The decline in audience figures for BBC Radio Scotland is profoundly worrying — not just for the station itself, though there will be deep concern in the BBC’s sparkling new headquarters at Pacific Quay, but for Scottish audiences in general. This, after all, is Scotland’s radio station, described by a previous controller as “the voice of the nation”.

Unlike most independent broadcasting companies it reaches every corner of the country, supplying news, comment and cultural coverage across the broadest of spectrums. The national network is required by the BBC’s charter to reflect the distinctive culture, language, interests and tastes of the Scottish people.

In the aftermath of devolution, in particular, Radio Scotland was landed with the added responsibility of echoing the changing mood of a country that had acquired its own parliament, and with it, perhaps, a new sense of identity. This, surely was an opportunity not to be missed.

Instead, for reasons which are not clear, Radio Scotland decided to go downmarket, to retreat from its previous diet of cultural content, informed discussion and regular coverage of the arts, in favour of a schedule which appears sometimes to consist almost entirely of comedy, folk music and light banter. Even the best of its current affairs programmes relies heavily on listeners’ phone-ins, traffic news and text messages, always an indication of a station that has retreated from the serious content of ideas, debate and intellectual discourse.

There are those within the industry who claim that the problem facing BBC Scotland is a decline in funding — that if it was properly financed it could afford to be more ambitious, to invest in its cultural content as well as in its popular programmes. There is little evidence, however, that this is the direction the station wishes to go. Although there is no lack of writing talent north of the Border, the evidence that BBC Scotland wishes to use this regularly in order to inform and enrich its schedules is hard to detect.

On Radio 4, by contrast, there has been a determined drive to invest in serious discussion programmes, drama and documentaries. This includes a considerable amount of work from Scottish writers and producers. The net result, judging from figures issued yesterday, is that audience figures have risen to record levels. It even appears that there are more listeners for the Today programme in Scotland than for Radio Scotland’s equivalent, Good Morning Scotland.

Why has this happened? The judgment must be that listeners in Scotland, unlike those in England, have no great interest in challenging or highbrow material. Thus it is that the Edinburgh International Festival, the cultural envy of the world, commands relatively little airtime — to the frustration of its current director. Scottish drama has to go south to find an outlet. Serious documentaries are few and far between.

There is an important lesson here. Scots, like listeners throughout the UK, want intelligent programmes. They are interested in informed discussion, they want to have their own culture properly reflected on their national radio station. Radio Scotland has a duty to the whole of the nation — not just a narrow segment of it. What is now apparent is that this segment is beginning to diminish. Radio Scotland has got its priorities wrong. It must begin to reassess them.

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