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Marking the end of Radio 4 Long Wave from Droitwich in September 2026

Hugh Breidenbach

What programme will mark this closedown?

The BBC broadcasts Radio 4 on Long Wave from Droitwich Transmitting Station, which is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Plans for ending Long Wave broadcasts have been announced and postponed. Online sources suggest that a final date has been announced as September 2026.

I cannot find an authoritative source to confirm this.

  1. If you go in person to find a point of contact at Broadcasting House, you will merely get directed to a “WhatsApp” mailbox that is not monitored.

I am a volunteer for the IET Local Network Germany, where R4 LW has been a lifeline to ex-pats. I have also conducted a very basic experiment to measure radio reception in Berlin, with assistance and advice from amateur radio experts. This is detailed in the links below.

Nostalgia aside, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave has served UK business, culture, and defence, from maritime broadcasts to national contingency communication.  A programme to duly commemorate the closedown ought to be in the pipeline.  A number of people would like to contribute to it.

The professional engineering institution most closely linked with the BBC is the IET.  Can anyone recommend a BBC contact please?

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    Hugh Breidenbach said:
    Nostalgia aside, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave has served UK business, culture, and defence, from maritime broadcasts to national contingency communication.  A programme to duly commemorate the closedown ought to be in the pipeline.  A number of people would like to contribute to it.

    In that list of services needs to be included 'Radio Teleswitch' which was a form of early radio controlled smart metering system, it supported time of use tariffs and was able to automatically control loads like storage heaters, switching them to run during off-peak periods which could be adjusted dynamically to manage the load on the distribution networks, system as a whole and according to weather conditions.

    What is most impressive is this was being done 40 years ago in the 1980s, and here we are 40 years later and we're still struggling to put in place similar capabilities for dynamic control of new loads like EV charging and heat-pumps, yet it was being done with a fraction of the technology decades ago!

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  • 0
    Hugh Breidenbach said:
    Nostalgia aside, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave has served UK business, culture, and defence, from maritime broadcasts to national contingency communication.  A programme to duly commemorate the closedown ought to be in the pipeline.  A number of people would like to contribute to it.

    In that list of services needs to be included 'Radio Teleswitch' which was a form of early radio controlled smart metering system, it supported time of use tariffs and was able to automatically control loads like storage heaters, switching them to run during off-peak periods which could be adjusted dynamically to manage the load on the distribution networks, system as a whole and according to weather conditions.

    What is most impressive is this was being done 40 years ago in the 1980s, and here we are 40 years later and we're still struggling to put in place similar capabilities for dynamic control of new loads like EV charging and heat-pumps, yet it was being done with a fraction of the technology decades ago!

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