Fonds GB 0210 BBC - Archif Sgriptiau BBC Scripts Archive

The British Broadcasting Corporation (more commonly known as the BBC), with its headquarters at Broadcasting House, Portland Square, London, was established by Royal Charter in 1927 with the authority to provide information, to educate and to entertain its audience across a wide range of areas including current affairs, arts and culture, education, religion and sport. Its predecessor, the British Broadcast Company, had obtained its licence to broadcast in 1923, and the public broadcast service in Wales began in the same year when a radio station was opened in Cardiff, providing programmes in both English and Welsh. The Welsh region of the BBC received its own wavelength for audio broadcasts in 1937 and its own separate wavelength for televisual broadcasts in 1964, since when it has been known as BBC Wales. Welsh language programmes were first broadcast on the television in 1953 and they have been scheduled every day since 1957; the Welsh language television channel is known as BBC Cymru. The English and Welsh radio stations (Radio Wales and Radio Cymru) have been separate entities since 1977. As a whole, the Welsh region of the BBC - comprising BBC Wales, BBC Cymru, Radio Wales and Radio Cymru - is also known as BBC Cymru Wales.