Getting on with my life and thinking about things.
A few minutes into the launch of BBC Alba, I'm already heuched out as the bands play one after the other in the tardis room in SMO.
Across on the BBC ALBA website, there are now clips to play, with a tantalising link to the BBC iplayer. But there is no sign of the channel on the iplayer,
I wonder if I can access the programmes that my taxes are helping pay for. Or will this be the equivalent of the dead slot? I hope not, but I fear that only 4 people and a dog will be watching if it stays hidden away on a competitor's station and satellite-only. With the credit crunch hitting, especially hard hit are the remote heartlands of the Gael, where fuel and food are dearer than in the central belt, entertainment spending will fall as belts are tightened. Will people buy a new satellite dish to receive the station? Not aye.
2 comments:
Well I watched the launch of the channel far away in Wales, and despite not having a word of the Gaelic I thoroughly enjoyed the evening's entertainment.
Well done to all at BBC Alba and good luck for the future
Grand, Alwyn. Glad you liked it. I phoned my folks on Lewis, and they didn't know it was on. My Mum wondered whether "Freesat" was the same as "Freeview" (it isn't), and my Dad chatted about the locations used in the Elvis program, as the main locations were near his home village.
Loved the idea of Elvis providing in-bus entertainment "and the next stop is Kershader"
And that was the last thing me and my folks saw. They are still advertising at least one Gaelic programme on the Thursday evening BBC2 Scotland/Alba slot, so that is hopeful. I was worried that the schedulers would remove that slot.
Hopefully there will be Gaels writing to the channel asking why they cannot receive it - especailly after a pile of folk on Lewis recently had to buy a new Freeview box when the transmitter had some work done.
With similar roots to the language. My Dad did try to hear similarities between Welsh and Gaelic when he was down for a family wedding, but he couldn't keep up. Your country is the benchmark for language integration. But Gaelic was never the language of all of Scotland. Sadly (now), despite all my grandparents being fluent speakers, I was raised speaking English, and was the worst learner in my year.
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