Nine weeks before the pop-up station launched, we invited in about 40 audience from different generations and backgrounds with one thing in common – they all loved music.
Through BBC Outreach, we worked with the audience before the schedules were nailed down and we let the audience into the secret of BBC Radio Scotland Music Extra pop up service.
This was crucial because we were saying to people they could help us shape what they wanted as an audience. It was a very honest forum with people saying what they liked and what they didn’t – tone and sound – and out of that came several things we absolutely took on board. I used this detail to help create the schedules that went to air on 23rd November.
The audience told us very clearly they wanted knowledgeable presenters who knew the music they were taking about, would make the audience feel included in the conversation, and were as ionate as them about music.
A key message was that people wanted familiar music but they wanted to be surprised as well – a chance to discover new music, to be educated and feel knowledgeable and connected with what they’re listening to.
The conversation really reinforced the importance of discovering content that you've never heard before and about championing an artist or piece of music you've just been introduced to. By doing this it would enable a much deeper and personal connection with our audience.
Our audience group told us they want music presented rather than announced – by broadcasters who show a massive ion for music and with gravitas – who know the arrangers, the publishers, the writers of the music, the stories behind the music – they’re not just reading the title of a song.
They also wanted musicians to be curators of content that influenced and inspired them.
So we have tried out new presenters, musicians and artists that are really respected in their own fields, but may never have presented programmes in this way before - such as the strand, The Artist Selects. Kathryn Joseph was Scottish Album of the Year winner 2015 and she selected an hour of music that was just beautiful, about her influences and inspirations.
We brought in people like Findlay Napier and John McCusker and Martin Green of Lau – these kind of artists are so well respected in their own field and when they opened up their thoughts about musical inspiration it brought a different aspect to the audience.
Have a listen to Midge Ure and discover the influences on him and in Band Aid.
In the workshop the audience flagged up a love of Soul, Ska, Reggae, Dance, and of using presenters in different ways. We took all of this on board in the schedules.
The reasons we delivered this station were to and showcase musicians and the music industry in Scotland, to promote digital listening, to bring our evening music programmes to a daytime audience, and to find out if this really is the kind of station our audience wants.
The station’s music has not just been about traditional and folk music and what people maybe stereotypically think comes from Scotland, this has been about a modern contemporary Scotland.
On 2nd January BBC Radio Scotland will become a music station for the bank holiday and we’re using the best of Music Extra all day on the schedule then, plus people will have a chance to hear some of the content across our festive schedules.
This has now become very much a dialogue with our audience. The morning the station launched I wrote to all the audience participants to ask for their comments during the eight-day pop-up, and they emailed and posted their honest thoughts. When we invite them back in for a debrief it will be with an even larger group of our station staff.
It’s a privilege to have this relationship and I hope it will shape whatever we do in the future.
BBC Radio Scotland Music Extra was a pop-up digital station running from 23-30 November 2016; programmes are available to listen to after transmission for 30 days.
