James Boyle (broadcasting)

James Boyle (29 March 1946) is currently Chairman of the National Library of Scotland, Chairman of the British Council in Scotland and was formerly Chairman of the Scottish Arts Council, Chairman of the Scottish Government's Cultural Commission, Controller of BBC Radio 4, Head of BBC Radio Scotland and co-founder of the UNESCO World City of Literature and World City of Music Programs. He has also served on the board of Napier University and as a UK Civil Service Commissioner. He was educated at the University of Strathclyde (BA, 1969) and the University of East Anglia (MA, 1971).

In March 2016 Boyle was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's National Academy for science and letters.

Boyle spent more than 25 years at the BBC, including four years as head of BBC Radio Scotland and four years as controller of BBC Radio 4. At Radio Scotland he oversaw sweeping changes to the station's programming line-up. Some of those changes generated a mixed mailbag from listeners. However, after the revamp the station was named UK Radio Station of the Year at the broadcasting industry's Sony Awards.

In 1996 Boyle was appointed to head BBC Radio Four, perhaps the UK's premier radio station. Boyle overhauled almost the entire schedule. Critics outside and inside the BBC questioned the number of changes, and their timing, and he was nicknamed "MacBirt", in reference to his being a Scottish version of BBC Director-General Lord Birt. Nonetheless, many of the new shows received critical acclaim, including John Peel's Home Truths, arts programme Front Row, and current affairs show Broadcasting House. The new programmes subsequently won a record 6 gold Sony awards in one year and eight other silver and bronze awards. Boyle announced his departure from Radio Four in 2000, leading The Observer newspaper to run the headline: “He Came, He Conquered, He Quit.” Just after Boyle left, Radio Four, like Radio Scotland before it, was named Radio Station of the Year at the Sony Awards.

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