Changes to Radio 4

Effective 15th April, Radio 4 will no longer be available on medium wave. Medium wave listeners will need to retune their radio to Radio 4 on FM or DAB, or listen via smart speaker, BBC Sounds or digital television.

Radio 4 on longwave

Daily Service and the extended edition of Yesterday in Parliament are now available on BBC Radio 4 Extra on DAB, Digital TV and BBC Sounds, this change happend on the 1st April.

Upon its return, Test Match Special will continue uninterrupted on Radio 5 Sports Extra on DAB, Digital TV and BBC Sounds.

The Shipping Forecast will continue to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 twice a day (weekdays) and three times a day (weekends). This will be available on all platforms: FM, DAB, BBC Sounds, Digital TV.

The LW platform is owned and operated by a third party. It is coming to the end of its life as a technology, but dates have not yet been confirmed.

Radio 4 on medium wave

Effective 15th April, Radio 4 will no longer be available on medium wave. Medium wave listeners will need to retune their radio to Radio 4 on FM or DAB, or listen via smart speaker, BBC Sounds or digital television.

Teleswitching

Energy regulator Ofgem has set binding annual installation targets for electricity suppliers to roll out smart and advanced meters to their remaining non-smart customers. Radio teleswitches are being replaced as part of the smart meter rollout programme. To enable the programme to continue the life of the radio teleswitching system has been extended through to March 2025.

If you have any questions regarding Economy 7, Economy 10 storage heaters, moving to a smart meter, or Radio Teleswitch, please contact your energy supplier. You may also find information on the Energy Networks Association website helpful.

To confirm, the BBC do not own the RTS system, we simply transmit the signal using our transmitter. The BBC has a long-standing relationship with the Electricity Networks Association (ENA) to transmit Radio Tele-switching data on 198kHz alongside the BBC Radio 4 Longwave signal.

 

More information about the changes to Radio 4 can be found in this blog


Longwave radio on table