere in Scottish radio news, media regulator OfCom has awarded the old Xfm Scotland frequency to Rock Radio. Xfm operator Global gave up the slot on the airwaves in West Central Scotland when it revamped the station as Radio X last year, because OfCom rules wouldn’t let it simply air the new entirely-London-based service on the FM channel without any local programming.

A station called Rock Radio broadcast on the same frequency from 2007 to 2011, before being rebranded as Real XS and then, after Real Radio owner GMG Radio was acquired by Global, becoming the second incarnation of Xfm Scotland. The all-new Rock Radio is being led by people who worked at the previous station using that name.



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