Can we be your friend?

It reminds me of the last time the ITV regional franchise for Wales was up for grabs (and how long ago does that seem!). Rival bidders seeking to get Cardiff's Centre for Journalism Studies on-board to demonstrate their commitment to journalism and training.

This time it's the second regional radio franchise for South Wales that's at stake. Two of the consortia seeking the nod from Ofcom (bids have to be in by December 12th) are knocking at the door. Both are planning heavily speech based bids - UTV (big in Swansea quite apart from Talksport etc.) are apparently going for an all speech format. Town and Country Broadcasting (who own stations from Pembrokeshire to Bridgend) are going for an 'older audience' but still with a predominantly speech mix.

I would have thought the BBC's Radio Wales already had the older audience pretty well sown up but maybe they don't mean quite that old.

Nonetheless the stakes could be high. There's a north and mid Wales regional licence coming along soon so the possibility opens up of an all-Wales commercial radio operator.

Now that would be competition for BBC Radio Wales which has alone, since its inception over 25 years ago, been able to claim to be a national voice (along with Radio Cymru of course).

I hope the eventual winner does have a strong commitment to quality speech and news. It can only broaden and deepen democratic processes in Wales. And along the way, I'd hope, provide employment for a few more young Welsh journalists.

Oh - and when HTV did win the ITV franchise all those years ago, they set up a couple of scholarships for young journalists to study at Cardiff - I think the first of the ITV regional companies to do such a thing. Sadly, but not surprisingly, today's ITV News has seen fit to delete the Welsh language one.