RW Commissioning Doc 2015-16.Indd 1 30/09/2014 12:06 Commissioning Brief 2015-16

Commissioning Brief 2015 -16

bbc.co.uk/wales

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1. Introduction ...... 4

2. Last year’s commissions ...... 5

3. BBC Radio Wales, in a nutshell… ...... 8

5. Genres for commission ...... 9

5.1 Themes for 2015-16 ...... 9

5.2 Welsh Learners ...... 10

5.3 Comedy ...... 10

5.4 Radio Wales Arts Show ...... 11

5.5 Current Affairs ...... 11

5.6 General Features ...... 11

5.7 Summer Saturday afternoons ...... 11

5.9 Rolling commissioning ...... 12

6. Working with BBC Radio Wales ...... 13

6.1 Delivering additional content for daytime ...... 13

6.2 Remembering the visuals in good time ...... 13

6.3 The paperwork’s got to work (amongst other things) ...... 13

7. Tariffs ...... 14

8. Timescales and Next Steps ...... 14

9. Appendix ...... 15

9.1 Radio Wales schedule from November 2014 ...... 15

9.2: Submission Form ...... 16

9.3 BBC Radio Wales and the audience ...... 17

9.4 BBC Radio Wales and the audience……………………………………………...19

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1. Introduction

Welcome to the BBC Radio Wales commissioning round 2015/16 – your chance to play a part in an incredibly busy year ahead.

Not that it’s ever quiet. Since the last round opened we’ve launched Eleri Sion and Wynne Evans’ Big Welsh Weekend, done a 10 hour Radio Wales Cookalong, celebrated the wonderful world of Welsh brass, marked significant anniversaries for Dylan Thomas, BBC Wales, as well as the Miners Strike and of course World War One. We’ve tasted comedy success at the Radio Academy Awards, welcomed back Siadwel and went out in a blaze of glory with Mike Peters and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. And, of course, in the last week, Dewi Griffiths bid his String of Pearls listeners a final farewell. I’m delighted to announce that, as part of that change to the Sunday schedule, Lynn Bowles will be joining the station permanently from November.

The creativity and energy of the independent sector has been pivotal in the station’s successes over the last 12 months. The Cookalong (Parasol) and Brass Day (Parrog) both came from the hunt for station wide themes. John Stanley Production’s Here Be Dragons and its incredible cast-list of talent has caused a real buzz in the comedy industry and was well deserving of its Best Comedy Bronze at the Radio Academy Awards. Catrin Gerallt’s work with Matthew Rhys brought to life Dylan’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales and The Outing and provided a real magic to our coverage of the poet’s centenary. Meanwhile, Silin managed the difficult task of cutting through in a busy market of programmes on the centenary of World War One, with its excellent series, Wales and the Great War Today.

So to 2015/16 – a 12 months which will include a General Election, a significant re- structuring of the UK as we know it, and a Rugby World Cup. And we all know what happened the last time we had one of those!

Some ideas have already been commissioned for those, as well as advanced commissions for both World War One and comedy. However, there are over 50 hours on offer for the best factual, current affairs, arts and comedy ideas from both in- house and Indie producers. We’re also planning ahead to the Welsh Assembly Election of 2016 and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare. And as ever, we’re committed to commissioning the best ideas, no matter where they have come from.

I hope this document gets your creative juices flowing. I’m looking forward to receiving your ideas.

Steve Austins Editor, BBC Radio Wales

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2. Last year’s commissions In 2014-15 the station commissioned 54 series or one offs, 15 of which were long running or returning series. This was achieved through a healthy mix of BBC and independent production. We also commissioned 5 strand programmes from the Indies.

2014/15

Commissions COMPANY TITLE TX Returning Series BBC All Things Considered April-March BBC Country Focus April-March

BBC Eye on Wales Summer/ Autumn/ Winter BBC Phil the Shelf Summer/Winter BBC Machynlleth Comedy Festival Summer BBC Science Cafe April-March

BBC Wales at Work Summer/ Autumn/ Winter BBC Radio Wales Arts Show April-March BBC National Eisteddfod Summer Parrog Ltd Jacko's Sporting Almanac Summer Parrog Ltd Decisions, Decisions Summer/Winter What Sports Stars Do Next (from Parasol Ltd 2013) Spring Parasol Ltd Wales on the Menu Autumn P&E Production Radio Greats Spring Wales & Co Jamie Owen’s Wales Summer & Autumn

One -off features or new series (inc. Comedy) BBC A Tale of Two Doors Autumn BBC The Polar Postmaster Autumn BBC Burgers Spring BBC Ladies Night Spring BBC Am I Here By Myself? Autumn BBC The Language of War Memorials Autumn BBC The Great War Live Summer BBC Return to Gleision Autumn BBC The Voyage Spring BBC Two men, one job Spring BBC I am an AM Spring BBC Daf's Cabs Spring BBC One Square Foot Spring BBC Drama: Dylan Thomas new writers Autumn

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One-off features or new series CONTINUED RW Arts Show - All change at BBC Blaenau Autumn BBC RW Arts Show - Harlequin Puppets Autumn BBC WW1 At Home Summer/Autumn Boom Pictures RW Arts Show - My People Winter Bosco Productions Out on a Limb Summer Catrin Gerallt Dylan Thomas - The Outing Summer Chwarel Flint Maisonettes Spring Chwarel The Incredible Years Autumn CREAD Productions The Life of Disley – The Welshman Cyf who got Britain Running Autumn CREAD Productions Cyf Sir Dave Brailsford at 50 Winter Harvard Productions Doves & Hawks Winter RW Arts Show - Gresford Miners' Harvard Productions Hymn Autumn LJD Productions RW Arts Show - Tommy Cooper Spring LJD Productions The Wales Anthology Summer The Miners' Strike - Childhood Lumedia Memories Summer MK Productions The Lawrence of Helmand Winter P&E Production RW Arts Show – Cordell Autumn P&E Production RW Arts Show - Frank Richards Winter Parasol Ltd Deconstructing Dylan Summer Parasol Ltd Take That Gary Barlow Winter Parasol Ltd The Big Welsh Idea Winter Parrog Ltd My Date with Death Autumn Parrog Ltd Christmas Brass Concert Winter Red Viking Media Jason Mohammad vs Apocalypse Winter Red Viking Media Losers World Cup Summer Red Viking Media Scot of the Antarctic Summer Red Viking Media The Leak with Tom Price Autumn Red Viking Media Greatest Welshman Never Heard Winter Silin Cyf Captain Jack's War Winter Silin Cyf Wales and the Great War Today Summer Slaycorp Ltd RW Arts Show – Zulu Summer Small & Clever Productions Dylan Thomas Pub Quiz Summer Small & Clever Productions Royal Welsh Show Pub Quiz Summer Telesgop Dylan's Amateur Dramatics Autumn Terrier Radio Protest Nation Summer Trevor Dann's Company Surfin' Cymru Summer Unigryw Stories from the Stacks Winter Wales & Co For the Love of Four Wheels Spring Wales & Co The Welsh Italian Job Spring Zipline Ltd Passing On Summer

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Strand

programmes

BBC Tom Price (Saturdays) Summer BBC Gareth Gwynn (Saturday show) Summer 2ZY Clueless (Saturdays) Summer Freedive Chris Corcoran (Saturday show) Summer Wales & Co Jamie Owen (Sunday) April-March Remarkable Celtic Heartbeat April-March Productions Terrier Radio Chris Needs April-March Wales & Co Jamie Owen (Sunday) April-March

Already commissioned for 2015 and 2016 Rondo Media Miss Frost & the Spitfire 2015 Sinn Fein University, N.Wales Harvard Prodns Campus 2015 Absolutely Productions Siadwel 2015 John Stanley Productions Here Be Dragons 2015 Red Viking Media The Leak with Tom Price 2015 LLM/HW Harri Parris 2015 TiFiNi Lost in France 2015 Rubber Chicken/ Red Viking Media Somewhere Else (Patagonia) 2015 Sillin Cyf Lloyd George’s Spy 2016 Sillin Cyf Edward Thomas’ War Diary 2016 Parrog Ltd Mametz Wood 2016 The Wizard, the Goat & The Man who Won the War (David Lloyd BBC George) repeat in 2016

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3. BBC Radio Wales, in a nutshell… Many of you pitch to us year in, year out, and we’d be delighted to see your ideas again. But every year, we’re always pleased to see new companies and individuals pitching for work, with new ideas. If you are new to us, this is what you need to know about BBC Radio Wales.

We’re a station offering compelling radio that matters here and now to the people of Wales. Our target audience are people interested in the life, culture and affairs of this country. And we aim to attract them by: • Providing world class journalism for Wales, through our news, current affairs, sport and daytime programmes. • Championing Welsh arts, entertainment and culture: Supporting Wales’ best up and coming, and established artists, musicians and comedians. • Sharing new stories about Wales and new ways of telling the stories that are important to us. • And providing, live coverage of big Welsh moments and UK moments from a Welsh perspective.

With a contemporary schedule, and an improving distribution network, over the next few years we want to do the following:

• Shift perceptions about Radio Wales so people feel it’s a station for them: younger people; people in north, mid and west Wales; women as well as men. • Extend the total number of people listening to the station to over half a million, consistently. • Get those already listening to listen for longer

We’re fully committed to using digital media to try and shift perceptions and grow our audience.

Want to help us? Find out more about the audience in Appendix 9.3.

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4. Work on offer in 2015/16 In 2014-15, 29% of the station’s eligible output1 is being produced by Wales’ independent radio sector. This has been achieved through a mix of features, special projects like The War Bulletin (Steve Groves), and strand programmes like Chris Needs (Terrier Radio) and Jamie Owen (Wales & Co). We currently estimate that 26%2 will be guaranteed to the Indies in 2015/16.

With a mixture of factual, current affairs, arts, comedy and summer strand programming on offer, there are 52 hours available in this round (1.1% of the station’s eligible hours) offered in this commissioning brief as a window of creative competition between in-house producers and independent companies.

5. Genres for commission

5.1 Themes for 2015-16 Our big themes in 14/15 were Dylan Thomas and the outbreak of WW1. We got some terrific ideas through from you that brought new perspectives or approaches to well-trodden ground. Silin’s Wales and the Great War Today really telescoped the human grief, fears and passions of the war years into a contemporary experience. Deconstructing Dylan (Parasol) was an intelligent look at the poet’s reputation and legacy. And the Dylan Thomas Pub Quiz (Small and Clever) was a refreshingly light approach to the subject.

We also covered themes that were not diary led and Brass Day (Parrog) and the Cookalong (Parasol) gave us innovative, and fun, ways of making the most of a subject.

These are some of the themes that we have on our radar through to the summer of 2016:

• 150th Anniversary of the Welsh in Patagonia • Rugby World Cup • Welsh Assembly Elections • World War One • Shakespeare – A pan UK initiative led by Tony Hall

2015/16 sees the 150th anniversary of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia. We have already commissioned a sitcom as part of this coverage but would be interested in further ideas. The challenge here is to capture the imagination an English speaking Welsh audience, less familiar with the story than Welsh speaking Wales.

Rugby is always a draw for our audience, and a good source of both stories and comedy. Therefore ways of complementing our coverage of the 2015 Rugby World Cup – much of which will be played here in Wales, of course - would be welcome.

1 News programmes and news and sport bulletins are exempt. 2 Estimate as of September 2014.

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The early part of the 2016/17 financial year sees the next Welsh Assembly Elections. While the campaign will be well covered in our news and political output, alternative approaches would be of interest to us. We’d welcome ideas for this in this round.

Similarly, Tony Hall has indicated a pan BBC celebration of Shakespeare in the spring of 2016 – 400 years since the bard’s demise. Programming that would be stand out and provide Radio Wales distinctiveness in what will be a crowded season is what we’re seeking.

And indeed World War One was not over by Christmas! We’ve already commissioned some programmes – particularly around Mametz Wood – but are open to other ideas.

Obviously any off diary areas that you think deserve a big treatment are welcome too.

As usual we have a number of regular areas that we commission into and these are outlined below.

5.2 Welsh Learners In the next financial year, we’re looking to join forces with BBC Radio Cymru, Cymru Fyw and bbc.co.uk/wales to offer output for Welsh learners. We want your ideas as to how we do that. Our intention is to pitch our content at beginners. We also want to “mainstream” the content in daytime, therefore it would need to work with frontline Radio Wales presenters who either speak fluently or have learnt the language.

5.3 Comedy We have a real commitment to nurturing Welsh comedy talent and were very proud when Here Be Dragons (John Stanley Productions) was recognised at the Radio Academy Awards, beating strong competition from Radio 4 and Radio 2. The ambition was to make a sketch show that had an unmistakably Welsh voice whilst also having a general appeal. There were some new writers in the team, and it was performed by a highly talented ensemble of Welsh performers. There will be a season two in 2015.

We were also thrilled to welcome Siadwel (Absolutely) to BBC Radio Wales. And are very pleased with the way our new topical show The Leak with Tom Price (Red Viking Media) is settling in. Both of these will return in 2015-16. In the last round we also commissioned a number of pilots which we’ll be broadcasting in the spring of 2015.

For 2015/16 we have a limited number of slots available to add to this strong stable of comedy. And with transmissions on Fridays at 6.30pm and Saturdays at 1.00pm, we feel we have two strong slots.

We’ll entertain all forms, although we do have The Leak as a returning topical show, so any ideas with this at their heart need to be very compelling. We’d be interested in having ideas around some of the themes highlighted above. Collaborations or co-productions with other comedy producers are also attractive. In house we are

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building on links with BBC Scotland and BBC Northern Ireland. We hope to continue the successful collaboration with the Machynlleth Comedy Festival that we have developed over the last three years, and are keen to be a bigger part of the Welsh presence in Edinburgh in the coming years.

The tone of the station’s comedy is contemporary, relevant, robust and distinctively Welsh.

5.4 Radio Wales Arts Show We have a small number of slots within The Radio Wales Arts Show open for creative competition. Nicola Heywood Thomas hosts this strand and would either present or introduce the programmes.

We’re looking for authored storytelling or unique insights into aspects of the arts that would be difficult for the strand to access in the course of its weekly coverage.

We got real variety of subject and a high level of production across the arts strand in 14/15 covering everything from Tommy Cooper, the film Zulu, Alexander Cordell, to the 80th anniversary of the Gresford disaster. These programmes have been so strong that we’ve found ways of repeating them across other slots in the schedule.

5.5 Current Affairs We continue to have slots available in the Eye on Wales and Wales at Work downtime periods. We are interested in short series or single programmes for these gaps. Programmes in this slot should be built on strong journalism and reflect issues affecting our listeners directly. They tend to deal with some of the more gritty/frontline aspects of contemporary experience.

We’ve already mentioned Silin’s Wales and the Great War Today which really cut through the well told stories of WW1 to give moving contemporary relevance to the experience of our forebears. Flint Maisonettes (Chwarel) was a dynamic telling of the stories of people being moved from their long term homes to make room for development. And Out on a Limb (Bosco) looked at the work that Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff does with amputees.

5.6 General Features This slot hosts documentaries which give insights into contemporary Welsh life. They cover a wide range of experiences and interests. The tone here tends to be lighter.

Simon Wright’s Wales on the Menu (Parasol) tapped into people’s passion for food and cooking. In Jacko’s Sporting Almanac (Parrog) Peter Jackson excellently tells the stories of some of our sporting histories. We also have stories about everything from male strippers to the Patent Office in the schedule!

5.7 Summer Saturday afternoons Every summer, the station has approximately nine Saturday afternoon slots available for strand programmes, as Radio Wales Sport takes its summer break. Over the last five years, this slot has provided BBC Radio Wales debuts for Wynne Evans, Lynn

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Bowles, Caryl Parry Jones and Alex Winters, and seen Chris Corcoran develop into a fine interviewer. This year we are looking for pitches for the following:

• A two to three hour format that has a mix of speech and music and reflects what is going on in Wales over the summer. AND • A two to three hour comedy and entertainment format; again a mixture of music and speech.

We welcome and encourage ideas for presenters for these slots, although it is likely that we will approach names that we are interested in developing further. Therefore the editorial strength of your ideas for the slot is more crucial in the pitch here.

5.8 Hour long programmes We have a very small number of hour long slots and usually place these on Bank Holidays. Examples in the last 12 months have included Surfin’ Cymru (Trevor Dann Company) - a great programme about the history of surfing in the Swansea area, featuring voices of the early pioneers mixed with fantastic music. We also had two Dylan Thomas short stories from Catrin Gerallt - A Child’s Christmas and The Outing – which were read by Matthew Rhys and interspersed with memories and music. Lumedia also provided us with the experiences of the miner’s strike from the children’s point of view in this form.

5.9 Rolling commissioning Aside from the themes mentioned in Section 5.1 we are not looking to commission beyond March 2016 at this point. However, we know that sometimes golden opportunities arise outside of the commissioning window and we do hold a small pot of money open to commission on this basis. Please let us know if you have any ideas that you feel we should be taking throughout the year by contacting us at [email protected].

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6. Working with BBC Radio Wales We want to make your experience of working with BBC Radio Wales a good one. Therefore here are some hints, tips and thoughts on what we’re looking for.

6.1 Delivering additional content for daytime The content we commission needs to make a real splash and to capture the imagination of our audiences. Therefore, wherever possible, we look to maximise the impact of our features in as many ways as we can. Examples range from day long specials around a theme, cutdown features in our weekday strands, to supporting interviews. This style of joined up thinking helps promote your programme more effectively and generally enhances the quality of our weekday strands. Please outline how your material might be used in order to achieve this when submitting your offer.

6.2 Remembering the visuals in good time Good visual imagery to accompany radio programmes is now an essential part of delivery, rather than a nice to have. So, when you’re making your feature, remember that we also require photographic material for our website and for our social media sites. Additional information or content (where appropriate) for the website is also appreciated.

The specifications for image content is outlined on our website – see link in section 6.3.

6.3 The paperwork’s got to work (amongst other things) While the delivery process works on the whole, we have got some recent horror stories of programmes were delivered without the appropriate paperwork, in the wrong format, badly mixed, badly edited, and not properly numbered, and so on.

If programmes and their accompanying paperwork are not delivered to the required specifications we are likely to refuse them.

In the light of this we’ve updated our delivery and technical guidelines which are available on our website below with examples of best practice:

In summary, this is the paperwork that we’re expecting from you:

• Billing • Compliance Form • Recording Report/CD Box Cover • Continuity Announcement Form • P as B (Programme as Broadcast) form • Music Reporting form

Delivery Guidelines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/cymruwales/commissioning/eldelivery/radio

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Technical Guidelines: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/wales/radiotech_2013.pdf There’s a hard copy of the technical details at the end of this document.

If you are successful in gaining a commission please ensure you read these guidelines in full. 7. Tariffs While our ambition is to commission the best ideas, cost and value for licence fee payers is a huge consideration for us. Therefore we negotiate price on a case by case basis. In the majority of cases we would not expect to pay more than £3000 for a half hour documentary and £6000 for a half-hour comedy or drama, and would need to understand the rationale for estimations above these tariffs. Please flag up at an early stage if your idea is likely to exceed these tariffs. 8. Timescales and Next Steps Barring winter weather issues, these are our intended timescales this year.

Wednesday 1st October Commissioning document released Monday 24th November, midday Deadline for submissions w/c Monday 15th December Notification of shortlist interviews w/c Monday 5th January 2015 Interviews with shortlisted suppliers w/c Monday 26th January Commissions published

By the deadline, please fill in the attached form (see 9.2) including a paragraph with your idea, how many programmes you suggest we commission and a realistic budget. Keep your pitch short at this stage.

Tone, energy, enthusiasm and wit of presenters are absolutely key in helping us attract new audiences to the station. Please discuss the tone of the programme in your pitches. And also please ensure you have approached your suggested presenters and have their agreement in principle.

If you need any further information about this document, please contact Kerry McGeever, Assistant Editor, BBC Radio Wales [email protected] Tel: 029 20322144

Please send all offers in print to Amiel Price, BBC Radio Wales, BH Llandaff, Cardiff CF5 2YQ with an email also to [email protected] by midday Monday 24th November 2014.

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9. Appendix

9.1 Radio Wales schedule from November 2014

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

530 530 530 530 530 0500 Gareth Eye on Wales Saturday Arts Show Gwynn C Focus (rpt) ATC (rpt) (rpt) feature (rpt) (rpt) 0500 Mal Pope 0630 Science 0600 Good Morning Wales Café (rpt)

0700 Wales 0700 Country

at Work rpt Focus

0730 Celebration 0730 Good Morning 0800 Sunday Wales Supplement

0900 All things 0900 Morning Call with Oliver Hides Considered 0900 Money 1000 Jason Mohammad for Nothing 0930 Roy Noble

1100 Jamie Owen 1100 Rhod Gilbert 1230 Eye on

Wales 1300

Comedy rpt 1300 Wynne 1300 Aled Jones 1300 Eleri Sion Evans' Big 1330 Welsh Feature Weekend

1400 Lynn Bowles 1400 Radio Wales Sport 1600 Good Evening Wales 1600 Best of Radio Wales

1800 Saturday 1830 1830 1830 1830 1730 Call feature (rpt) 1830 Eye on Rob Phillips Wales rpt Radio Wales Wales at 1830 Celebration Science Café Comedy Arts Show Work (rpt

1900 Celtic 1900 Radio Wales Sport 1900 Bethan Heartbeat Elfyn

2100 Beverley's 2200 World of Music Adam 2100 Chris Needs Walton

2300 The Alan Thompson Show

News /CA Arts, Ents and Culture

Sport Specialist Features

Mixed format Strand Religion

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9.2: Submission Form

Commissioning Round 2015/16

Programme Title: Name of Producer: Number of episodes

Proposed Delivery Date

Name of Presenters/Contributors: Genre: Proposed Price per Programme

Supplier Name:

Postal Address:

Email address:

Phone No: Short Synopsis

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9.3 BBC Radio Wales and the audience Radio Listening in Wales In the last 12 months, 95% of adults in Wales listened to the radio each week for an average of 22 hours. Radio Wales reaches nearly 440,000 people each week making it the fifth most popular station in Wales.

Radio 2 , 1,004,000

Radio 1, 678,000

Radio 4, 499,000

Heart South Wales, 482,000

Radio Wales, 438,000

Target Audience BBC Radio Wales is looking for people, of all ages, interested in the life, culture and affairs of Wales. However, we are currently only attracting two thirds of the number of 45-64 year olds we need to keep our weekly reach stable over the next ten years. Therefore there is still a focus on attracting more 45-64s to the station through our programming mix.

Attracting the 45-64s: The average current listener to BBC Radio Wales is 59, and we would like to bring the average age down to 56. As a result, attracting more 45-64s to the station is key. So what do we know about this age group? • About 800,000 - around a third of the adult population - are aged between 45 and 64 years old. • 80% are married or living as married and around a fifth of 45-54s have children at home. • Two thirds of this age group have lived in Wales all their life and the same amount are currently living within 20 miles of their childhood home. • 99% are from a white ethnic background (with the largest other ethnic groups being Indian, Pakistani and Chinese). Media habits: • The most read newspapers are The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. Almost two in five of this age-group doesn’t read a paper at all. • Almost all have a mobile phone and more than half have a smartphone • Almost 9 in 10 use the internet and around a third have a tablet Radio listening habits: • 96% of 45-64 year olds listen to the radio each week • 78% listen to BBC radio and 60% listen to commercial radio. • Most radio listening is in the home.

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Current Radio Wales listenership • The average age of a Radio Wales listener is 59. • Listeners associate the words entertaining, informative and traditional with the station. • Demographically:- - women are just under half of the audience during each 15 min slot. - over 65s make up 2 in 3 of the audience during each 15 min slot - ABC1s make up around 2 in 5 of the audience increasing during the key news output • Radio Wales listeners are much more likely to read the Western Mail than average but their favourite papers are The Sun and The Daily Mail. • The average weekday peak of listening is around 85,000 between 8.00 and 8.30 on Good Morning Wales. • Weekend audiences also peak at around 90,000 - on Saturdays the peak is during Money for Nothing and, on Sunday during A String of Pearls. • Radio Wales reaches around 1 in 5 in both south and west Wales but just 1 in 10 in north Wales. Performance in north Wales has improved recently.

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9.4 Delivery Guidelines This information covers the technical and format requirements for programme material delivered to BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. It can also be found on our website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/cymruwales/commissioning/eldelivery/radio

Always refer to the Assistant Editor or nominated deputies for more information, specific requirements or to answer any questions.

Programmes should be submitted as data files both for compliance and broadcast, however, a CD copy recorded to the ‘Red Book’ standard must also be provided for backup and archive purposes.

File Format Audio files should be submitted in the RIFF/WAV format (.wav). See http://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3285.pdf for details.

If the audio file is programme material delivered for broadcast, then the audio format for the file will be: Linear PCM, 48 kHz, 16 Bit (or greater, by prior agreement)

To reduce file size and so speed up file delivery over the Internet, BBC Radio Wales will accept such wav files encoded to FLAC format (.flac).

Audio Properties Levels For those using a correctly calibrated PPM the programme audio should peak up to PPM6 on A, B and/or M. If you are using a digital bar-graph meter regular readings of -10dBFS (10dB below absolute Full Scale or Maximum Coding) are desirable. Occasional transient readings above this are acceptable. Peak Normalisation should not be relied on to control programme levels. Audio Quality Audio quality remains the producer's overall responsibility. The importance of consistent levels and overall quality cannot be over-stressed. Distortion, noise, induced hum etc. should not be audible. During the production process, audio should not be subjected to bit rate reduction (eg recording to a non-linear fomat) The recording should contain, where appropriate, the full transmittable audio bandwidth (20Hz to 20kHz). Exceptions may be made; examples include archive material or material gathered necessarily under adverse conditions. Outside Broadcasts and remote contributions to programmes often necessarily use data reduction techniques, which degrade the sound quality. BBC Radio has produced a guide to help keep the degradation to a minimum: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/dq/pdf/radio/radio_delivery_contributions.pdf

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Stereo: Stereo programmes must always be supplied as a single wav (or FLAC) file with the two channels recorded as A and B (ie. left and right) not as M and S (ie. sum and difference). Stereo programmes must be recorded so as to be compatible for listeners in mono. In general signals should be in phase between channels. The S (difference) signal should rarely exceed the M (sum) signal (otherwise cancellation can result when the signal is heard in mono). Avoid extremes of stereo imagery or “out of phase” effects as these present problems with mono compatibility.

Important general technical notes

Sample Rate: All of BBC Radio has now adopted 48kHz as the standard sample rate. It is desirable to record programmes at this sample rate. Data Compression (a common term for bit rate reduction): Data Compression is usually destructive (“lossy”) and is best avoided. Examples include mp2, mp3, AAC and mp4 The use of such lossy data compression should be avoided wherever possible. Most solid state audio recorders (e.g. SD Card) offer a choice of recording formats, and linear should always be used in preference to any of the data compressed formats. It is possible to apply lossless data compression without compromising sound quality, using FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Take care when moving files between devices. Certain proprietary software may irrevocably damage your audio. Depending on the settings, the software may add data reduction techniques or Digital Rights Management (DRM), either of which could prevent your programme from being broadcast.

Cascade (encoding): This is where audio is subjected to more than one pass through a lossy data compression encode/decode cycle. With each additional pass the audio quality is degraded, often to an unpredictable degree. Cascading is a serious issue for BBC Radio. The BBC uses lossy data compression for its digital transmission systems (e.g. DAB, DSAT, DTT and Internet streaming). If lossy data compression is also used during the production process it may interact, resulting in unsatisfactory audio quality as received by the listener.

Even if the quality of compressed audio sounds reasonable in the studio, it probably won't when the listeners hear it.

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