Media
In 2005 the area was granted its first radio station when Afan FM, the inspiration of a group of local young people headed by 19-year-old Craig Williams, was awarded a five-year licence by Ofcom to serve Port Talbot and neighbouring Neath. Afan FM transmitted on 107.9FM and online via its website. The station was based at a broadcasting centre housed within the AquaDome Leisure Complex on Aberavon Seafront but, following a December 2009 fire at the AquaDome, moved to Aberafan House, an office complex adjacent to the town's shopping centre. In late 2011 it was announced that Afan FM was to shut after an unexpected tax bill; it ceased live broadcasting at 2pm on 13 December 2011.
The area is also served by The Wave (96.4FM), Swansea Sound (1170MW), Nation 80s (102.1FM), Real Radio (106.0FM) and Nation Radio (107.3FM), all of which are available on DAB. Radio Phoenix also operates a 24 hour hospital radio service for the patients & staff of Neath Port Talbot Hospital in Baglan Moors.
The town is served by several newspapers. The Port Talbot Guardian was a weekly paper published by Media Wales, part of the Trinity Mirror group, but ceased publication in October 2009. The Swansea-based daily South Wales Evening Post and the weekly Courier and Tribune are also distributed in the town and are published by South West Wales Publications, part of the Northcliffe Media group.
The Port Talbot Magnet is a hyperlocal online website that publishes local news and events from the Neath and Port Talbot area.
Neath Port Talbot Council publish a quarterly newsletter entitled "Pride" - which is delivered to every home in the Neath Port Talbot area.
Cân i Gymru is usually filmed in Port Talbot. Also TV programmes such as Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures have filmed in this town.
Read more about this topic: Port Talbot
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity—much less dissent.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why—but the editorialists forget it—terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)