Gwyneth Williams (born 14 July 1953) is a former controller of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. She grew up in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and attended

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college 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 ...

Earlier career

Williams joined the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

in 1976 as a trainee, having briefly worked as researcher at the

Overseas Development Institute ODI Global (formerly 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 dome ...

'', 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 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'', ''

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 (38 ...

'', '' From Our Own Correspondent'', '' Crossing Continents'', '' 5 Live Report'', '' Money Box'' 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

Roger Bolton and Gwyneth Williams on Feedback

Williams took over from former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer 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 owned and operated by the BBC. It mostly broadcasts archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes, and is the sister station of Radio 4. It is the pri ...

, 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 handle ...

'' 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'', pronounced "what-oh") is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs radio programme, broadcast weekdays from 13:00 to 13:45 and produced by BBC News. The programme describes itself as "Bri ...

'' 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours 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