In 2020 I wrote about the sad news that the popular radio station Swansea Sound had been taken over by a huge UK company and – just as they’d done with the other stations they’d bought-up – they dispensed with the services of local broadcasters.

While the company retained some local news, traffic and travel bulletins, the replacement DJs were broadcasting from London.  I expressed the feeling it was nothing less than a slap in the face for the loyal listeners to Swansea Sound, who’d helped build the popularity of the station over the years.

It was ironic that the very thing that made the station such an attractively juicy plum to be plucked from the tree of broadcasting success – local DJs who knew the area and what their listeners wanted to hear – was completely ignored when the national company took it over.

The only positive thing to come out of it was that we still had another local radio station – The Wave.  But now that’s been taken over by Hits Radio and the last local broadcaster to ‘spin a disc’ was Jamie Pritchard on May the 13.

Gary Stein, Head of Hits Radio, said “We send a huge thankyou to Jamie for keeping us greatly entertained on weekdays and hope you’ll join me in saying farewell as he steps down.”

Just like you, I don’t know what went on during the takeover talks and I’ve never met Jamie Pritchard, but it doesn’t appear to me that he ‘Stepped down’, as Mr. Stein stated in such a staggeringly disingenuous manner.

I’m willing to be proved wrong, but it looks very much like he and all the other local broadcasters, were ‘Given the elbow’.

While the new Wave’s weekday breakfast shows retain local news and traffic reports, the remaining schedules are taken from Hits Radio hubs in England and Scotland.

Please don’t misinterpret my comments as an anti-English rant.
You know me better than that.  Local radio stations across Great Britain have been swallowed-up by massive companies and local DJs replaced by anonymous voices playing the same rota of tunes.

Does DAB now mean DULL AND BLAND?