BBC Cymru Wales New HQ

Yea but everyone in North Wales (that can), watch BBC NW and Granada don't they? 🤔

I’d have thought that the people of North Wales would have been especially adverse to English television.

(not hating, not stereotyping, I am half Welsh)

And we can all enjoy what’s important in Wrexham

The BBC is asking people in Wrexham which stories matter to them. These will feature on TV, radio, online platforms and social media between 30 March and 3 April
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2020/we-are-wrexham

Wythnos o ddarllediadau newyddion penodol ar draws rhwydweithiau’r BBC rhwng 30 Mawrth a 3 Ebrill yw Ni ’Di Wrecsam, gyda’r dref wrth galon rhaglenni a gwasanaethau.

Granada traditionally covered North East Wales though don't think they do officially anymore. Can generally pick up Central, Wales and Granada around this area and generally speaking Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester are all as irrelevant as each other.

The last time I was in North Wales, most folk had either a Scouse or Mancunian accent 😎

I think Wrexham is still on the weather map, and they always used to feature them in regional football shows, not that they do any anymore. As you say, Wrexham was on the cusp of three regions, and HTV Wales was by far the least watched in our school. We had Granada, as did most people we knew, and I was most impressed when I went to Craig Leedham's house after school one day and he had Central. We all had all three tuned in to the telly and on League Cup nights on a couple of occasions I'd flick between the three to see who was covering which match. And all shops had three different versions of the Radio Times (which is useful for me as when I go to see my parents I can still pick up a London/Midlands one to use at home).

Actually I think Granada specifically covered Wrexham more than BBC North West, who never did, because for many years the Wrexham-Rhos transmitter only had space for two channels, which were BBC1 Wales and S4C. That was why Chesterfield vs Wrexham in the FA Cup in 1997 had to go out on BBC1 Wales, in an era when all other Welsh football coverage was normally on BBC2, as it was so hard to pick up BBC2 Wales in Wrexham. So you could get BBC1 Wales easier than HTV.

It's always been said that the capital of North Wales is Liverpool and I would absolutely go along with that, we spent far more time in Chester and Liverpool growing up than in South Wales (and as mentioned up there, most Wrexham people sound like Scousers). I've only actually been to Cardiff twice in my entire life.

Been to Cardiff a few times myself but it's a pain in the arse to get too from anywhere outside South Wales really, and certainly in terms of travelling for big concerts, football games and to visit a big city as you say people in North Wales will be off to Liverpool or Manchester generally, or Birmingham.

Living on the cusp of three regions though meant those of us around here felt we had multi-channel TV before the term was coined, and up until the 90s it was a real advantage with two extra ITV regions and S4C acting as a timeshift of C4. Generally outside of primetime you had three extra choices.


Nowadays of course on ITV the difference is minimal outside of the regional news - ITV Wales have the extra opt outs but nothing particularly of note. BBC Wales on the otherhand is much stronger than I remember it being growing up, but nowadays I watch that via the iPlayer rather than the aerial, mainly as Winter Hill was the best option to get the fullest range of Freeview channels.

The obvious benefit with S4C was watching Brookside at ten if you'd missed it on Channel Four.

This is getting a bit Wrexham-centric now but I remember when Matt from One True Voice auditioned for The X Factor and the papers reported it was all a stitch-up and he was a plant, and the whole conspiracy theory behind this was because he came from Wrexham yet he was at the Birmingham auditions, rather than Cardiff or Manchester. But in those days Birmingham was the only one of those you could get a direct train from Wrexham to. The tabloids never do their bloody research!

You remember the name of anyone from One True Voice?

Anyway, back to the topic on hand and any indication when Wales Today will move into the new HQ?

You do NOT forget the name of any famous people to come from Wrexham1

We use to be able to pick up HTV and S4C which was handy if you missed brookside on channel 4 back in the day 😉

With the exception of S4C's opening night (it was 24 hours before C4's) did they ever screen anything before it had been shown on C4?