BBC Radio Cymru is a
Welsh language
Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...
radio station owned and operated by
BBC Cymru Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales.
It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...
, a division of the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
. It broadcasts across Wales on
FM,
DAB, digital TV and
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...
.
The station broadcasts general factual and entertainment programming for hours a day from 5:30am to midnight with overnight programming simulcast from 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 ...
after closedown.
Its sister station,
BBC Radio Cymru 2, providing separate music-led programming at certain hours of the day, broadcasts on digital and online platforms.
The managing editor of BBC Radio Cymru is Dafydd Meredydd, a former presenter and producer.
Overview
BBC Radio Cymru began broadcasting on the first Monday morning of year on 3 January 1977. Its first programme was an extended news bulletin presented at 6:45am by Gwyn Llewellyn and Geraint Jones. This was followed at 7am by the first edition of the breakfast magazine show ', presented by
Hywel Gwynfryn with contributions from a network of local reporters in studios across Wales. The first record played on Radio Cymru was ''Plas-y-Bryniau'' by Hergest.
The station was the first broadcasting outlet dedicated wholly to programmes in Welsh, allowing much more airtime for such output than had previously been available on the old
Radio 4 Wales (or its predecessors the Welsh
Home Service and, before that, the BBC Welsh
Regional Programme).
Initially, the service was part-time and restricted to breakfast shows, extended news bulletins at breakfast, lunchtime & early evening and a number of off-peak opt-outs from a sustaining Radio 4 Wales feed.
In November 1979, Radio Cymru's programming was expanded to 65 hours a week, introducing mid-morning output on weekdays, along with a growing line-up of dramas, light entertainment and documentaries. The network continued to expand over the next two decades before achieving a continuous service of up to 20 hours a day.
Later developments in the 21st century saw Radio Cymru introducing a nightly youth strand, ''
C2'', and regional opt-outs for South West Wales, which were axed in 2008 but later reintroduced to provide live commentary of
Swansea City A.F.C. matches. The station has also been streaming online since January 2005.
Radio Cymru is similar in format to many "general" radio stations, with news programmes at breakfast (', 'First Post'), lunchtime (' – a debate-centred programme), and
drive-time (', 'Afternoon Post'); together with presenter-driven sequences mixing music with guests, calls from listeners and competitions. Radio Cymru also produces drama, features, current affairs and sports programming.
Over the years, it has done much to promote the language, with its sports commentators coining new terms which later became accepted by Welsh
linguists. One of its more unusualand longest-runningprogrammes is ', a poetry competition in which teams must come up with poetry in specific styles on specific topics.
In 2018, following a three-month pilot service, a second station -
BBC Radio Cymru 2 - was launched on a permanent basis. Initially providing a music and entertainment alternative to its breakfast news programme, the station gradually expanded its own programming while continuing to simulcast output from the main Radio Cymru service. In March 2024, the station expanded its bespoke output from 15 to 60 hours a week, after receiving approval from the broadcast regulator OFCOM to become a fully-fledged public service radio station.
Listening figures
According to
RAJAR
Radio Joint Audience Research Limited (RAJAR; ) was established in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and Radiocentre. RAJAR's predecessor was c ...
, the station has a weekly audience of 95,000 listeners and a listening share of 2.2%, as of December 2023.
The average number of hours per listener is 11.5 hours a week.
Presenters
Notable current presenters include:
*
Shân Cothi (''Bore Cothi'')
*
Caryl Parry Jones (Monday-Thursday nights)
*
Huw Stephens (Thursday evenings)
Transmission
BBC Radio Cymru is broadcast across Wales
FM and
DAB. It is also available on
Freeview in Wales, throughout the UK on
Freesat
Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...
,
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...
,
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...
and internationally online on
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...
. As Radio Cymru was created from an opt-out of BBC Radio 4, it inherited the FM transmitters previously used by Radio 4 across Wales. At the time of the station's launch, it was the only radio service in the UK broadcasting solely on FM.
Main transmitters
Relays
See also
*
List of Celtic-language media
The list below contains information on the different types of media available in the Celtic languages.
All languages
Only a handful of media contain all the Celtic languages. An example is ''Carn'' magazine, which has contained columns in all ...
References
External links
*
*
*
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{{Media in Cardiff
1977 establishments in Wales
BBC Cymru Wales
BBC regional radio stations
Radio stations established in 1977
Radio stations in Wales
Indigenous radio
Welsh-language mass media