The station broadcasts general factual and entertainment programming for 18+1⁄2 hours a day from 5:30am to midnight with overnight programming simulcast from the BBC World Service 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 Helo Bobol!, 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.[1]
Radio Cymru is similar in format to many "general" radio stations, with news programmes at breakfast (Post Cyntaf, 'First Post'), lunchtime (Taro'r Post – a debate-centred programme), and drive-time (Post Prynhawn, '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 unusual–and longest-running–programmes is Y Talwrn, 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.[2][3]
Listening figures
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 95,000 listeners and a listening share of 2.2%, as of December 2023.[4] The average number of hours per listener is 11.5 hours a week.
BBC Radio Cymru is broadcast across Wales FM and DAB. It is also available on Freeview in Wales, throughout the UK on Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and internationally online on BBC Sounds. 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.
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This is a timeline of the development of radio in Wales.
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