Final frontiers on the Today programme MEDIAWATCH

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, May 13, 2007

RADIO 4 Today programme presenter Jim Naughtie must have wondered if there was something in the water at the BBC on Friday. First Robert Peston, the BBC business editor famed for his, er, quirky verbal delivery, began his piece on the huge rise in the Chinese market by saying: "It's stock-market capitalism, Jim, but not as we know it." Perhaps this reference to Star Trek shows that Peston hails from another planet.

And if that was not strange enough, it was followed a little later by sports broadcaster Gary Richardson reporting on the possibility that England cricket captain Michael Vaughan could be out of action because of a broken digit. Richardson then said: "Fingers crossed that he's OK".

Realising his gaffe, he added: "Not his fingers, obviously, " as Naughtie began to laugh. Richardson went on: "You were way ahead of me on that one, Jim." About as far as Richardson's mouth was ahead of his brain.

DESPERATE MEASURES Radio Clyde's marketing department may well have shot itself in the foot with its latest wheeze.

George Bowie, king of the breakfast slot, was apparently taken off air for comments for which his station said it had no sympathy. MediaWatch contacted Clyde for more detail only to be told that it was all "just a joke with the listeners. Bowie was off on holiday and would return to the airwaves in a week". A shame because, with all the fuss, we now have no space to talk about Radio Clyde's ratings performance which was apparently . . .

SMART WORK IAS Smarts last week announced it had won the retained contract for public relations for property player CB Richard Ellis in Scotland after a three-way pitch battle. The contract was previously held by the Big Partnership.

Lesley Alexander, managing director of PR at IAS Smarts, when contacted by MediaWatch, gushed: "Yahoo! This is a great win for us!" Alexander said that the agency had also recently won the Determined to Succeed enterprising education account for the Scottish Executive, adding: "The PR market in Scotland is very buoyant at the moment."

LOST IN TRANSMISSION Meanwhile, another Scottish PR house, McGarvie Morrison Media, is moving into a niche market. The agency is offering a writing and translation service to any company that needs a Gaelic policy. The new business line, which is led by agency co-founder John Morrison, who is well known in the Gaelic community, said: "What we will not be doing is translating badly written bureaucratic English into Gaelic." The ex-BBC Scotland man is determined to cut through the jargonese in two languages.

WYLIE WIN And talking of BBC Scotland . . . editors there were delighted that Reporting Scotland won a rare accolade in the BBC's internal Ruby awards. It was for the backgrounder on the Kriss Donald murder done by investigative reporter BobWylie. Of course, Wylie has left the BBC to become director of communications for the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

MediaWatch is sure Wylie is now in a transport of delight over the award.

LOOKING FOR PROMOTION Two more City journalists of long standing are to join the world of public relations. Paul Durman, financial editor of The Sunday Times joins PR firm Powerscourt and Michael Harrison, deputy business editor of The Independent is to join the team at PR company Brunwsick. David Prosser takes over as the Indy's deputy business ed.