The campaign to keep BBC Radio 4 on Longwave was launched in the summer of 2023 in response to the BBC’s announcement that it intended to cease longwave broadcasts. Although a date for a longwave switch-off has not yet been given, the BBC ceased separate programmes on Radio 4 Longwave and Radio 4 FM from the end of March 2024, in anticipation of the closure of the platform at some point thereafter. The reason given is that the transmitter is in need of maintenance which would be costly at a time of squeezed budgets. This is no way to treat a 90-year-old national treasure that has reliably provided The Shipping Forecast, Daily Service and Test Match Special amongst other programmes to multiple generations over the decades.
From June 2025, the RTS signal also carried by the longwave broadcast and used to control domestic heating systems will be phased out, leaving the future of the platform in doubt, though the BBC now suggests that it will carry out an ‘impact assessment’ before a decision is made.
Whilst it is for the BBC to decide whether to have different programmes on FM and LW, we believe that to switch off longwave entirely would be a grave mistake. Not only is longwave a key part of our broadcasting heritage, it also remains a critical piece of national infrastructure, carrying information across the UK and beyond via non-digital means that would prove invaluable during an internet shut-down or national disaster. Current tensions around the world show that now is not the time to be closing down reliable analogue broadcasts. Radio 4 Longwave is the BBC’s flagship output, and should be the last broadcast to go, not the first. We therefore call upon the BBC to reverse its decision, and maintain broadcasting on longwave for the foreseeable future.
Please sign our petition to help protect longwave.
Keep Longwave 