Bowie and other breakfast buddies work hard to give us all a bright start
WELL, that’s Easter in the can and thank the Lord we got such great weather, eh? I should have dried out by the time the next school holiday comes around.
So I’m back on Scotland’s airwaves tomorrow and I want to talk about the day job that I intend to ride until the wheels come off. If I last as long as the two shows I’m about to mention, I’ll be more than happy.
Scotland has six marketdominating radio stations which cover every major town and city in the land. The two biggest stations in our stable are Forth 1 in Edinburgh and Clyde 1 in Glasgow. The continued dominance of these radio giants is connected by one thing – brilliant breakfast shows.
I’m talking about George Bowie and Cassi Gillespie on Clyde’s Bowie at Breakfast and Andy “Boogie” Bouglas, Arlene Stuart and Marty Ewart on Boogie in the Morning on Forth.
Their voices and crazy banter are the first thing most listeners hear every weekday morning.
There is a mantra in radio... “bad breakfast – bad station”. If the morning show doesn’t do the business, there’s no chance for the rest of us who catch the baton later in the day.
I wish you knew how hard these guys work because they’d be the last to tell you. It truly is an abnormal existence – yes, there are many physically more demanding jobs out there but when their world feels heavy they still have to get up and entertain the nation.
Bowie’s youngest girl was in at Clyde a few weeks ago and I remember when she was the centre of a front-page story of this newspaper over a decade ago. Wee Miley contracted meningitis soon after being born and, as a father of premature babies who spent time in intensive care, I know the fear George felt. Yet there he was the next day, the smile pasted on and the jokes flying for his one million listeners. There are very few jobs that are harder to do when bad times hit.
Like my mate and Sunday Mail legend Cat Harvey, who is still on Greatest Hits Radio every morning and asks herself why (because she likes holidays and bulk-buying Freddos, by the way) they have all become accustomed to this very unnatural way of living.
So what about my breakfast buddies? Well, they’ve done nearly 80 years on the air between them and last week they were all listed as nominees for the prestigious ARIA awards – the Oscars for UK radio.
They’re up against the likes of Chris Evans, Zoe Ball and Greg James – truly flying the flag for Scotland at the very top of the industry.
They really are the kings and queens of early morning radio. What an honour it is to be the drive-time show to their breakfast slot. I hold them in the highest regard as broadcasters.
I simply couldn’t – and, as my bosses know, won’t – do what they do. For that reason and on behalf of their legions of fans, let me say it loudly –
I wish you knew how hard these guys work because they’d be the last to tell you