Looking Back: Broadcasting in Scotland

From November 1933

Broadcasting in Scotland

An interview with the Regional Director

RENEWED interest in broadcasting in Scotland has been aroused by the appointment of the Rev. Melville Dinwiddie to be Regional Director for the country. A minister of the Church of Scotland and a member of the younger generation, Mr. Dinwiddie has just those qualities which are required to give Scottish broadcasting the distinctive position it deserves.

Thanks largely to Sir John Reith, whose constant policy it has been to give religion its proper place, British stations transmit really suitable Sunday programmes. We in Scotland have always placed a peculiar value on the first day of the week. Thus, when Mr. Dinwiddie was good enough to see a representative of Life and Work, this was the first subject of conversation.

 “One of the greatest difficulties we encounter,” said Mr Dinwiddie, “is that of creating the right sort of atmosphere. There are two sides to the question. We have to do our bit at the source, but listeners must work with us. You can’t get the best out of any item, far less a service, if you make it merely an accompaniment to supper or a smoke. We want people think about the way they listen. They must be prepared to concentrate, to listen intently. If we contribute atmosphere, they must be in the mood to receive it. At the other end we have our work cut out, but a great part in every service is played by the congregation.

“Naturally I am in favour of services broadcast from churches themselves. These services mean a great deal to people, especially to the sick and infirm, who usually make every effort to secure a suitable atmosphere of quiet and receptivity.”

“Sunday programmes, however, have many other features?”

“Yes, the idea at first was to have as little as possible on Sunday: perhaps a weather report in the morning, a reading fairly late in the afternoon, an evening service, a concert, and the Epilogue. Now, of course, we have a great deal more.”

“Some people rather object to the additional items – for example, to light music.”

“I know. We can’t please everybody. Incidentally our letters of criticism and praise are so well balanced that they really cancel out. However, to come back to Sunday and light music. We do try to keep the balance between the more modern point of view and that which comes from sentiment, tradition, and habit. After all, there is some good in both points of view.”

Mr. Dinwiddie opened the Radio Times and analysed a Sunday programme. He showed that it was constructed to be different from those of other days. Services and talks and readings were all Christian in tone. While week-day programmes allow and encourage the freest expression of all shades of opinion, Sunday is set apart for either directly religious items or items of classical quality. “If you don’t want to read something specifically religious on Sunday, and yet want to avoid the purely popular, what do you turn to? The classics in our literature, surely. Well, we try to meet that need in our Sunday programme.

“We have been criticised,” he continued, “for including so-called secular music in our Sunday programme. I hardly think that criticism is justified. People with good sets can take Continental or even American stations and there they get, not classical music, not light music, but, frequently, pure jazz. Are we to let people take that from abroad without offering them really good, serious music from home?”

“Talking of music, can’t the B.B.C. help to revive Scottish religious music?”

“In the direction of Psalms and Paraphrases I think it can. We have already broadcast something on these lines. Still, I don’t quite know what you mean by ‘Scottish religious music.’ A great many of the tunes which we imagine are peculiarly national don’t really belong to us at all.”

“That raises the question of the distinctive nature of our Scottish services. How is the B.B.C. to cope with that?”

“Sunday programmes are by no means fully developed as yet. The Committee is still developing the possibilities of religious broadcasting. As for the Church, I would like to say this, That it has in the B.B.C. an ally and a friend and is to the B.B.C. a constant help.”

(Extracts from a longer article. Interviewer's questions were not originally in bold.)

A son of the manse, Mr Dinwiddie had served with distinction throughout the First World War. After retiring from the Army as a major he entered the ministry, serving at St Machar Cathedral in Aberdeen until he joined the BBC. He would go on to be director of broadcasting in Scotland for 24 years, initially as Regional Director, and later with the upgraded title of Controller. He died in 1975, aged 82. Biography at Scotland On-Air

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