Robbie Shepherd, cherished journalist and radio host who presented Take The Floor for 35 years – obituary

Robbie Shepherd, who has died aged 87, was one of the most loved of Scottish broadcasters and a marvellous ambassador for the nation’s music and culture; he presented the BBC Radio Scotland show Take the Floor for 35 years, wrote a regular column in Doric dialect for the Aberdeen Press and Journal, and was a commentator at the Braemar Gathering, which is attended by the Royal family.

Take the Floor dates from the 1930s, when it was known as Scottish Dance Music. Shepherd took over when the presenter David Findlay died in 1980 and continued its toe-tapping diet of accordion, fiddle and gentle chatter, building the show into an institution north of the border.

Some listeners struggled with his north-east accent and occasional use of Doric words, and he recalled being “slated” in Box and Fiddle magazine. Yet he found a warm welcome from regular listeners, telling The Scotsman: “It wis like gettin a body tae come in tae thir hoose, an play thir music an spik thir language.”

Not everything went to plan, especially when taking the show on the road. On one occasion his production team had to saw through a chain across the door of a Glasgow hall to gain access and start the programme. On another they were on Mull and had to constantly pump coins into a hungry electricity meter to keep the power on.

Describing his approach behind the microphone, Shepherd told the BBC: “I like to think that I am broadcasting to a lady in the top tenement in Glasgow at the same time as I am chatting to a lady in a croft.”

Robert Horne Shepherd was born on April 28 1936 in Dunecht, a village 12 miles west of Aberdeen, and often described himself as a “jist a loon fae Dunecht”. Once a month his father, a cobbler, visited the city, returning with the latest recordings by Scots musicians such as Jimmy Shand, Robert Wilson and Kenneth McKellar.

He won a bursary to Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen, recalling how a teacher forced him to say “Cecil Rhodes”, not the north-east “Ceecil”. He left when his father fell ill and joined John Watt, an Aberdeen accountancy firm, eventually qualifying as a chartered management accountant.

That was followed by 13 years with Clayben, a fish processing company, while in his spare time he developed his skills on the mouth organ or “moothie”. He was compering variety shows when the BBC producer Arthur Argo brought him into commentate on sheepdog trials. He also presented the television horticulture show The Beechgrove Garden.

Shepherd’s newspaper column, which first appeared in 1993, drew fans among non-Doric speakers. On one occasion it was foolishly cancelled by a modernising editor, but the outcry from readers was so great that it was swiftly reinstated and continued until two weeks before Shepherd’s death.

He first commentated on the Braemar Games in the 1960s, returning both there and to other games regularly over the next 50 years. He also visited the Royal Albert Hall in London to compere concerts by the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, though he supposedly missed one to commentate on an egg-and-spoon race at Meldrum.

In 2012 he played the Doric Dragon in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, his voice soaring over the astonished audience. Four years later he stepped down from Take the Floor.

Shepherd, whose books included A Dash O’Doric (1995), was appointed MBE in 2001. He met Esma Dickson, a typist and pianist, when they shared a regular bus journey to work; the conductor played cupid by making sure the seat next to her was empty when Shepherd boarded. They were married in 1961. She survives him with their son.

Robbie Shepherd, born April 28 1936, died August 1 2023