When I started in radio we recorded audio on these bad boys.

And we played music from a combination of vinyl and CD. Here’s the first studio I ever broadcast from – Moray Firth Radio in Inverness.

The studio shots above were taken in the really early days of MFR, when CD machines weren’t even there. They later occupied a similar spot to the cart machines. The record players were on the left hand side as you sat there, underneath the studio build where the photo was taken side on. There was also a reel to reel machine in the studio for playing out longer items which couldn’t go on a cart(ridge). Things such as Morning Thought, The Tourist Spot or Farming Focus. Or occasionally much larger tape reels for entire shows or hour long walkabouts which had been recorded in advance.

Everything, down to each ad, had its own place, and I suppose, looking back, it would have been an arduous process every week, taking out ads which were coming out of the ad log and no longer played on air, erasing the cart, and then recording new audio onto it with a new advertiser coming onto the schedule. Or doing the same with the news clips which appeared every hour. Or the jingles, and so on.

Looking out singles, albums and CDs in advance of the show would take time too, but the plus point of the process was that if something failed, like an ad in a break, or a song – it was only that one thing. Everything else was unharmed. You could move onto the next record or CD, jingle or ad, without everything simultaneously breaking.

These days, where everything is super efficient, and nobody ever physically handles the music, ads, news clips or anything else they’re going to play because it’s all on a computer database, you don’t have any menial work collating all the items together or putting them away after, but if one thing crashes, chances are your entire play-out system goes down, at which point you’re left with a microphone, your voice and your wits about you, to simply improvise and get by on the spot.

When I started, if we were going to meet a music star backstage before or after a gig to record a quick chat, we’d need to use something like this.

Later those were switched out for DAT machines.

And then various other incarnations.

Until finally, your phone (or even your watch) did pretty much all of it for you.

Processes and technical equipment will no doubt continue to evolve.

What won’t, is what all these items combined are being used to achieve – a connection with an audience that wants to hear whatever you’ve recorded on it.

That, in any form of communication, is the Holy Grail.

To communicate is the desire to relate, to learn from one another, to share experiences.

When that works best, the flow is in both directions. The listening audience is every bit as crucial as the broadcasting entity.

They contribute. They state opinions. They let you know how they feel. They confide, and sometimes, when things are bad, they even reach out for help.

Technology will never govern how that works out. Humans will.

Radio, for me, is the most fantastic, inventive, raw, instantaneous, emotive, informative, educational and entertaining form of communication in the world today.

And yet, it has been for over 100 years. Long may it reign.

From grams, to reels, cassettes to DAT, vinyl to CD and mp3.

From short wave to medium wave to long wave. AM to FM. DAB.

From Radio to Podcasts.

Critics moan there are no pictures.

I think that’s the beauty.

Through a collaborative experience where the sound informs your hearing and simultaneously ignites your imagination, the pictures are only as limited or as vibrant as you make them.

It’s been my privilege to help paint those since around 1990.

I hope to continue for as long as I’m able and permitted the opportunity.

Because right off the bat I was so damned lucky to find what I love by chance. Some people spend their entire lives searching.

My journey is detailed elsewhere on the site which you can read at your leisure.

Currently though, I broadcast for Smooth Radio in Scotland, in addition to being a regular contributor for BBC Radio Scotland

And then there’s the Podcasts and Voiceovers…..