Keep AM Alive

The campaign to maintain our radio heritage

, ,

Tributes made to Longwave radio as BBC end-date approaches

Published by

t_thornes

on

Numerous tributes are being made to longwave radio in what could be the last week of BBC broadcasts on 198 kHz. The BBC has announced both online and during frequent interruptions to its longwave Radio 4 service that ‘this service is closing’ on 27th June. Users who rely on the service or simply enjoy its rich quality are eagerly making use of their longwave sets – some of which have been operational for decades – while they still can.

Today, the petition to keep Radio 4 Longwave – which now has 7,807 signatures – was sent to the BBC Director General with a last-minute plea for a change of heart. This is the second time the petition has been handed in; in June 2025 it was handed physically to the Director General’s Office, when it consisted of just over 5,000 signatures. The petition at its current stage is too lengthy to print sustainably.

A quick search for Radio 4 Longwave on Youtube reveals several informative videos about the history, qualities and impending closure of the channel. These include Mike Gardiner’s ‘Long Wave Challenge’ in which he records Radio 4 on Longwave on a different wireless every day, and Ringway Manchester’s informative summary of the story of longwave and its closure.

At this poignant time, I have made recordings of my own two favourite vintage longwave radios. Each recording lasts a little over five minutes, and features the ‘This Week in History’ programme broadcast on Radio 4 at 8.55 on a Friday evening, and the message announcing the closure of longwave at one minute to the hour. I hope that you enjoy these recordings of radios that have been receiving longwave since the 1930s, and still sound wonderful today. Many thanks to the late John Philips, former Droitwich engineer, who put the radios into good working order some years ago now.

The ‘Little Maestro’

The ‘Big Maestro’

Whilst vintage radios like these will still be able to receive Radio 5 on medium-wave in most areas, the closure of Radio 4 longwave will mark a major loss and be a great sadness to many, as well as removing a vital national landmark and link.

One of my fondest memories of longwave is listening to the long-running series Home Front on what I know affectionately as the ‘Big Maestro’ above on many Friday evenings between 2014 and 2018. Its warm glow and warm sound really brought the programme alive.

Please use the comments on this page to record your own memories of longwave if you would like to do so.

16 responses to “Tributes made to Longwave radio as BBC end-date approaches”

  1. Sue Avatar
    Sue

    I am pleased to receive Long Wave on the radio when I am abroad.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. inspiring26db9e4d72 Avatar
    inspiring26db9e4d72

    long live (wychbold) Droitwich long wave & transmitters

    Like

    Reply
  3. Francis Lawlor Avatar
    Francis Lawlor

    I will not forgive the BBC for this. It was always very received here in Dublin ,Ireland.

    Like

    Reply
  4. impossiblyd59bbb7e3a Avatar
    impossiblyd59bbb7e3a

    Don’t you just love the way in which valve radios operate! You switch on, and after those filaments heat up you slowly start to hear the station that you are tuned to. Also the rich tones, a function of the bassy frequency response of the audio amplifier. Lovely stuff Tobias! Unlike those pesky DAB radios, plopping and popping every time the signal drops below a finite threshold. You don’t get that on 198kHz! Also, is it me or is the audio on DAB radios and SMART speakers muffled?

    Like

    Reply
    1. Sam Avatar
      Sam

      it’s crap and the live broadcasting is delayed by up to 30 seconds and not live like the analogue feeds used to be in the past in fact I suspect they are using the digital feeds and rebroadcasting 5 live on 8t through AM you can often hear glitch breaks in the am feed. I am not happy in an emergency we need these am frequencies especially LW.

      Like

      Reply
  5. MR. CHRISTOPHER MATTISON. Avatar
    MR. CHRISTOPHER MATTISON.

    Its a shame that Long Wave radio frequency for Radio 4 is closing down for good. What about BBC Wold service that take over long wave frequency from midnight to the early hours of the next morning? Does it mean that there will be no more BBC World service also. Keep Long Wave radio frequencies going. Kind Regards, Christopher Mattison. 23rd June, 2026.

    Like

    Reply
  6. scrumptiouslyfree8c87f0d7ce Avatar
    scrumptiouslyfree8c87f0d7ce

    Living in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary, 1700 kms away from the transmitter) in central Europe I often listened BBC on long wave during winter evenings and nights in good quality. It was a surprise that Radios like Sony 2001D or 7600G could catch BBC4 even daytime in December or January. Those receivers, that are able to use their whip or an external antenna, have good reception regardless the time of the day, radios using their ferrite rod have good reception only nights. Until now I found the most sensitive LW radio with ferrite rod a Russian receiver, the famous, old VEF 206, followed by the Sonys.

    Like

    Reply
  7. freesensationallyf4de90c026 Avatar
    freesensationallyf4de90c026

    Having moved back to Europe from the US in 1964 to the Netherlands, listening to the wireless of both countries was an excellent way to catch up after an absence of seven years.

    To be able to catch up with the UK with the Light Programme and later the Home Service on Long Wave was excellent.

    Perhaps the current situation exists because of the funding model. UK citizens abroad do not necessarily have a TV licence, a Radio licence beong a thing of the past, and citizens of ther countries listening in for information, cultural, or leisure purposes have no means of providing continuous financial support.

    (To compare and contrast the introduction of “pirate radio”, considering the ‘need’ giving rise to it and how it was financed is outside these yerms of reference.)

    Like

    Reply
  8. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    There exists in central Worcestershire an opportunity to exploit a very rare weather event that only occurs when it is very hot and we get an easterly breeze. The effect is known as Restitutional Lift. As the sun drops behind the Malvern Hills, the lower atmosphere, now in shadow, cools rapidly, and air in the baking hot Severn Valley, rises, creating an updraft, extending miles in front of the hills. Many hang glider and paraglider pilots catch this rare event only once or twice in a flying career.

    Last Sunday evening (21st June) a plot began to hatch between a few hang glider pilots intending to fly this “Magic Lift” late on Monday evening. It being midsummer, I was in no hurry to get to Malvern with my hang glider, and tuned into the PM programme on Radio 4 198 Longwave using my (soon to be dead) 1970s Roberts Rambler. Reception was AWFUL. As Radio 4LW struggled to be heard through a cloud of cracks and bangs, I quickly realised I was listening to a nearby and growing thunderstorm. This prompted me to re-check the weather forecast online. It had changed dramatically, and none of us had noticed! I quickly posted a message, and those pilots already on their way turned back, and those getting ready abandoned the evenings flying.

    It’s rather an irony that in it’s very last week on air, Radio 4LW has broadcast a completely unintentional weather safety warning, noticed and acted upon by aviators; not seafarers. Complete disaster was avoided… and it wasn’t because of what will soon become the rather lame Shipping Forecast.

    Thanks Radio 4 198LW.

    Hang gliding and paragliding on the Malverns will continue for ever, but what about my old Roberts Rambler? Maybe there is something we can do after next Saturday to get that LW button working again. Now wouldn’t that be fun. I somehow doubt 1:00am this Saturday will really be the very end of longwave in the UK.

    Like

    Reply
    1. t_thornes Avatar
      t_thornes

      Thank you for this interesting and encouraging comment. I’ve lived in central Worcestershire all my life but didn’t realise the unusual conditions here in hot weather that constitute a ‘magic lift’ – thanks for sharing. And I’m glad that Radio 4 LW helped to avert disaster – not for the first time I’m sure.

      Like

      Reply
  9. jovial41a5d83dc2 Avatar
    jovial41a5d83dc2

    This is going to be a very sad Saturday; I watched Ringway Manchester’s video and so many of the comments are in support of LW (as well as broadcast media in general). The closure of BBC Radio 4 on Long wave is a big mistake; especially considering the nature of the world at the moment.

    On a lighter note; I’m planning to livestream the closure YouTube with  my trusty Sony ICF-780L table radio tuned into 198KHz LW!

    Here is a link to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCElyGTiQVtQO14qWKbxgtRg

    SquiddyGaming 🦑

    Twitter: http://twitter.com/Squidygame

    Website: http://151.244.232.25/

    Like

    Reply
  10. Varyar Avatar
    Varyar

    It’s incredible that they don’t get that they will be just invisible. On the Internet they have tens of thousands of competitors. Why should I look for BBC radio? On the other hand, LW/MW/SW are not very crowded today, but it’s still funny and technically interesting to scan those bands, and it will be sad that 198Khz will be silent starting from next week.

    Like

    Reply
    1. enthusiastically437b67b744 Avatar
      enthusiastically437b67b744

      My fond memory of Long wave was back in the mid seventies, i was just a teenager then and every Sunday evening between six and seven pm, 200 khz as it was then, became radio 1 for just one hour when Tom Brown counted down the top twenty singles chart, then at seven pm, the channel would return back to radio 2, until November 1978 when it became radio 4, i never bothered after that, instead I’d always scan the whole long wave band, listening to music on all those foreign stations.

      Like

      Reply
  11. impossiblyd59bbb7e3a Avatar
    impossiblyd59bbb7e3a

    I have just listened to the Media Show, on Radio 4. The episode, this week, had a five minute segment at the tail end of the program that attempted to pay homage to BBC long wave broadcasting.

    The program was attempting, I think, to put the blame for the demise of broadcasting on 198kHz on the third party who operate the transmitters. The argument being that the transmitting equipment was in need of serious overhaul / replacement.

    I thought the presenters hit the nail on the head when they asked about what happens to communicating trans UK in the event of an “Armageddon” scenario. I thought that the engineer they were interviewing (a “long wave specialist”) did not fully address the question. It is the same question that I have asked my MP, the BBC and others. Come “Armageddon” there will be no internet, so your Smart speaker will be as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

    Surely the powers that be should be thinking about what to do in the case of a national emergency. Stand alone Long wave radios are super simple to design and manufacture. Two integrated circuits, the TA7642 and LM386, together with a few other components would do the trick. So the argument that, “there aren’t many Long wave radios about these days” can be easily mitigated. The monies required to update the transmitting equipment should be addressed at a national security level, and funded accordingly.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. t_thornes Avatar
      t_thornes

      Thank you for your comment. I too listened to this segment (on longwave!) and I quite agree with your sentiments. Longwave radios aren’t all that uncommon and the importance of this signal should not be underestimated.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  12. Adrian Avatar
    Adrian

    I listened to the close down of Radio 4 LW on an old Roberts radio, in a tent, in a field in Essex. The static crashes from thunderstorms added to the atmosphere of this poignant moment. The next evening I tuned into the England v Panama world cup match on AM. The match was being broadcast ‘LIVE’ on the TV in the camp site clubhouse. I heard when the 1st goal was scored on the radio and about 60+ seconds later the people watching the game in a clubhouse cheered. During the delay I wondered if all the England supporters had given up and gone to bed.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

Previous Post
Next Post