麻豆社

Amongst the participants there were a number that listened regularly to Radio Cymru and Radio Wales. However, there were strongly divergent views about the quality and range of the output on the two stations.

Radio Wales was praised for its news programmes with one participant praising Good Morning Wales because it was “less confrontational than the Today programme on Radio 4” though others strongly disagreed and felt that the standard of the programme and style of the presenters left much to be desired.

It was felt that Radio Wales could boost its attractiveness to listeners by making it more relevant to south west Wales, boosting its presenter line-up, being uniquely Welsh, not trying to compete with other radio stations and having better publicity. On the latter point, one participant strongly praised a recent programme about the 麻豆社 National Orchestra for Wales, and felt it a shame that none of his friends had heard it because of lack of publicity.

Reception issues were mentioned several times, with Radio Wales’ reception felt to be particularly bad. As one participant put it, speaking for a number of others, “I’ll often tune in to Radio Wales in the car, but the reception is so bad that I’ll often just give up and listen to something else. The reception of 麻豆社 Radio 4 and Classic FM is so much better”.

Radio Cymru did not have a huge number of listeners amongst those present, but again for the small number of listeners to the station, views were mixed. Some considered it an essential part of their day with interesting, relevant information, while others complained that it was too focused on north rather than west Wales and that different accents made it a difficult listen. Others said that they felt that too many programmes felt too similar to each other, and that a greater variety of programme types would be welcome.

A number of participants were regular Radio 4 listeners and praised the station on the whole. Also mentioned as a popular listening choice amongst those present was the commercial classical music station Classic FM though 麻豆社 Radio 3 had its fans too with the 麻豆社’s classical music coverage considered of a high quality.

The 麻豆社 was generally considered “outstanding” at TV programmes by a number of the participants with its natural history output singled out for particular praise – and Iolo Williams’ 麻豆社 Cymru Wales TV nature programmes being very popular. One participant expressed the view of a number when he said “David Attenborough’s recent series on the Great Barrier Reef has been absolutely fabulous and demonstrates that he has lost none of his broadcasting abilities, despite his advancing years”.

However, others strongly disagreed with one saying “The 麻豆社 is dumbing down and showing more and more repeats. Some of the PSB programmes I saw in America were far better”. This was strongly disputed by another participant who said “I’ve watched TV in France, Germany and the USA, and the 麻豆社 is better by many lengths. Any drama in the US was constantly interrupted by adverts every few minutes – which was just awful”.

Other highlights included music programmes on 麻豆社 Four and the Horizon science documentary strand (“Horizon is great in talking about science and is so well put together that even difficult ideas are easily communicated”), historical documentaries, such as The Story of Wales, presented by Huw Edwards, a few years ago and factual programmes such as Derek Brockway’s Weatherman Walking. Drama was also popular, with a number praising the bilingual nature of detective drama Hinterland, and the exposure it gave to a beautiful part of Wales.

Sport was as ever a contentious issue, with some of the view that it dominated the TV schedules to far too great an extent (with rugby and football coverage felt to be particularly excessive - “rugby dominates everything” was how one participant put it) while others recognised the importance of sport to many people and its central place to the lives of many audience members. There was a consensus however, that the 麻豆社’s coverage of sport was far superior to that by other broadcasters and regret expressed that the 麻豆社 appeared to be losing ground to pay to view broadcasters.

Some participants also expressed their frustration at some scheduling decisions, with a number critical of the decision to postpone an episode of Iolo Williams’ nature programmes in favour of a programme about David Bowie following his death the previous day. A number also expressed the view that while 麻豆社 Wales’ opt-out TV programmes were very popular, a number of them were scheduled very late in the evening which was a disincentive to view, though other participants described their main modus operandi as recording such programmes and watching them at a time convenient to them. Many were also critical of the 麻豆社’s Christmas TV schedules, which a high proportion considered to have been disappointing.

An interesting idea presented by one participant was that 麻豆社 Wales’ TV output would benefit from having opt-out programming for different parts of Wales as well as national opt-out programmes for the whole of Wales. 

Radio 5 Live’s news output was mentioned by a number of participants as being part of their daily and travelling routines while others said that for them 麻豆社 Radio 4’s Today programme was required listening.

麻豆社 Wales Today was watched regularly by a high proportion of those present and considered to be required viewing to know about what was going on in Wales. However, the participants were not uncritical and some felt that Cardiff and the surrounding area received disproportionate attention on 麻豆社 Wales Today. Network News programmes were also watched by a number though one participant expressed the view of many when he said “I’m really frustrated that the UK-wide news gives so little attention to Wales, and seems to think that the whole UK consists of England”. 

A proportion of those present said that they regularly accessed the 麻豆社’s News through the app or via the 麻豆社’s website and this service was considered to be of a high quality, though some felt that it wasn’t as good as it had once been and that the introduction of more video and audio content and less text in stories was a retrograde step.

A small number used the 麻豆社’s iPlayer service to access programmes previously broadcast.

The 麻豆社 licence fee was considered very good value for money by a high proportion of those present and a number of those present saying that they would be very happy to continue paying it despite being older than 75 years old.