Sometimes news happens when you’re simply not ready for it. It did seem that way for the BBC last Saturday when the first reports of the death of Alex Salmond began to emerge. STV’s Political Editor Colin MacKay was one of the first to announce it on social media. It just so happened I saw his tweet whilst half-watching Reporting Scotland on BBC One which gave no mention to the breaking news.

I quickly turned on Radio Scotland (because you never believe such things, do you, until you’ve heard it on old media. Or is that just a symptom of my age?). But Radio Scotland had a prior engagement. It was covering Scotland’s UEFA Nations League game against Croatia, which was more than any TV channel felt the need to do.

As a result, Sportsound’s Liam McLeod had to announce a special news programme at 7pm (a couple of hours after the news had broken online) in the middle of his commentary. That special bulletin had to be squeezed in between Scotland’s latest glorious failure and Tam Cowan, Mark Nelson and Adam Miller of Old Firm Facts on Off the Ball.

It’s fair to say that it probably wasn’t in the plan that Cowan should be the first commentator on the station to properly remember the former first minister. But so it turned out.

And maybe that wasn’t so inappropriate. Salmond had been a guest on Off the Ball on a number of occasions and Cowan had a story to hand.

“There was one day Alex was in, years ago, and he said, ‘Can I get a taxi for after the show?’ And we said, ‘Yeah, of course, we’ll get that organised.’ We were assuming he was getting the taxi to Queen Street Station to get back up the road to Aberdeenshire. No. We heard later that he got the taxi all the way to Aberdeenshire.”

The taxi driver in question told Cowan afterwards that the former First Minister gave him a good tip.

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The more formal Radio Scotland response came on Monday morning in Kaye Adams’s phone-in show Mornings, though I’m not sure anything in its three hours had a better story than Cowan's. Still, Adams did read out a message from a Hibs fan who recalled jumping into a taxi after a Scotland game only to find four Hearts fans, including Salmond, already in it. The politician paid the fare for that one.

Salmond is a complex, controversial, even divisive political figure. One of Adams’s guests, Andy Maciver, former head of communications for the Scottish Conservatives and now Director of Message Matters and Herald columnist, reiterated that he believed that Salmond was one of the five most influential politicians in his lifetime (Thatcher, Blair, Farage and Martin McGuinness being the others).

Certainly, most of those phoning Adams on Monday, seemed to agree. They were all keen to acknowledge Salmond’s impact on Scotland, whatever their political position.

Did it stretch beyond Scotland though? Well, maybe not in radioland.

Over on 5 Live Nicky Campbell, it’s worth saying, wasn’t having a phone-in about Alex Salmond on Monday morning. But on Tuesday Campbell was asking listeners to phone in and ask if Pep Guardiola would make a good England manager (a talking point that was redundant within a few hours). You’re never far away from the Englishness of Britishness at the BBC. Even if your presenter is Scottish.

While we’re tuned into Radio Scotland, by the way, reports that it’s about to cut back on its coverage of Scottish theatre, music, film and TV on The Afternoon Show and replace it with more “celebrity” content is deeply depressing.

The proof is in the pudding, obviously, but it would be lovely if the station committed itself to the arts in Scotland as fully as it does to football. At least Scottish artists win the odd thing. (Not that that is a measure you should judge anything on, even football. But then I’m a Spurs fan so I’m hardly speaking from experience.)

Another farewell on Boom Radio on Sunday night. Former Radio 1 controller Johnny Beerling paid tribute to the late Phil Swern, the BBC producer and creator of PopMaster who died earlier this year.

Beerling recorded a short fond message to preface a previously recorded two-hour show in which Swern himself played his favourite records (he had many; he was known as “The Collector” after all) while telling his own story. His mother and sister, we learned, used to walk PJ Proby’s dogs when he was on tour. That’s the sort of pop trivia you want on a Sunday night. RIP Mr Swern.

Listen Out For:

Late Junction, Radio 3, Friday, October 25, 10pm

There are a small number of film directors who have also composed their own soundtracks. Horror Meister John Carpenter is by some distance the best of them. For Late Junction next week he has pulled together his own mixtape, which includes tracks from Devo and Italian prog band Goblin, best known for their work on Dario Argento horror movies.