JohnMc

As Bluedell says the style and fashions of the 'young' are for them to decide, there would be something wrong with them if someone closing in on half a century like me could relate far less approved. 

Great post by Tannochside Bear. I'm also firmly against 'safe' standing and glad it's been rejected by the club. 

Look at the ages of these guys. If you've reached the age of 41 and you're spending your time sending death threats to strangers over a football match then it might be time to accept you're one of life's real losers. 

1 hour ago, Briton said:

Will anyone be covering the game on radio?

Not as far as I know. I understand that BBC Scotland have exclusive radio commentary rights. 

On the subject of organised follow up Gerrard is quoted in this morning's Herald backing Robertson's statement and there's an article from Archie MacPherson where he says that BBC Scotland are not fulfilling their broadcasting obligations. 

On 18/02/2019 at 19:19, 917 said:

I honestly haven’t noticed any difference tbh. What games would the BBC be covering exactly anyway?? They still show our games on the website and sortscene, & I wish they wouldn’t bother on the latter as they just highlight any incident where the ref has been lenient with a Rangers player!

It's radio coverage that's missing. For example tonight's match, a big cup tie on a Wednesday night, when a lot of supporter's might struggle to attend and, as far as I know, a match that isn't on TV, would, for any other side get full focus along with commentary. That's something tens of thousands of Rangers supporter's deserve.

He spoke well and made his point. His "we're being treated differently from every other club" line nails it.

Interesting to hear that the BBC wanted to come back and cover matches but not interview players or managers. Whilst the lack of coverage of our home matches angers me I support the club in saying 'no' to that. As Robertson says, just treated us the same way you treat every other club. 

I said last night I thought Gerrard should say this, but I'm delighted someone has said it. 

On 16/02/2019 at 21:27, Bluedell said:

What happens for the next generation when 2 people both with double barrelled have kids? 

Joking aside that's what happens in countries like Brazil where it's traditional to have both the mother and father's surname as well as a given 'first name' and countless middle names. Then you get given a nickname, like Pele or Ronaldo etc. and that's just what everyone calls you for the rest of your life. Expect British footballers in 20 years or so to go by one name only. 

3 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

I haven't lived in the Borders for over 20 years.  My parents told me about the channel thing - it may be I have confused the information.  I do know they're on BT and that might have something to do with it.

 

I actually applaud Alba's showing of lower league football.

When Border was taken over by Granada it lost a lot of its local identity. News programmes were broadcast from Tyne Tees in Newcastle for example. But they do currently produce a daily news and current affairs programme from Carlisle and have a local advertising office there as well. It's not the same station it once was though, a similar thing is happening to Ulster TV too. It's progress, apparently...

On 15/02/2019 at 20:10, Scott7 said:

Dingwall is a Highland town. There’s a gaelic choir there. Nonetheless only a miniscule percentage of the population will be able to understand the Alba output.

 

What’s the point?

I'm lost by this argument. Should BBC Alba only cover the Lewis and Harris local league then? I've lost count of the posts on here complaining about commentary and summarisers, I'd have thought ones you can't understand would be a welcome relief! 

On 15/02/2019 at 20:20, Gonzo79 said:

They replaced (ITV) Border TV with BBC Alba in the Borders a few years ago.  So instead of getting the latest news from the Border City (Carlisle), inhabitants of the Borders get a channel in a language that no one ever spoke there.

 

That annoys me.

 

 

Border TV was bought by Granada TV, the Manchester based ITV franchise nearly 20 years ago now, they in turn merged with Carlton consolidating the ownership of all ITV regional franchises with the exception of STV and Grampian TV. Border TV has most definitely not been replaced by BBC Alba. If someone lives in the Border TV broadcast region that's the ITV channel they'll get. Your X Factors, your Coronation Streets and your local regional news will all be broadcast, free to air, on Border TV. BBC Alba is a digital only channel, it's available on Freeview as well as the other digital and satellite broadcasters, but it doesn't replace anyone's ITV channel Gonzo, you're mistaken on that. 

In my opinion funding something like BBC Alba, and minority language broadcasting, is exactly what the BBC budget should be spent on. I don't think the BBC should be spending licence fees on chasing Saturday night ratings, they should leave that to the many commercial channels. I mean we can discuss whether a specific Gaelic language TV channel can stem the drop in speakers or whether that requires other governmental involvement, but I'm puzzled why we should criticise it for showing lower league Scottish football, that's being ignored by all other broadcasters currently.

I read that there is some editorial attempt at providing balance in the Question Time audience, so someone from Scotland who openly supports UKIP is more likely to get a ticket as there are fewer applicants from that political persuasion applying up here. Hence the same person appearing more than once. I suspect Stuart Cosgrove already knew that, and if he didn't it wouldn't be hard to find out, he's fairly well connected in media and Question Time is produced in Glasgow. 

I can't watch Question Time, it makes me want to emigrate. 

I forgot to turn on the tranny last night, how was last night's gutsy, plucky performance from wee Celtic heralded by the great and the good? 

Sanjeev Kholi can be funny and is actually, believe it or not, quite a decent guy, but I'm not sure Benburb social club is his natural habitat. 

2 hours ago, 26th of foot said:

Good News?

 

Mark Horne reporting in Saturday's Times, BBC Scotland have shed in excess of 200,000 listeners in two years.

 

It's audience reach was 749,000 in the final three months of last year, down from 839,000 in the same quarter the previous year, and 952,000 in 2016.

 

A BBC Scotland spokesman said, "It's a competitive time for radio, with listeners consuming their content in many different ways". Further, "we will continue to listen to our audience, and adapt to provide the content they love, where and when they want it".

 

"BBC Radio Scotland still has the second largest weekly reach of any station in Scotland and during the last quarter of 2018, listeners spent more time with us than during the same period the previous year".  The figures came as BBC Scotland prepares to launch it's £32 million TV channel on February 24th.

 

What a bland statement from BBC Scotland's spokesman, he/she must work on Sportscene, if they cannot be named.

The "second highest weekly reach" statement is disingenuous. The only commercial stations that can possibly compete on 'reach' are Talksport and Classic FM and neither of those stations produces Scotland only content. Their commercial competitors, such as Clyde, Forth, Capital etc are regional stations and so have a much lower potential reach to begin with. Radio Scotland massively underperforms, taking only 6.7% of its potential audience. A station like Clyde 1 reaches 14% as a comparison. BBC Radio Ulster, the equivalent BBC station in Northern Ireland, has 19.9% of audience share in their market. 

The problem I have with BBC Scotland is its disproportionate influence on Scottish football. By holding exclusive radio rights and TV highlights it has a monopoly for anyone without access to BT or Sky TV. If Radio Scotland continue to refuse to cover Rangers equally they should be forced to allow other stations to provide a coverage. 

One light moment in this is the embedded Tweets at the bottom of the article. One is from the Chris McLaughlin parody account. 

49 minutes ago, buster. said:

Scottish Fitbaw hacks in lazy, low-quality, parochial, cliche abounding and repetitive attacks on someone is par for the course.

Duncan Ferguson is from Stirling and got it as well.

Play for Rangers and you are much more liable to come under the media spotlight because for one thing, it sells newspapers.

Is it easier for them to centre on an individual who is probably not going to spend his whole career in Scotland, yes.

 

Neil Lennon get's a MUCH easier ride because the media know they have to tread wearily given the LOCAL politics (linked to the commercial aspect), because Lennon is media savvy and made a point of getting them onside, because Lennon became an almost self appointed patron saint of the sectarian issue which effectively gave him untouchable status and the national broadcaster are on his side of the political/sporting debate.

 

I'd put it this way................I don't like Neil Lennon, was glad to hear he had left Hibs last week and I think his presence in Scottish football is toxic but the grounds for my thinking is not because of his religion all, not at all sectarian, it's simply because of how he conducts himself and the ensuing reaction/fall-out.

 

I'd loosely compare those trying to call the Morelos coverage racist to those who call the negative reaction to Lennon, sectarian.

 

The main reasons for such coverage and reaction are the football teams they are related to, the poor quality of the media, the tribal nature of polarised perspective and that in both cases, the individuals consistently provide material.

 

 

 

The difference between the Morelos and Lennon coverage proves my point I feel. It's the media that shout 'sectarianism' at supporters criticising Lennon, the media don't criticise him, he gets a complete bye from our media to behave in any way he wants. When supporters, rightly, pull him and them up the bigotry accusation is levelled. White, Irish Lennon doesn't get called a devil, an animal or a nut job by our media. 

The difference here is it's the media who are demonising Morelos, who are cheerleading his transformation from the most exciting prospect in our league to something that crept out of Dante's circles of hell. 

I've no real issue with opposition supporters hating Morelos, that just proves he's doing his job and makes me love him even more. The media should be much fairer though, and they simply aren't and that a disgrace. 

I heard a fair bit of that programme too. That annoying question aside I quite enjoyed it, the Ross County and ICT guys came across well and, at times, spoke a lot of sense particularly regarding young players. Plus every time I hear the Roos County owner McGregor speak I'm more convinced he's really a bluenose. 

One thing that did come over fairly clearly was that everyone there has Morelos rightly receiving a red card. No dissenting voices on that, only McGregor saying he hadn't seen it and couldn't comment. 

I actually thought Jack had a great match, quietly effective in the first 80 minutes then making lung bursting runs to break up play, peg Aberdeen back and indeed for the 4th goal in the last 10 plus injury time. 

Anyway, see when Lewis Ferguson (young, white and Scottish) put his boot, deliberately, into Allan McGregor this was, rightly, described as retribution. Fair enough. So where are the headlines today describing the young man as an animal, a hot head or indeed a devil? I mean Morelos (young, black and Columbian) was sent off at Pittodrie on the first match of the season it was for attempted retribution, wasn't it? I'm not sure what it is about the two players that could be clouding the media's view on this. Two very similar incidents, although Morelos of course didn't actually make any contact with his kick while Ferguson could have ended McGregor's season. 

This was a Tweet this morning. Again, it's cryptic, but heavily suggesting Rangers are preventing some sort resumption of normal service. 

I noticed earlier that Graeme Speirs is suggesting BBC Scotland have changed their stance on this. I'd post the Tweet but I'm buggered if I know how too! 

Condolences Graham, I hope you and your family are managing at this difficult time. 

I

2 minutes ago, DMAA said:

He can't possibly keep up with the players he has. He has worked wonders for a second season in a row but with Stewart away I think they'll start to slip down the table. Our failure to beat them was a big one.

For all they've lost Stewart and he was an important player for them I was still impressed with their January signings. Alex Bruce should be more than capable at SPFL level, the young lad from Liverpool seems to be rated very highly and Mulumbu was one of their best players last season, getting him back is a good bit of business. I wouldn't discount them just yet, they'll beat most sides particularly at home. 

Clarke's talking about refs and Rangers because that means he doesn't need to explain how his side lost to Hearts on Friday. 

I did the Football Aid Rangers charity match towards the end of that season. We got a 'training session' at Auchenhowie as an extra surprise, Bobby Russell and a couple of the youth coaches putting a diverse mixture of supporters through a really enjoyable couple of hours on the pitches followed by a tour of the facility. 

In the 1st team dressing room there was a noticeboard. On it there was a memo from McLeish to all the players warning them that it was compulsory to eat lunch together after training. It had come to his attention that some players were sloping off straight after training and that they were a team and there was a league to win and he expected everyone to be focussed on that.  We all read it and all had the same opinion; nae chance. Couldn't see Celtic slipping up. A further reminder that I know very little about football.