Articles printed in The Eye are written by a crew of contributors and edited by the multi-award successful former BBC information and present affairs reporter, Phil Parry.
The most recent viewers figures for Wales’ solely nationwide English-language radio station have set a brand new record-breaking low, and reveal that just about 95 per of individuals don’t take heed to it in any respect, The Eye can disclose.
They present that the market share for BBC Radio Wales (RW) is now barely greater than 5 per cent, but simply over 19 years in the past the statistic was 8.7 per cent, and even in 2019 it was six per cent, with the surprising numbers set towards a backdrop of big quantities of cash spent on ‘well-known’ title hosts.
A number one former programme host on RW mentioned to us: “These figures are appalling, and nothing like once I did a programme on Radio Wales”.
Mike Flynn, one of the principle presenters on the station throughout its launch instructed The Eye: “The individuals in cost have to take duty and resign”.
Previous years have been virtually as dangerous for RW. In 2020 the equal figures revealed a slight improve on the earlier yr, 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 amount of cash being spent on new schedules. In addition they confirmed that the entire listening hours had been 2,667,000, down from 3,074,000 in September 2019 (though up from 2,147,000 in December 2018).
We reported how beforehand, a former radio government on the troubled service, had mentioned: “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”.
Our personal Editor, Phil Parry, who introduced the lunchtime programme, Wales at One, the drive-time present Good Night Wales, in addition to the weekly debate collection Folks’s Meeting, for seven years till 2006, mentioned: “I actually don’t see how for much longer this will go on.
“That is PUBLIC cash we’re speaking about in spite of everything!”.
However the station has usually hit the headlines for unlucky causes. Our journalists have been alone in reporting that the then RW Editor Colin Paterson had an unwise 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 beneath it’s (sic) present administration (had been) amplified this yr by criticism from former award successful reporters and presenters”.
For a lot of workers at BBC CW, Mr Paterson’s romance with the married Mrs Owen represented a serious potential battle of curiosity, as a result of officers had commissioned a RW programme fronted by her, referred to as ‘Sunday morning with Lucy Owen’, and media executives each inside in addition to exterior the company have instructed The Eye that they had been apprehensive about their partnership’s attainable affect on the method.
Mr Flynn was equally unimpressed by The Eye’s disclosure of this relationship. He instructed us: “If Paterson has been having an affair with a Wales At this time and Radio Wales presenter he must be suspended instantly”.
When Mr Paterson’s former paramour, Mrs Owen, was newsreading on BBC Wales At this time (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 displaying an image of the Brighton Pavilion and getting it confused for a mosque when speaking about Ramadan is form of f****d?”. One other wrote furiously: “Not glad 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 had 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 house) by leaving plastic on the roast, nevertheless it can’t evaluate 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…”
Up to now, Mrs Owen has additionally described as a ‘disaster’ sporting odd sneakers 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 printed 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 most important reason behind loss of life 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 sporting odd sneakers: “The mortality fee rose “considerably” for a second month, to 260 deaths per 100,000 individuals in Wales. It was additionally greater than twice the speed in essentially the most disadvantaged areas in contrast with the least disadvantaged space”.
The senior company government who she had an affair with, Mr Paterson, has been within the information for the fallacious causes as effectively. He posted a video on Fb (FB) about how he, too, went to the seashore – this time at close by Ogmore – over Christmas 2020, which he mentioned was “Balmy”.
But the Welsh Authorities (WG) guidelines on the time appeared clear sufficient: “In case you are travelling away from house, you must journey to fulfill your Christmas bubble and return house in the middle of 25 December...You must preserve taking steps to scale back the unfold of the virus, and this can assist be sure that you get pleasure from Christmas Day as safely as attainable.” Journey recommendation from South Wales Police (SWP) warned individuals then about going to seashores “you shouldn’t be driving to those locations”.
Bizarrely, Mr Paterson had additionally retweeted particulars of the lockdown restrictions from his personal radio station which lined the Christmas interval then.
On November 4 in 2017 we confirmed how new schedules had been about to be printed by the BBC, however the well-liked 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”.
Nevertheless it transpired that the favored 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 together with his prime 5 Christmas hit Strolling within the Air, mentioned he was “deeply sorry” for any upset induced however strongly denied any “inappropriate contact”, and a spokesman for Mr Jones mentioned 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 a press release, the spokesman added: “While he accepts that his (Mr Jones’) behaviour over a decade in the past was sometimes juvenile, as was that of others, he by no means supposed to harass or misery and he strongly denies any inappropriate contact. He’s, nevertheless, deeply sorry for any upset induced and hopes this matter is resolved quickly.” Mr Jones’ spokesman added that the allegations from a single feminine complainant of inappropriate messages and speak to, reported within the Solar, didn’t relate to any broadcast work, and associated to a matter greater than 10 years earlier than
In the meantime the newest RAJAR figures, come at a troublesome time for the BBC typically, because it has endured heavy criticism over a emblem which had been unveiled a yr in the past.
Two community tv presenters, Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid, greeted it with derision. “I imply, I can barely take a look at it“, Mr Madeley scoffed. “Oh, it’s like one thing from (the hit tv comedy collection) W1A, isn’t it?”, Ms Reid added.
“The long run is so shiny I’ve to put on shades!” Mr Madeley japed sarcastically on air. “Effectively, what’s the distinction? Are you able to think about a designer going to the BBC exec and saying, ‘I feel you’ll like this’ and them going, ‘oh my God, that was price half one million’”. He went on to say: “[The BBC] are like Millwall supporters: everyone hates them however they don’t care”. “You possibly can’t say that everyone hates the BBC!” a ‘shocked’ Ms Reid laughed.
They might not hate RW, however they actually don’t take heed to it, with the newest figures displaying that just about 95 per of the Welsh inhabitants fail to tune in in any respect, and so they have set a brand new report for low audiences…
