BBC Radio Wales

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BBC Radio Wales

Broadcast area	Wales
First air date	1978
Frequency	FM: various MW: 882 and 657 kHz DAB Freeview: 719 (Wales only) Virgin Media: 931 Online
Format	News, Music, Sport
Owner	BBC
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/radiowales

BBC Radio Wales is the BBC's national radio station broadcasting to Wales in the English language. Operated by BBC Wales, it began 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.

1 Transmission
2 Programmes
3 Sport
4 Radio Gwent and Radio Clwyd opt-outs
5 External links

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.

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, 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.

Radio Wales's sports output includes Sportstime, presented by Steve James and broadcast on Saturdays between 14.03 and 18.30, and Midweek Sport, transmitted every Tuesday night from 19.03 to 21.00 and hosted by Rob Phillips. 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. Sportstime is also aired on other days if there is other sport happening throughout the week, usually on MW only.

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 Newport, 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].