Your report on staff concerns about the number of female presenters on BBC Radio Scotland’s new schedule is mystifying (‘Deep unease’ at BBC Radio Scotland as majority of axed presenters are women, 28 May). When the new schedule starts, of the 25 daytime programmes across the week Monday to Friday, six will routinely be presented solely by men, and the other 19 will be routinely presented either solely by women, or jointly by women and men.
More than half of the programmes will be routinely presented solely by women. To somehow raise questions about female diversity in that presenting lineup is surely ignoring the actual evidence of the BBC schedule here in Scotland.
Following on from changes made by the new head of audio, Victoria Easton Riley, since her arrival at Radio Scotland last year, the station has become the most listened-to service in the nation, for the first time in many years.
This is not down to some plan to make Radio Scotland sound like commercial competitors – far from it. Radio Scotland’s operating licence has not changed at all – we’re just getting better at serving what our audience expects: a unique and Scotland-wide mix of news, sport, music and culture.
The fact that we’re attracting the best people from around Scotland, including from commercial radio, to help us deliver that should be no surprise to anyone.
Luke McCullough
Corporate affairs director, BBC Scotland
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