Articles revealed in The Eye are written by a group of contributors and edited by the multi-award profitable former BBC information and present affairs reporter, Phil Parry.
Our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, spent 23 years with the BBC (together with many with Radio Wales), and 38 years in journalism, however now seems to be askance on the legacy left by the Editor of his previous station (in addition to the inheritance of the individual taking on for a brand new age), after the newest viewers figures confirmed ANOTHER large drop within the variety of listeners.
Earlier he has described how he was helped to interrupt into the South Wales Echo workplace automobile when he was a cub reporter, recalled his early profession as a journalist, the significance of expertise within the job, and making clear that the ‘calls’ to emergency providers in addition to court docket circumstances are central to any media operation.
He has additionally explored how poorly paid most journalism is when trainee reporters needed to dwell in squalid flats, the important position of bills, and about one in every of his most necessary tales on the now-scrapped 53 year-old BBC Cymru Wales TV Present Affairs collection he introduced for 10 years, Week In Week Out (WIWO), which received an award even after it was axed, lengthy after his profession actually took off.
Phil has defined too how essential it’s truly to talk to folks, the advantage of velocity in addition to accuracy, why information of ‘historical past’ is significant, how sure materials was faraway from TV Present Affairs programmes when secret cameras had for use, and a few of these he has interviewed.
He has additionally disclosed why investigative journalism is required now greater than ever though others have totally different opinions, and how data from trusted sources is essential presently.
It’s all the time fascinating to observe when a brand new individual takes over following a disastrous interval.
It could possibly be argued, for instance, that it’s enormously troublesome for the chief of Labour, Sir Keir Starmer, who’s now in cost after years through which the social gathering was within the grip of the exhausting left Jeremy Corbyn, and his followers. He’s dealing with accusations that he ought to have finished extra to root out the intense left wingers in his social gathering (as Neil Kinnock did within the Nineteen Eighties), and that Labour must be additional forward within the polls given the issues now engulfing the Conservatives, in addition to the perceived ineptitude of Boris Johnson.
Even final yr the far left group Momentum nonetheless appeared to be firmly entrenched in components of Labour, saying: “The organisation is now aiming to rebuild itself “from the bottom up” by constitutional reform that may immediately contain all its members. After devoting extra assets than ever earlier than to its community of native teams, Momentum will launch a deliberative course of that may in the end go to an all-member poll on the ultimate proposals in December. These insurance policies may embody reshaping the make-up of the nationwide coordinating group, adjustments to candidate endorsement processes or member enter”.
I reported on (now LORD) Kinnock’s braveness and tenacity as he took on Militant (they even begin with the identical first letter!), so I bear in mind what occurred very clearly.
In his 1985 convention speech, he attacked them, with out truly referring to the motion by title, by speaking principally about Liverpool Metropolis Council (which was run on the time by Militant), for inflicting “grotesque chaos”, and went on to emphasize that this was “a Labour council — a Labour council”.
So it’s helpful to view with pleasure what occurs now on the failing BBC Cymru Radio Wales (RW), after years through which audiences have plummeted, and when a brand new individual is about to be put in cost.
The Tiggerish Colin Paterson, is on the purpose of leaving as Head of BBC Radio Wales and BBC Wales Sport, to develop into Head of BBC Audio for Wales and the West of England. Mr Paterson will run (amongst many different programmes), Any Questions?, Farming As we speak and Composer Of The Week.
However this promotion appears weird within the context of the wreckage that he leaves behind, and the items his substitute (the favorite for which is understood to me) can be pressured to select up, for Mr Paterson has presided over record-breaking low listening figures at RW.
The most recent viewers RAJAR figures reveal simply how appalling the scenario has now develop into. Within the first quarter of 2022, there was a ten per cent plunge within the variety of hours folks tuned in, and his station had a weekly ‘attain’ of simply 314,000, which was a drop of seven factors. In December the whole weekly viewers determine was 371,000, however now it is just 345,000.
These dreadful statistics examine with a weekly ‘attain’ in the identical quarter for BBC Radio Scotland (RS) of 877,000, whereas the equal figures for BBC Radio Ulster (RU) have been of NO DROP WHATSOEVER in listening hours, and a ‘attain’ of 34,000, which was an INCREASE of three per cent!
Nonetheless these AWFUL figures come exhausting on the heels of different current controversies. The quarter ending December 2021, marked RW down from 5.9 to five.3 per cent, as a share of the accessible Welsh viewers, and confirmed that almost 95 per cent of individuals in Wales ignore the station ALTOGETHER, but different radio stations within the UK (as with the newest RAJARs) attracted a far higher viewers share.
Previous years have been virtually as unhealthy for RW too. In 2020 the figures revealed a slight enhance on 2019 however a considerable drop in contrast with two years earlier, an enormous lower on the yr earlier than that, and the way greater than 40,000 listeners had been misplaced in a single three month interval, regardless of an enormous sum of money being spent on new schedules. Additionally they confirmed that the whole listening hours have been 2,667,000, down from 3,074,000 in September 2019.
One of the primary presenters at RW throughout its launch, re-stated his name for Mr Paterson, and his superior, Rhodri Talfan Davies, to resign (not be promoted). Mike Flynn instructed The Eye: “Each of those so known as media executives (Mr Davies and Mr Paterson) are answerable to the general public who pay their salaries by way of the licence payment and may resign. However they’re frightened to disclose the viewers for the abysmal Claire Summers programme that changed Good Morning Wales (GMW). I wish to know what the actual figures are throughout daytimes and weekends and the way they waste over £18 million. It’s about time they began to reply a number of questions.”
A former radio government, stated on the time the earlier quarter’s horrible listening figures have been launched: “It’s (the viewers numbers are) peaking at weekdays mid mornings, with Wynne Evans the one spotlight. There’s an over reliance on celebrities who’ve little or no substance, and the breakfast programme is a shame. Paterson and Davies ought to go”.
I introduced the lunchtime programme, Wales at One, the drive-time present Good Night Wales, in addition to the weekly debate collection Individuals’s Meeting, for seven years till 2006, and have stated publicly that this CANNOT go on. These in cost have to take duty for a way PUBLIC cash is being spent.
However RW (in addition to Mr Paterson and Mr Davies), has usually hit the headlines for unlucky causes. Our journalists have been alone in reporting that Mr Paterson had an affair with the presenter Lucy Owen, and the story about it was included in a Digital Spy (DS) remark regarding RW with the message above the hyperlink saying “…the report low listening figures at Radio Wales underneath it’s (sic) present administration (have been) amplified this yr by criticism from former award profitable reporters and presenters”.
For a lot of workers at BBC CW, Mr Paterson’s romance with the married Mrs Owen represented a significant potential battle of curiosity, as a result of officers had commissioned a RW programme hosted by Mrs Owen, known as ‘Sunday morning with Lucy Owen’, and media executives each inside in addition to exterior the company have instructed me that they have been apprehensive about their partnership’s potential impression on the method.
Mr Flynn was equally unimpressed by The Eye’s disclosure of this relationship. He stated: “If Paterson has been having an affair with a Wales As we speak and Radio Wales presenter it brings his administration expertise in to query and he must be suspended instantly”.
When Mr Paterson’s former paramour, Mrs Owen, was newsreading on BBC Wales As we speak (WT), programme-makers used an image of Brighton Pavilion throughout protection of the beginning of the vastly necessary Muslim month of Ramadan as a substitute of a mosque, and the error was then featured within the Brighton Argus.
One Twitter person complained: “BBC Wales exhibiting an image of the Brighton Pavilion and getting it confused for a mosque when speaking about Ramadan is sort of f****d?”. One other wrote furiously: “Not completely satisfied they’ve used a shot of Brighton Pavilion as if it’s a mosque (presumably)”.
Mrs Owen had additionally tweeted over Christmas 2020 about how she had taken a visit to the seashore at Southerndown within the Vale of Glamorgan, when others have been ruled by lockdown laws. She handled us, too, to a video of how she had suffered a “turkey drama” (presumably at her South Wales residence) by leaving plastic on the roast, nevertheless it can not examine to the disaster endured by the households to whom she broadcasted each evening with the newest lockdown guidelines. She introduced on-line, as she confirmed us what had occurred: “I left a little bit of the plastic on it…”
Prior to now, Mrs Owen has additionally described as a ‘disaster’ carrying odd footwear into the workplace to broadcast the lunchtime bulletin, and requested whether or not anybody would discover. She even included for us a shocked face emoji after that remark, and following it Mrs Owen revealed on Twitter: “Disaster over!”.
But she may, maybe, have targeted on the BBC CW web site saying the identical day that coronavirus/Covid-19 was the largest reason behind dying in Wales that month, which many would possibly see as an actual drama. This was what she would have learn as a substitute of complaining about carrying odd footwear: “The mortality charge rose “considerably” for a second month, to 260 deaths per 100,000 folks in Wales. It was additionally greater than twice the speed in essentially the most disadvantaged areas in contrast with the least disadvantaged space”.
Mr Davies’ appointee who she had an affair with, Mr Paterson, has additionally been within the information for the fallacious causes. He posted a video on Fb (FB) about how he too went to the seashore over Christmas 2020 – this time at close by Ogmore, which he stated was “Balmy”. But the Welsh Authorities (WG) guidelines on the time appeared clear sufficient: “If you’re travelling away from residence, it’s best to journey to fulfill your Christmas bubble and return residence in the midst of 25 December...You need to hold taking steps to cut back the unfold of the virus, and it will assist be sure that you get pleasure from Christmas Day as safely as potential.” Journey recommendation from South Wales Police (SWP) warned folks then about going to seashores “you shouldn’t be driving to those locations”.
Mr Paterson’s reliance on ‘superstar’ in radio programmes has additionally come underneath scrutiny. After we reported a number of years in the past that offended listeners had contacted The Eye as soon as it emerged the programme of singing star and broadcaster Aled Jones was all of a sudden dropped from the airwaves with RW, got here information of a really totally different kind.
On November 4 in 2017 we confirmed how new schedules have been about to be revealed by the BBC, however the common Sunday programme of Mr Jones didn’t seem. On the time the BBC instructed The Eye, that they did “make adjustments to when programmes run”.
Nonetheless it transpired that the Songs of Reward presenter wouldn’t be on the airwaves in any respect on the BBC, whereas the broadcaster investigated alleged inappropriate behaviour greater than a decade earlier. The singer and TV host from Anglesey, who discovered fame on the age of 12 along with his prime 5 Christmas hit Strolling within the Air, stated he was “deeply sorry” for any upset induced however strongly denied any “inappropriate contact”, and a spokesman for Mr Jones stated that whereas the matter didn’t relate to any broadcast work, he had voluntarily agreed to not go on the BBC whereas it was investigated.
In an announcement, the spokesman added: “While he accepts that his (Mr Jones’) behaviour over a decade in the past was often juvenile, as was that of others, he by no means supposed to harass or misery and he strongly denies any inappropriate contact. He’s, nonetheless, deeply sorry for any upset induced and hopes this matter is resolved quickly.” Mr Jones’ spokesman stated that the allegations from a single feminine complainant of inappropriate messages and phone, reported within the Solar, didn’t relate to any broadcast work, and associated to a matter greater than 10 years earlier than
It’s a pity that previous efficiency does NOT seem like associated to securing a brand new extra senior job, and that the successor has to restore surprising injury…
The recollections of Phil’s astonishing prolonged award-winning profession in journalism (together with a number of the tales he coated throughout his years on the BBC) as he was gripped by the uncommon neurological disabling situation, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been launched in a significant ebook ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the ebook now!
Regrettably publication of one other ebook, nonetheless, was refused, as a result of it was to have included names.
