Radio Hour Blues

The Vile Arts Radio Hour began in January 2011. Recorded live at Subcity between 3pm and 5pm on Friday afternoons, it combines my enthusiasm for contemporary classical music, Glasgow's dynamic arts scenes, My Producer Harry's laconic wit and technical knowledge and Subcity's idiosyncratic approach to post-student radio. Modesty, and a residual honesty left over from my time training under the Jesuits, forbids me from praising my contribution too heavily. The guest list, however, is very impressive and I think it is the generosity of musicians, actors, theatres, art galleries, cultural pundits, film and festival programmers that have made it the top rated arts-based show on the station.

Today's blog has three tasks: to parade my ego, give a brief guide to the show's vision and ethos, help future guests know a bit about what they can expect on the Hour. The best thing to do would be to listen to it. You can  fast forward over my voice.

When Harry and I started the show - we used to be called The Skinny Radio Hour, until my arrogance decided that it ought to be called Vile Arts and concentrate on whatever aesthetic butterfly had landed on the stamen of my consciousness - we had a very clear vision. We wanted to investigate the various scenes that interlock and define Glasgow. I come from a Performance background, fascinated by the possibilities of the live event. Harry is an engineer, musician and philosopher. That the scenes and places we cover are very much our choices seems to connect with the way Glasgow operates: subjective, eclectic, chaotic. The addition of Nick Spaghetti broadened the playlist, but kept us partial.

The Radio Hour is very much an extension of the critical writing I have been doing for The Skinny over the past five years: I still plunder the Skinny for information, keeping an eye on Dave Kerr's articles and recommendations, and write from a deliberately personal perspective. Lately, I have gotten into politics. Not party political: I read all the manifestos and decided I preferred my fiction more realistic. In line with my overall attitude to life - confused, partisan, selfish - my politics are Radically Subjective. I have no idea what I am talking about, but I am willing to begin a conversation until someone with the facts turns up.

I am broadly evangelical about the arts. We don't invite artists or curators on to tear them apart. I am hoping for a few more guests from the worlds of cultural politics in the future, so I can get spiteful. I don't like everything I play on the show (viz. the Swedish House Mafia Incident). But I think that anything that gets people away from the TV to share an experience is a Social Good.

Alongside the advocacy of Glasgow creativity, we emphasis work that is cross-platform. We are also keen on New Media - online radio, podcasts, blogs, social media. As an Old Media critic, the best jokes I hear are in the area of print publications trying to understand the internet. Oh, and the record companies trying to protect their hegemony by claiming to be all about developing bands. I assume none of them have read Steve Albini's comments on the A'n'R men.

The Radio Hour lasts two hours and features between three and five guests per episode. Most of our listeners tune in "on demand" - that is, in the week following the live broadcast. This is why the show tends to focus on work in the fortnight ahead, and not the weekend approaching. We prefer live interviews - they seem to go better.