Live Wrexham commentaries broadcast to whole of North Wales

Press Release Issued by BBC Wales Press & Publicity

01 August 2005

BBC Wales has confirmed that live commentary on Wrexham’s Coca Cola League, FA Cup and Carling Cup matches this season will be broadcast across the whole of North Wales on FM by the English language service BBC Radio Wales.

BBC Radio Wales inaugurated an exclusive system last season enabling football supporters in Wales to here full live radio commentary from matches involving their local Coca Cola League club. Listeners tuning into BBC Radio Wales on FM in South East Wales automatically heard commentary from all matches involving Cardiff City; those in West Wales, Swansea City; while those in the Wrexham area were able to follow every minute of the Dragons’ season.

However, due to the way that BBC Radio Wales’s FM signal was routed around Wales, listeners in North West Wales and on the North Wales coast heard commentary from Swansea City’s matches.

Throughout this summer, BBC Wales engineers having been working to reroute the signal, ensuring that live BBC Radio Wales commentary on all Wrexham’s matches will be broadcast not only from the BBC’s Wrexham transmitter on 95.4FM but also from the Llanddona transmitter that serves North West Wales and the North Wales coast on 94.8FM.

It has required re-engineering the way the transmitter is fed and a major project to re-programme computers in Cardiff. The system will be tested later this week ready for the start of the new season.

The expansion of the area that can tune into live commentaries on Wrexham’s matches is being promoted not only on BBC Radio Wales but also on BBC Wales television to make sure that Wrexham fans across the whole of North Wales are aware of the improvements to the service.

Each Saturday, BBC Radio Wales’s Sportstime programme will continue to carry a rolling sports service – featuring the latest news from all of Wales’s big rugby and football matches – will continue to be broadcast on BBC Radio Wales medium wave and, as always, BBC Radio Cymru will broadcast a comprehensive sports programme in the Welsh language featuring commentaries – including many of Wrexham’s games – and reports from a variety of matches and events.

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