John MacKay: It has been a privilege to bring the news into people's lives for 30 years

No mobile phones. No internet. No social media. No Scottish Parliament. No Taylor Swift.

It was almost a different world when I walked through the doors of STV 30 years ago.

That same week “Friends” was launched as a TV series. Forrest Gump and the Lion King were in the cinemas and there was much excitement about a new games console called PlayStation.

I was a radio reporter with little experience of television. A tragic bus crash splintered any thoughts of having time to settle in. My first report was on that first night, scribbled out on scraps of paper because I hadn’t even signed into the STV computer system.

In the early days of my STV career. STV News

And that unrelenting pace has continued over the past three decades: The “new dawn” of the Tony Blair government; the death of the “People’s Princess” Diana; Devolution; the Scottish Parliament; the death of the first First Minister Donald Dewar; Madonna’s Wedding (yes, I was there – kind of); the Iraq War; the smoking ban; the rise of the SNP; the financial crash; Andy Murray winning Wimbledon; the Commonwealth Games; the independence referendum; Brexit; the many Conservative prime ministers; the “Beast from the East”; Covid; COP26; the death of Queen Elizabeth.

It’s quite the list.

I've been fortunate to cover many big stories across the decades. — I’ve been fortunate to cover many big stories across the decades. STV News

And there are many others. Reporting locations. Interviewees. Programmes I’ve presented. Such experiences bring the inevitable questions, understandably. The biggest, the most…

The Dunblane shooting in 1996 remains visceral. Sixteen primary one children and their teacher shot dead. Running up to the school alongside panicked parents who didn’t know if their child was dead or alive can never be forgotten, no matter how much I want to.

I saw nothing of the actual horror, thank goodness, but the description by a surviving teacher, Eileen Harrild, at the subsequent inquiry says all that needs to be known.

She described the infants lining up excitedly outside the gym. Ten minutes later, “…then there was silence. The shooting and screaming had stopped”. It remains the single, most compelling moment of my reporting life. I can’t even think of it without tearing up, as I am now.

STV did our own special ‘News at Ten’ on the night the polls closed on the independence referendum. At ten o’clock I was broadcasting live from Edinburgh.

At that moment we did not know what the result would be. We timed our opening headlines with the chimes of Big Ben in London. “The referendum is now over. The polls are now closed. Scotland is ready to count our votes and declare whether or not we are indeed to become an independent country.” The hairs were standing on the back of my neck. The pinnacle of my career.

I have been in the presence of royalty, popes and prime ministers, and interviewed many big names. But the interviews that stick in my mind are more often the ordinary people with extraordinary stories to tell.

Fortunately, Richard Gere found it amusing when I mispronounced his name. STV News

However, that’s not what most folk want to hear. So, Billy Connolly was as funny as you’d hope and Kevin Bridges a worthy heir. Andy Murray was warm, Dolly Parton rolled my name around for a while to get the pronunciation right, ‘John MacKaaaaay’, while I got Richard Gere’s name wrong when I spoke to him (he laughed, fortunately). Anchorman Will Ferrell told me: “You gotta grow some facial hair and wear enough cologne that it makes my eyes water from ten feet.”

‘Why don’t you move to London’ is one of the most consistent questions I’ve been asked. There were opportunities in my early career at the BBC, an offer to be STV’s Westminster Correspondent and even conversations with ITN and the breakfast shows. I was never interested. My drive has always been that STV News be Scotland’s network and I valued a life away from work too much. If it’s all about ambition and going bigger, why aren’t network faces asked when they’re moving to Washington?

I have been fortunate to front so many stories, but, of course, it has been my colleagues who have been at the coalface: the reporters, the producers, the cameras, the sound, the satellite guys, the editors, the gallery team, the digital team and all the jobs with initials that I’ve lost track of, PJs, APs, MMJs. Never forgetting my eternal gratitude to the PAs and make-up.

It has been my pleasure to work with so many co-presenters. I’m reluctant to single any out, but for sheer longevity I have to mention the elegant Shereen Nanjiani, the delightful Kelly-Ann Woodland and the irrepressible Raman Bhardwaj.

My trenchcoat didn't last long in the world of broadcasting. — My trenchcoat didn’t last long in the world of broadcasting. STV News

Things have been lost along the way. My beloved reporter’s trench coat after it was described as a “flasher’s coat”, my 32-inch waistbands and, alas, my hair. What has never been lost is the sense of privilege to have brought the news into people’s lives for so long.

And you know what? If ties and websh*te are the main markers of my 30-year STV career, I’m happy to take that.