Last updated March 2006
Category: Scotland
Printable version
Born and brought up in Dumfriesshire, Willie entered journalism in 1976 after leaving Annan Academy.
He studied journalism at Napier College in Edinburgh as a trainee with the Scottish and Universal Newspapers Group which has a large string of weekly titles and then worked on the Galloway News, the Ayrshire Post and the Dumfries and Galloway Standard.
Willie joined the BBC's new community station Radio Solway in 1984 as producer and became senior producer in 1989.
After a restructuring in 1993 he became the network
correspondent in the south-west, supplying stories for both Radio
Scotland and BBC Scotland television.
Willie was one of the first reporters on the scene at the Lockerbie air disaster in 1988.
He was part of the award-winning Radio Scotland team
covering the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
Other major career stories include the Solway Harvester fishing disaster and the 1991 Foot and Mouth epidemic for which he was nominated as Radio Reporter of the Year at the Celtic Film and Television Awards.
