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Gwyneth Williams (born 14 July 1953) is a former controller of
Williams took over from former Radio 4 controller
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...
. She grew up in South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
and attended St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and acce ...
.
Earlier career
Williams joined theBBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...
in 1976 as a trainee, having briefly worked as researcher at the Overseas Development Institute
ODI (formerly the 'Overseas Development Institute') is a global affairs think tank, founded in 1960. Its mission is "to inspire people to act on injustice and inequality through collaborative research and ideas that matter for people and the ...
. In the 1980s she became producer and duty editor of BBC Radio 4's ''The World Tonight
''The World Tonight'' is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by BBC News and features news, analysis and comment on domes ...
'', and then Deputy Editor, Special Current Affairs Programmes, responsible for broadcasting general elections and other major events.
In 1994 as Editor, Policy and Social Programmes she launched current affairs programmes on BBC Radio Five Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...
and then became Head of Radio Current Affairs and editor of the BBC Reith Lectures – responsible for the department that produced such programmes as ''File On 4
''File on 4'' is a current-affairs radio programme produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. First broadcast from Manchester in 1977, it is produced in Salford by the BBC's Radio Current Affairs department. It has won more than forty awa ...
'', ''Analysis
Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...
'', ''From Our Own Correspondent
''From Our Own Correspondent'' is a weekly BBC radio programme in which BBC foreign correspondents deliver a sequence of short talks reflecting on current events and topical themes in the countries outside the UK in which they are based. The prog ...
'', ''Crossing Continents
''Crossing Continents'' is a half-hour BBC Radio 4 documentary strand focusing on foreign affairs issues. It takes listeners right to the heart of story through its on-location reporting and feature making. The programmes are character driven a ...
'', ''5 Live Report
''5 Live Report'' was a weekly investigative programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. It was broadcast live at 11 a.m. on Sundays as part of the Julian Worricker programme, and a recorded half-hour documentary was broadcast on Sundays, schedule permitting ...
'', ''Money Box
''Money Box'' is a weekly personal finance radio programme on BBC Radio 4, produced by BBC News, currently presented by Paul Lewis. The programme is broadcast live each Saturday in the half-hour slot just after midday. It is repeated on Sunday e ...
'' and ''In Business''.
In 2007 she returned to the World Service as Director of English Networks and News, responsible for all of the service's English-language programming, until she was made redundant in 2010.
BBC Radio 4
Williams took over from former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer
Mark David Damazer, CBE (born 15 April 1955), is a former Master of St Peter's College, Oxford, and a former controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7 in the United Kingdom.
Early life and education
Damazer was born on 15 April 1955. He is th ...
in September 2010. Her job includes responsibility for BBC Radio 4 Extra
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the ...
, which under her tenure has been rebranded from BBC Radio 7. Her salary was reported to be £175,000 - a 20% reduction on that of her predecessor. The BBC website states her salary to be £183,618.
On 18 November 2011, she was interviewed by Roger Bolton on the Radio 4 programme ''Feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
'' about the changes she had made to Radio 4. It was pointed out on the programme that she had caused the biggest changes to Radio 4 for ten years. The changes for which she was responsible included extending the length of ''The World at One
''The World at One'', or ''WATO'' ("what-oh") for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, produced by BBC News, which is currently broadcast from 13:00 to 13:45 from Monday to Friday. The programme de ...
'' to 45 minutes, and reducing the number of history programmes but increasing Radio 4's coverage of science.
In January 2019 it was announced that Williams was due to leave the corporation after 43 years.
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours
The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...
for services to radio and broadcasting.
References
__FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Gwyneth 1953 births Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford BBC executives BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 controllers British radio executives Living people Radio editors Officers of the Order of the British Empire