Keep Longwave

It was on 5th February 1924, at 9.30pm, that the iconic BBC ‘pips’ were broadcast for the first time. Serving as a time signal for 100 years, the six distinctive pips are still broadcast on flagship BBC stations BBC Radio 4 (formerly BBC Home Service) and BBC World Service at the top of each hour to this day. However, the pips remain an accurate time signal only on analogue broadcasts such as FM and longwave because of the considerable – and variable – delay on digital signals such as DAB radio and online streaming.

Live broadcasting is an important part of the BBC’s output, with around 50% of programmes on Radio 4 being transmitted live rather than pre-recorded. The BBC prides itself in providing up-to-date news coverage throughout the day across its radio networks, and in-depth reporting from sporting events such as Wimbledon tennis and Test Match cricket. It also produces world-class coverage of national events such as the King’s Coronation in 2023.

However, not all listeners will be aware that the reports they are hearing on supposedly ‘live’ BBC radio may not be live at all. Significant moments – from the scoring of a goal to the crowning of the King – will only be relayed to listeners on digital radio or online via BBC Sounds between 5 and 30 seconds after they actually occur. This is because of the time required to encode digital signals ready for transmission, and to decode them in digital radio receivers. BBC Sounds has an especially long lag; try listening ‘live’ to Sounds and to FM radio at the same time, and this becomes obvious.

In fact, the only way to get a truly immersive experience via television or radio – to witness events at the same time as people who are actually there – is to listen on FM, mediumwave or longwave radio. These analogue services do not require encoding, and are transmitted almost instantaneously. Thus, whilst listeners to Radio 5 Live on BBC Sounds will find out who wins Wimbledon around 30 seconds after the final match is over, only those tuned to 909 or 693 kHz MW will hear the result as it happens. The same thing applies to breaking news on Radio 4, which listeners can only hear genuinely live on FM or longwave.

To mark the anniversary of the pips, the BBC has commissioned a special programme, Do We Still Need the Pips?, to be broadcast at 9pm today, Monday 5th February, across Radio 4’s frequencies. Arguably, the time signal is meaningless on digital radio and online. To set your watch by it using those platforms would potentially put your timekeeping astray sufficiently to miss a train.

But the pips have been broadcast, faithfully and accurately, on longwave for nearly a century, since the BBC’s first longwave broadcasts in July 1924. Longwave incurs no delay and transmits to the entire country and beyond at the speed of light – it is genuinely live. Indeed, longwave is still used by thousands of people with ‘Economy 7’ heaters to control their central heating, so accurate and dependable is the signal nationwide. Longwave radio must be retained, not only for its huge historical importance, but also to continue to bring truly up-to-the-minute information to the nation, a critical piece of infrastructure in these uncertain times.

BBC Radio 4 Longwave really is a signal you can set your watch to. Please help us ensure that this vital service is retained for generations to come, and sign our petition to keep longwave today.

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Do we Need the Pips? is broadcast at 9pm on Monday 5th February on Radio 4 FM and 198 LW, or slightly after 9pm on digital radio and online.