- published: 15 Jun 2015
- views: 8735
BBC Alba is a joint-venture Scottish Gaelic language digital television channel which is broadcast by the BBC throughout the United Kingdom on satellite, online and Virgin Media on Demand. It is also available live on Virgin Media and Freeview in Scotland. The channel was launched at 21:00 on Friday 19 September 2008. The name Alba is the Gaelic word for Scotland and reveals the channel's other owner, MG Alba.
The station is unique in that it is the first channel to be delivered under a BBC licence by a partnership and is also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland.
On-air for up to seven hours a day, BBC Alba broadcasts nationally on satellite (Sky and Freesat). BBC Alba was added to Virgin Media's cable television service on 18 May 2011 but is only available in Scotland, with select content made available through their on-demand service for users resident in other parts of Britain. Some programmes from the last seven days can be viewed online on BBC iPlayer and the channel can also be watched live through iPlayer. After being approved by the BBC Trust, it has been broadcast on Freeview, in Scotland only, since 8 June 2011, making it available to all post-switchover households in Scotland. The channel is funded and operated jointly by MG Alba and the BBC. Whilst the partnership runs the channel, Gaelic programming on BBC Two Scotland will continue at least until digital switchover takes place. The Gaelic Digital Service will also include BBC Radio nan Gàidheal during downtime hours (alongside simulcasts of BBC Radio Scotland & BBC Radio Five Live) and online content.
Out of work I took a job as a
Hand on a boat
In a town called Matlache
On my first day off I was
Sitting drinking beer
At a bar called the dock of the bay
When in walked a woman
That every man eyed
But her eyes stayed right on me
The guy next to me he
Whispered real low
There's more to her than you can see
She comes from the back bay
Better stay away
She lives up on the back bay
And then he moved on away
Well she came and sat down
And the hours flew by
And the beer flowed just like the tide
The sun went down and the moon came up
And there was fire in her eyes
She took me for a ride in the white moonlight
In a boat like I've never seen
As the bay flew by the sky was alive
I was seeing things that I've never seen
She said you're going to the back bay
You're gonna see my ways
Cause there's magic on the back bay
You might even want to stay
Well I woke in the morning to
Her house boat rocking
Eye to eye with an old brown hound
There was fresh mullet frying
And strange birds crying
And no one else for miles around
I saw her standing there with
The breeze in her hair
I knew I never wanted to leave
I saw all my things around I
Knew she'd been back into town
And already mad the move for me
She said you're moving to the back bay
You're gonna see my ways
You're gonna love it on the back bay
And you're always gonna stay