Forth One’s Grant Stott has been a familiar voice to radio listeners across the Lothians and Fife for the past quarter of a century. We hope we haven’t just made him feel old! As well as the radio industry, he’s also been employed in a number of other roles across the wider media. As our latest in a series of industry insiders, we caught up with him to find out more about having a career on the airwaves…and the importance of diversifying!
Being a radio host is many people’s dream job, tell us how you got into the role…
The classic route of making demo tapes in my bedroom was my route! I’d been doing this for years and in 1989 I heard Radio Forth was splitting into two stations one on AM and one on FM and as such were looking for presenters to fill all the new slots. I sent in a demo tape and eventually was offered two through-the-night shifts working between 1am and 6am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. When I think about it, it was amazing as I had no on-air experience at all and was just thrown on-air from the start. But given the slots it was a perfect place to start – and a perfect place to make all your mistakes!
The explosion in podcasts and other ways of consuming audio has led to big changes in the industry. How much have you been aware of that during your time as a broadcaster?
Very much aware of all the different ways to get audio out and I think it’s great, yet despite the wide range of interacting with people these days, radio remains as strong, if not stronger, than it’s ever been. But I love the idea of being able to go and select the exact type of content you want to listen to whenever you want, be that as a podcast or a digital radio station. Thankfully though, a huge number of people still choose to listen to local radio every day.
The perils of live radio leave you open to having a worse day in the office than most of us. What’s been your most excruciating moment on air?
It has to be the day I used the worst word you could ever use in daily life; let alone live on the radio on a Saturday morning. Let’s just say that I MEANT to say “Let’s listen to that cut from Konterman”.
You’ve done pretty well at diversifying; as well as the radio you’ve done TV work, hosted your own live chat show and appeared in a two-hander play with your regular pantomime colleague, Andy Gray. Do you feel it’s important to work on and showcase as many skills as possible?
I think it’s vital. As a self-employed person, I need to keep diversifying, as I never know when one source of income may dry up. I’ve always been up for trying new things and I’d rather try and fail than just never try new things out of fear of failing; that’s kind of been my mantra throughout and has worked for me. It’s also given me a hugely varied and challenging career. Out of the 24 years since I started, no two years have been the same for me, which has been great.
Would you always like to have that mixture of roles or is there one in particular that you wish you could focus on fully?
It’s difficult to imagine that. I’ve never had a one role only career since I was in the police – and even then I was doing a wee bit of moonlighting as a DJ on the side! But if I had to focus on one aspect I would love to act more.
Having so much on must sometimes mean juggling things a bit to fit your schedule. How important has it been to have understanding employers?
I’ve been lucky with Radio Forth. They give me more time off than the four weeks a year we’re entitled to. I try and take those four weeks holiday – as that’s important to me too – but need time off during panto and the odd day here and there if there are events I’m hosting during the day or have meetings in London. Also, last year when I toured “Kiss Me Honey, Honey” with Andy, I tied a week off so I could do that, though in the week we were in Inverness, I did my show from MFR’s studios and they were OK with that too. But in saying all that, they also understand that it’s good for the station to have their presenters doing other high profile things like, panto and TV so as long as things don’t get ridiculous it usually works fine for us both.
Hosting a radio show is one of life’s more unstable roles – is that something you’re conscious of or do you take life as it comes?
I’ve been very aware of how unstable radio is, especially over recent years when I’ve seen a lot of good professionals being let go as the industry and business and restructured. I never take my position for granted and until such times as my contract is renewed it’s always at the back of my mind. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been on air or how big your profile is, all it takes is for one member of the management team to decide on a change and your time is up. I’m well aware of that and also one of the reasons I try and remain as active as I can away from radio so that I have other “plates spinning” if this one falls down!
What advice would you give to anybody wanting to make their way into the radio industry these days?
Don’t do it for the money. If money is the reason you want to get into radio you’ll get nowhere. You need to have a passion for the media and be willing to do anything and everything to get your chance. Once you get a chance, grab it and make sure you offer the listener something they can’t get anywhere else.