BBC RADIO WALES

'BBC Radio Wales' is the BBC's national radio station broadcasting to Wales in the English language. Operated by BBC Wales, it began broadcasting in 1978 following the demise of the old "Radio 4 Wales" (previously the Welsh Home Service) when BBC Radio 4 became a national network and moved from medium wave to long wave. BBC Radio Wales can also be heard in North Devon, North Cornwall and even South-West Ireland, which are all Celtic cousins of Wales.

Contents

Transmission

Programmes

Sport

Radio Gwent and Radio Clwyd opt-outs

External links

Transmission

For many years Radio Wales was broadcast only on medium wave; the BBC considered that because the Welsh language network BBC Radio Cymru was the only network using that language, it merited a higher quality of transmission. However since 1999 Radio Wales has been acquiring its own FM network, starting in areas like Newport and Wrexham where the Welsh language has the fewest speakers.
BBC Radio Wales is also broadcast on DAB Digital Radio Freeview and on satellite.

Programmes

Current programmes include ''Good Morning Wales'', Roy Noble's morning show, "Richard Evans with the Radio Wales Phone-in", ''The Afternoon Show'' with Alan Thompson some days and Owen Money on other days, ''Good Evening Wales'', ''Studio X'' (a show covering current rock/pop music), Jamie Owen's late morning show (Jamie also presents the news on BBC Wales Today), Adam Walton's new music show (covering new Welsh music on Sunday nights), Andy Roberts' ''Jazz connection'' on Tuesday evenings, and ''Chris NeedsFriendly Garden'' which goes out every weeknight evening from 10pm.

Sport

Radio Wales's sports output includes ''Sportstime'', presented by Steve James and broadcast on Saturdays between 14.03 and 18.30. The programme is also transmitted every Tuesday night from 19.03 to 21.00 and is again hosted by Steve James, who took over the presenting role from Rob Phillips in early 2007. Both programmes feature local FM commentary of Cardiff City in the south-east of Wales, Swansea City in the south west and Wrexham in the north of Wales with the presenters going through a running commentary on everything that is happening in the day's play on MW. The station's commentators are Ian Gwyn Hughes (also BBC Wales Football Editor), John Hardy, Rob Phillips and Simon Davies. The summarisers are former Wales captain Kevin Ratcliffe, former Wales and Norwich striker Iwan Roberts, ex Wales and Crystal Palace striker Ian Walsh, Malcolm Allen, the ex Wales and Newcastle centre forward, former Atletico Madrid manager Colin Addison and Jason Perry, a former Cardiff City defender. ''Sportstime'' is also aired on other days if there is other sport happening throughout the week, usually on MW only.

Radio Gwent and Radio Clwyd opt-outs

After a number of experiments with temporary special-event stations in various parts of Wales, two long-standing opt-out stations were established: 'Radio Gwent', based in Cwmbran, on the air between April 1983 and March 1991, and Mold-based 'Radio Clwyd' which was broadcast between October 1981 and October 1993. Both of these stations operated at peak times only, and carried Radio Wales at other times. Following the closure of Radio Clwyd, local bulletins for north-east Wales continued until 2002, staff having moved from Mold to Wrexham in the summer of 1998.
The loss of Radio Clwyd and the subsequent local bulletins was resented by some listeners in north-east Wales, who felt that the main Radio Wales programming concentrated too much on Cardiff and the South Wales valleys. On 21 January 2003 their complaint was raised in the House of Commons [1] [2].

External links

★ BBC Radio Wales at bbc.co.uk

★ Media UK - BBC Radio Wales