THERE was one person in Glasgow’s Fruitmarket who knew the city had won the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games before anyone else.
That said, it was by barely a fraction of a second that Radio Clyde’s head of production, Duncan Leven, heard the news.
And in the explosion of noise from the hundreds of people gathered at the venue, Leven’s cheer was instantly drowned out.
But listen carefully to repeats of the announcement, from Sri Lanka, being transmitted to the Fruitmarket, and his shout of joy is unmistakable.
In fact, Leven is probably the first man in the whole of Scotland to have heard the news.
And it was because Clyde had sent reporters – chief reporter, Lorraine Herbison, and news and sports reporter, Sheelagh McLaren – over to Sri Lanka, making it the only Scottish commercial radio station to do so.
And had set up an ISDN line to report home, which proved a nano-second quicker than satellite.
