{"id":4884,"date":"2011-11-11T11:16:58","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T11:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jomec.co.uk\/altcardiff\/?p=4884"},"modified":"2011-11-11T11:16:58","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T11:16:58","slug":"cardiff-character-bethan-elfyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2011\/11\/11\/cardiff-character-bethan-elfyn\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Character: Bethan Elfyn"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Radio DJ Bethan chats about her Welsh roots and new music<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_4888\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 480px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4888\" title=\"interview_bethan_big\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4888\" title=\"interview_bethan_big\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big.jpg 480w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2011\/11\/interview_bethan_big-300x138.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A familar voice: Radio Wales\u2019s Bethan Elfyn<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A qualified journalist, radio presenter at BBC Wales and self-confessed workaholic, Bethan Elfyn has tried her hand at more or less every aspect of music. Fresh from her Spanish class at Cardiff University, and still undecided whether she will go to The Globe to watch Los Campesinos! later, Bethan comes across as warm and chatty in person as she does on the radio.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong>Early years and the Manics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Growing up mid-Wales in the middle of nowhere, Bethan followed the charts through <em>Top of the Pops <\/em>and<em> <\/em>describes herself as a late bloomer in discovering alternative music. It was working abroad one summer when friends introduced Bethan to The Smiths and The Sex Pistols. But in her teenage years, there was one band in particular whose Welsh roots held a special fascination. The Manic Street Preachers spoke out about problems in small Welsh towns. \u201cI just had so much affinity,\u201d says Bethan. \u201cIt just suddenly spoke to me I suppose. Their music, their rebellion spoke to me. It coincided with everything that was going on in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Introducing new music<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After two years working behind the scenes in production, Bethan landed a job presenting Radio 1\u2019s Introducing in Wales, and combined a passion for finding undiscovered musical talent with her training in journalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After years of involvement, Bethan knows Cardiff\u2019s music scene inside out. \u201cYou\u2019ve got this whole array of new artists and you don\u2019t know which one of them is going to explode,\u201d she says, unable to pinpoint just one band she predicts will be the next big thing. \u201cWe\u2019ve got loads of different, interesting, intricate levels of the music scene,\u201d she smiles, recalling the band she may or may not see that evening. \u201cI love the fact we\u2019ve got bands like Los Camepsinos! who are sort of cult indie. They tour the world and yet they\u2019re not a household name by any means- if I told my mum she\u2019d be like, \u2018Who are they? I\u2019ve never heard of them!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before leaving Introducing in 2010, the discovery of new bands had become a very different process to the early days, \u201cSocial media,\u201d Bethan recognises, \u201cproliferated everything to the extent of uncontrollability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recent BBC cuts have proposed a nationwide Introducing programme to replace the regional Welsh programme. \u201cI think it\u2019s an enormous shame,\u201d Bethan admits. \u201cBecause what was amazing about that programme in the first place was bringing it to where the bands are based; bringing it to where the people are based.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong>Playing Welsh songs on an English station<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s such a time of change with the cuts everybody\u2019s facing,\u201d says Bethan. \u201cI think sometimes cuts and shakeups can be really healthy because from the ashes of anything will come fresh ideas and a fresh start for somebody.\u201d However industry cuts are not just affecting undiscovered music programmes, but also those that broadcast in Welsh, the language Bethan grew up with and is fiercely passionate about.<\/p>\n<p>She remembers the other night at a gig where a support band was mocking Cardiff\u2019s bilingual road signs. \u201cI think it\u2019s easy to take the mick,\u201d says Bethan solemnly. \u201cBut all of those things give the language more status. People complain about it in Wales. If they don\u2019t speak Welsh they complain that all this money is wasted on the Welsh language and it\u2019s just disgusting,\u201d she shakes her head. \u201cIt disgusts me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bethan has supported the Welsh language through several media outlets. \u201cI\u2019m a very small pawn in a big chess board,\u201d she admits, \u201cYou know, I have no qualms at all about playing Welsh language records on an English station like Radio Wales. I\u2019ve played loads in the last couple of weeks, that\u2019s my way of supporting it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Expanding her World<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bethan is keeping herself busy. Her current show on Radio Wales will be revamped next year and she has recently been working with BBC 4 as a researcher for archive music documentaries. She has just finished a series called <em>New Power Generation<\/em> about black artists ranging from from Janet Jackson to Lionel Richie, \u201cIt\u2019s expanding my world,\u201d Bethan explains. \u201cTo go from doing 11 years of checking out new bands to suddenly learning about music in a new way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bethan is positive when reflecting on past experiences and future opportunities, \u201c11 years at Radio 1 came to an end but the opportunities I\u2019ve had and the stuff I\u2019ve done since amazed me. Sometimes you can not do something, not because you\u2019re afraid of the next step, but because you\u2019re holding on. I was definitely holding on to what I was doing because I loved it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This last year has been a year of big change for Bethan both professionally and personally, \u201cIn many ways,\u201d she smiles. \u201cI\u2019ve had the best year of my life to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radio DJ Bethan chats about her Welsh roots and new music A qualified journalist, radio presenter at BBC Wales and self-confessed workaholic, Bethan Elfyn has tried her hand at more or less every aspect of music. Fresh from her Spanish class at Cardiff University, and still undecided whether she will go to The Globe to watch Los Campesinos! later, Bethan comes across as warm and chatty in person as she does on the radio. \u00a0Early years and the Manics Growing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":4889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1121,1122,1123,1124,1125,744,1126,1127,1128,176],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-bbc-4","tag-bbc-cuts","tag-bethan-elfyn","tag-introducing-wales","tag-los-campesinos","tag-manic-street-preachers","tag-radio-1-introducing","tag-radio-wales","tag-the-globe","tag-welsh"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cardiff Character: Bethan Elfyn - alt.cardiff<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/altcardiff\/2011\/11\/11\/cardiff-character-bethan-elfyn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff Character: Bethan Elfyn - alt.cardiff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Radio DJ Bethan chats about her Welsh roots and new music A qualified journalist, radio presenter at BBC Wales and self-confessed workaholic, Bethan Elfyn has tried her hand at more or less every aspect of music. 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