BBC Radio Cymru is British public radio station owned by British Broadcasting Corporation. The station broadcasts news, music, sports and entertainment programmings.
History[]
BBC Radio Cymru began broadcasting on the morning of Monday 3 January 1977, its first programme being 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 BBC Radio Cymru was Ffrindiau Bore Oes 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 BBC Radio 4 Wales (or its predecessors the Welsh Home Service and, before that, the BBC Welsh Regional Programme).
At the time of the station's launch, it was the only radio service in the UK broadcasting exclusively on FM (VHF). 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 BBC Radio 4 Wales feed.
In November 1979, BBC 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 BBC 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.
BBC 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 chat to invited studio guests, calls from listeners, competitions etc. BBC Radio Cymru also produces drama, features, current affairs, youth, 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.
External links[]
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