I stumbled upon the BBC Swindon radio breakfast show one morning around a year ago as my car radio auto-tuned from BBC Wiltshire to the stronger signal when I approached the town. What I heard was one of the Swindon-based presenters referring to somewhere I know very well.

But instead of pronouncing the name of the village of Cherhill as though it was the Christian name of a lady called Cole, he said it as if it were two words, with the first being the ex-partner of the singer Sonny, and the second, hill.

That’s how much BBC Swindon appeared to know about a village barely 15 miles away, and I found myself looking forward to the same presenter making reference to some other places in Wiltshire, such as Mildenhall and Figheldean.

But towards the end of last year, BBC Wiltshire/Swindon was rationalised and the Swindon breakfast show was merged with its rural cousin, and that development lessened the likelihood that residents of those two villages would be phoning the station to explain the correct way to say Mynal and Filedean.

Then, a few weeks back I spotted a letter in the Adver from a Swindonian who used to work on Cheney Manor. As his name was the same as someone that I once knew when I also worked there, I did wonder whether I knew him.

Anyway, he was bemoaning the fact that now the two breakfast shows had merged, he was forced to listen to Wiltshire’s news and travel, rather than just that for Swindon.

And it was him I thought of as I suppressed a chuckle, as I visualised the puzzled look on Swindon listeners’ faces, as they were told that traffic was being inconvenienced by cows on the road at Winterbourne Gunner.

Due to cost cutting measures it may have been, but BBC Wiltshire appears to be doing their best to retain the relationship between Swindon and Wiltshire, and reminding each that they are two faces of the same coin.