The Controllership of Radio 4 is undoubtedly one of the best jobs in broadcasting. After all who else could say of their job that “What I have to do is to put on the air, in the most enjoyable and brilliant way possible, the best that has been thought and said in the world”.

Those were the words of the present incumbent, Gwyneth Williams, who has been in the job for just over two and a half years. The job is well paid as well. Ms Williams’ total annual remuneration (as of June 2012) is £189,600. Of course if she did a comparable job in television she would earn more.

On the other, hand hers is a most demanding audience, which is not reluctant to remind Controllers that they are temporary custodians of Radio 4, and criticise the output of a network its members care for passionately.

The audiences remain high, there is no serious competitor in sight, and it must be tempting for Controllers to make a minimum of changes. After all, no BBC Director General wants demonstrations outside Broadcasting House from ever so polite but lethally determined members of the Radio 4 audience. Yet the network needs to evolve, not least because it needs to attract new, younger audiences.

Some Controllers have settled for a quiet life, perhaps because of what happened to their predecessors.

Michael Green, who held the job for ten years in the 80s and 90s summoned the courage to move Woman’s Hour from the afternoon to the morning, against the formidable opposition of the programme team and much of the audience. He was proved right, listener numbers increased, but the effort was exhausting.

His successor, James Boyle, nicknamed Mac Birt, made the largest number of schedule changes, and in a sort of “Big Bang”. He soon returned to Scotland somewhat bruised, though, in retrospect, his successors like Helen Boaden, now Director of Radio, acknowledge that he got a great deal right and made their jobs easier.

Gwyneth Williams seems to be an unlikely radical, always praising her existing programmes and warmly encouraging those who work for her, but she knows how to wield the knife. Arguably she has changed more than most, and done so while having to cut costs.

She extended the World at One to 45 minutes, in the process cancelling series like “The Choice”.

She also extended Saturday Live by half an hour, eliminating Excess Baggage.

Perhaps most obviously she has increased significantly the coverage of science and foreign affairs, and has now turned her attention to the arts.

Earlier this week she came into the Feedback studio to answer questions and criticism from some of her listeners, who talked directly to her about the coverage of Mrs Thatcher’s death and funeral service and many other issues.

Here is our discussion

Feedback is now off the air until June but please keep phoning, writing, emailing and tweeting. We read everything, and our agenda is whatever you want it to be.

May the sun shine upon you and your ears be filled with the joyous sounds of spring! Alternatively, do keep listening to the radio.

Roger Bolton

•Listen to this week's Feedback

•Get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback website

•Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts

Gillian Reynolds and Gwyn Williams at the Media Society organised event

I mentioned in Monday's round up of what the critics were saying about Radio 4's schedule change that the Telegraph's radio reviewer Gillian Reynolds would be meeting Radio 4's controller at an event to talk about her first year in the job.

Gillian Reynolds is a classy interviewer who knows what she's talking about and while charm might be her main means to getting an answer, she isn't shy in saying when she disagrees.

Gwyneth Williams talked about her previous role at the World Service and the importance of radio to her growing up in apartheid era South Africa: "We would listen to the radio to find out the truth."

Williams also revealed that previous controller of Radio 4 Mark Damazer still phones her up regularly - but not as much as he used to.

The interview was recorded and will be available as a video in the next day or two on the College of Journalism website (Ed's update: The video of the interview is on CoJo's YouTube channel.) You'll be able to see Gillian Reynolds expand on her view of what's wrong with TV news ("Picture first, sense last") and Gwyneth Williams on how she feels the Sunday night comedy slot is going.

In the meantime I'll leave you with Williams recalling one of the first letters she got from a listener welcoming her to the Radio 4 role:

"Dear Controller of Radio 4,
Now that the last controller has left (to, I hope, the innermost of Dante's circles of Hell) is there any chance of getting the UK theme back?"

Paul Murphy is the editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Gwyneth Williams is on Feedback this Friday (at the new time of 4.30pm) answering questions about the schedule change. (Ed's update: You can hear Gwyneth's piece on Feedback here)
• Watch the video of the interview on CoJo's YouTube channel
• Read Paul Prentice's report on this event for the Media Society

Editor's note - Feedback is back. And highlights of the first episode of the new series are a wide-ranging interview with Controller Gwyneth Williams and an encounter with Archers editor Vanessa Whitburn for two of her listeners - SB.

Hardly had Feedback gone off the air before Christmas then James Naughtie and Andrew Marr struggled to say "Jeremy Hunt the Culture Secretary" without lapsing into language more usually associated with Mellors, Lady Chatterley's lover. Trebles all round and the inevitable puns about Naughty Naughtie and Marred reporting.

Not much humour, intentional or otherwise in the first Feedback of the new run. Instead we travel with lovers of The Archers on their journey to Ambridge, still livid at the death of Nigel Pargetter and intent on resurrection or revenge. There is an emotional confrontation with Nigel's killer, Archers editor Vanessa Whitburn. Does she regret pushing him off the roof?

We also hear from the newish controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, who after four month in the job is now ready to announce some initial changes. Good news for fans of science and foreign affairs. Bad news for those of you who enjoy series like The Choice or On The Ropes.

Gwyneth's previous role was at the BBC World Service and I'll be talking to the director of the World Service, Peter Horrocks on next week's programme so if you have a question you want me to ask, do let me know.

So this week, there are two extracts from Feedback for you.

The first is that visit to Ambridge, the second the interview with Gwyneth Williams (by the way, rumours that she walks everywhere in bare feet as an economy measure are not true - in her office maybe but not in the Feedback studio when I interviewed her. And you'll be glad to know that biscuits and croissants she mentions in her blog post were not provided. Only water... from the tap.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• Gwyneth Williams blogged about her planned schedule changes earlier this week and Vanessa wrote about reactions to the 60th anniversary episode on the Archers blog.
• Finding pictures to illustrate blog posts about The Archers is getting harder. This one shows the visit of DJ John Peel and his producer John Walters to the programme in 1984. On the left is Graham Seed playing Nigel and on the right, Trevor Harrison as Eddie Grundy.

Since Feedback came off the air in late August, the BBC has rarely been out of the headlines. There was Radio 1's Chris Moyles complaining at considerable length that he hadn't been paid. Then the Chairman of the BBC Trust, who had old me in June that he wanted his contract extended, suddenly changed his mind and said he wanted out next spring.

And of course there have been the on/off strike threats of the BBC's attempt to cut the cost of its pension scheme which will take up around seven per cent of the licence fee if the last proposal is accepted by union members. Most important for Radio 4 listeners is the new occupant of the Controller's office. Mark Damazer has departed for Oxford University, taking with him his Boston Red Sox sweatshirt and all things Americana.

In has come Gwyneth Williams, born in South Africa, and with a continuing interest in the continent. Still casing the joint, her lips are sealed - for the moment. But those of our listeners are not and in Feedback this week they told Ms Williams what she should and should not do. First here is a brief profile of the new Controller.

Do let us know what you think Gwyneth Williams should have at the top of her agenda - even Feedback and its presenter if you want! If you really want.

Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback

• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Kate Taylor, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Read about Gwyneth Williams' first week in her new job here on the Radio 4 blog, Mark Damazer's final interview about his Radio 4 career and a post about a highly influential earlier controller.
• Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow @BBCFeedback.
• The picture shows a workman assembling the statue of Prospero and Arial on the facade of Broadcasting House in London in 1932.

So You and Yours is forty. Congratulations. The programme launched in October 1970 to give Radio 4 listeners advice five lunchtimes a week on 'everyday affairs from savings to sex, from holidays to health'. It swallowed-up older programmes such as Can I Help You, Listening Post, and You and Your Money. And although in the four decades since it's often been parodied mercilessly, it was quickly judged a success, adding to the network's listening figures and drawing praise for its down-to-earth manner.

You'll no doubt have noticed quite a few other series on Radio 4 celebrating their anniversary this year: PM, The World Tonight, Analysis. The coincidence might seem strange. After all, the network itself had been born out of the ashes of the BBC's Home Service not in 1970, but in 1967. Yet it was in 1970 that the really big programme changes came.

One man in particular lay behind it all. Radio 4's Controller at the time was the young and dynamic Tony Whitby (pictured), a former civil servant and television current affairs editor. Whitby had a reputation for shrewdly picking out the ideas of others and embellishing them by throwing out his own thoughts and suggestions. He'd no intention of creating a new schedule from scratch. But he wanted a more topical and a more varied flavour - to make Radio 4, in his words, like a 'well-labelled library that has a few surprises in it'. So, in 1970, along came the unashamedly serious Analysis and the magisterial World Tonight, the bright and breezy 'commuter magazine' PM Reports and a phone-in called It's Your Line, the satirical sketch-show Weekending, and, of course, You and Yours.

None of this happened without a good deal of grumbling from listeners and critics. Some thought there were too many magazine programmes. With their succession of disparate items, magazines seemed like an abandonment of quality - suspiciously tailor-made for a distracted, inattentive audience. They were, the Observer muttered, the 'great ragbags of our times': cheap, predictable, and banal.

This was a little unfair. Very different programmes were being lumped-together, then stereotyped crudely. Looking back at the schedule as a whole, what's most striking about Whitby's revolution of 1970 is how genuinely eclectic it made Radio 4, with programmes stretching across a suddenly wider spectrum, from the intellectually demanding or disturbing at one end to the faintly scurrilous or comforting at the other. The changes 40 years ago set Radio 4 on its long-term trajectory: away from the dusty tones of the somewhat middlebrow old Home Service, to the tougher, livelier, more authoritative, network we have today.

David Hendy is the author of Life on Air: a History of Radio Four. He teaches broadcasting history at the University of Westminster.

• You & Yours producer Clare Walker wrote about her visit to the archive here on the blog.
• Listen to Peter White's history of the programme on the Radio 4 web site.
• David Hendy's page on the University of Westminster web site.
• There's a fascinating audio slideshow about the changes to BBC Radio's branding that also happened in 1970 on this page from the History of the BBC site.
• The picture shows Radio 4 Controller Tony Whitby in 1970, alongside Broadcasting House, Radio 4's headquarters. It's from the BBC's archive.

"Unforgettable, that's what you are..." Mark Damazer's 'Inheritance Track' on last week's Saturday Live was characteristically charming and fluent, hinting at the warmth that makes him my friend as well as the highly successful Radio 4 controller that he has been for the last six years. He leaves the network in excellent shape with record audience figures. He is indeed a hard act to follow in a line of talented controllers including Helen Boaden who now runs News.

But I take heart because Radio 4, like all civilised institutions, belongs to no-one, is constantly evolving and drawing on the talents of all who contribute to it. It will thrive as long as we stay true to its history and add to its richness. I have been hugely sustained and cheered in my first week by programmes that have filled me with pleasure.

I have been in and out of Broadcasting House studios and I can honestly say that committed, creative and talented programme-makers are everywhere. And we all want for audiences what we have always wanted: more - to quote Matthew Arnold - of "the best that has been thought and said in the world"- and sometimes, let me add, a laugh. Lucky Radio 4 listeners and lucky me.

My Radio 4 aside of the week comes from auctioneer Alan Judd on Today describing some letters from Oscar Wilde: "journalists and auctioneers are very similar; we take a small story and try to make it big...".

I will try to keep you posted here on the blog as Mark has done and will look forward to reading your comments.

Gwyneth Williams is Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 7

Here it is. Mark Damazer's final interview as Radio 4 Controller.

Twenty minutes of fascinating discussion with Broadcasting House presenter Paddy O'Connell, touching on pressure from politicians and civil servants, on opening up Thought for the Day to secular voices and on not cancelling Woman's Hour - among many other issues. A really fascinating retrospective glimpse of life running Britain's most important radio station. And you'll learn Mark's favourite Radio 4 sound too (I bet it's not what you expect).

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

• The picture shows Mark and Paddy recording the interview in a Radio 4 studio on Tuesday.

I have known Gwyneth Williams for nearly 15 years - as a marvellous programme maker and editor and Head of Radio Current Affairs. She is full of flair - brimming with ideas of her own while encouraging others to bring their own best ideas to the table. She has an inherent elegance and a steely persistence.

It is a hugely potent combination. More or less her entire professional career has been in and around Radio 4. She knows the network, the programmes, the people and the audience. She has been in charge of some of the most important pieces of Radio 4 turf and she edited the Reith Lectures for many years.

I am sad to be going in many ways but know that Radio 4 will be not merely safe - but in dedicated and creative hands. Gwyn will do wonderful things and get others to do likewise. Hooray.

Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4

• Read the BBC's press release about the appointment on the press office web site.
• Gwyneth's profile on the BBC Press Office web site.
• The picture shows Mark catching up on his email at a recording of a Reith lecture at the Royal Society earlier this year. It's by Steve Bowbrick.

Over the past two months I've been searching for a new Controller for Radio 4 and Radio 7. This is no simple task; Radio 4 is a unique cultural institution with a passionate audience and incredibly talented staff. Leading it is a huge honour. As I wrote here at the start of the process, Mark Damazer - Radio 4's current Controller - has managed to sustain buoyant audiences without compromising the quality of programmes, so I am well aware of the importance of finding the right person to follow in the exceptional Mr Damazer's footsteps.

I saw some outstanding candidates during the recruitment process; brilliant leaders from a broad range of backgrounds, all with hugely impressive experience. This week we entered the final stage of the lengthy process and today we announced on Radio 4 that the successful candidate is Gwyneth Williams, until recently Director of BBC World Service English.

Gwyneth is an editorial leader of the highest calibre and a passionate supporter of Radio 4. She brings vast broadcasting experience, tremendous intelligence and a fresh perspective to the role. I was impressed by her creativity, enthusiasm and ideas for building the network's intellectual quality while maintaining its relevance.

This is one of the biggest jobs in broadcasting and I believe I have found the right person to succeed Mark Damazer. I look forward to working with her in building on Mark's success and leading Radio 4 to even greater things over coming years.

Tim Davie is Director of BBC Audio & Music

• Read the BBC's press release about the appointment on the press office web site.
• Gwyneth's profile on the BBC Press Office web site.

Mark Damazer, the Controller of Radio 4, does not hide his love for the new-found land across the ocean. His office on the fourth floor of BBC Broadcasting House is full of Americana, including a large framed Boston Red Sox shirt, and when I interviewed him for the latest edition of Feedback I thought I saw a portrait of George Washington in the corner.

I suppose it could have been a picture of Harry Redknapp, the manager of Tottenham Hotspur, the Red Sox's only rival in the sporting affections of the outgoing Controller, who is to become Head of St Peter's College Oxford in the Autumn, but Mr Rednapp, unlike the first President of the United States, does not have wooden teeth, or slaves for that matter.

Among the dreaming spires, in the Georgian elegance of the Head's Lodging, Mr Damazer will no doubt reflect on his six years in what he called "the best job in broadcasting by a 100 miles". How proud a record does he have? Most listeners seem to think he has done a pretty good job, certainly audiences are high, and there have been a large number of critical successes.

But some listeners wish he had been more restrained in his commissioning of all things American, some feel he overdosed on history in general, and others mourn the cutbacks in drama and the death of the Friday Play, attributable in part, they believe, to budget cuts. Then there is another termination for which he is undoubtedly responsible, that of the much loved UK theme.

On Thursday I talked to him about these concerns, and about the recent breakdowns in transmission, and the playing of the wrong recordings among other unfortunate presentation errors. I also asked him whether he and other radio bosses and their producers take seriously what their listeners think, as apologies by BBC representatives on Feedback are pretty rare.

Before we began he was keen to point out that he was far from being a lame duck Controller, that his successor will not be appointed for some weeks, and that he had a lot of major decisions still to take. He also agreed to come on the next series of Feedback to talk about some of his favourite Radio 4 programmes. Then he started to deal with his listeners' concerns.

By the way can I just add about the outgoing Controller that he has been a staunch supporter of Feedback, and has always been prepared to come and face the music. I hope his successor feels the same way.

• If you have any questions for the editor of the Archers please let us know. She will be coming on Feedback in the next couple of weeks.
• Listen again, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join Feedback's listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• A History of the World in 100 Objects returns to Radio 4 on 17 May at 0945.
• Mark wrote about his decision to cancel the Friday Play here on the blog in March and about Americana in April last year.

Editor's note: this post appeared on the About the BBC blog earlier today - SB

The advert for the job of Controller of Radio 4 is due to appear over the next few days. It's an important role - the network makes a significant contribution to the news agenda and cultural life of the nation. Like millions of listeners, Radio 4 has been part of my life for many years. When my family lived in the USA, one of my abiding memories is of evenings in deepest Connecticut listening via the internet to Today, the News Quiz or In Our Time. I realised that while I liked much of my US life, I would ultimately want to go home to the country where Radio 4 is a constant companion...

Read the rest of this post and leave a comment on the About the BBC blog.

Tim Davie is Director of Audio & Music at the BBC

• The picture, showing Radio 4's home in the West End of London, is by Joe Dunckley. Used under licence.