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'BBC Radio 4' is a UK domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It was created out of the old BBC Home Service in 1967.^[1]

Contents

Outline

History

Programmes and schedules

Daily Schedule

Production

Programmes

Continuity announcers and newsreaders

Frequencies and other means of reception

See also

References

External links

Outline

Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station after Radio 2 and was awarded "UK Radio Station of the Year" at the 2004 Sony Radio Academy Awards for the second year running.^[2] Costing £71.4 million (2005/6),^[3] it is the BBC's most expensive national radio network and is considered by some to be the corporation's flagship channel. There is no comparable UK commercial network.
The current controller of Radio 4 is Mark Damazer. The previous controller was Helen Boaden who is the current head of BBC News. The most famous — and controversial — controller in recent years was James Boyle.
Music and sport are the only fields that fall outside the station's remit. There are occasional concerts and ball-by-ball commentaries of most test matches played by England cricket are broadcast on longwave. Because the longwave service can be received clearly at sea in the vicinity of the British Isles, Radio 4 also carries regular weather forecasts for shipping and gale warnings.
The station is available on FM, LW, DAB, Digital TV (including Freeview), and on the Internet.

History

The BBC Home Service was predecessor to Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967. It had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced the Home Service on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its domestic radio stations.¹ It was temporarily replaced on FM between 17 January 1991 and 2 March 1991 with the continuous Gulf War news service.

Programmes and schedules

Daily Schedule

Radio 4 splits from the BBC World Service at 0520, with a brief introduction from the early shift continuity announcer. The five-minute ''Radio 4 UK Theme'' (composed by Fritz Spiegl) would follow but was dropped in April 2006 after 33 years in favour of an extension to the early news bulletin,^[4][5] despite some public opposition^[6] and a campaign to save it.^[7] After a continuity link and programme trail there is a shipping forecast, weather reports from coastal stations for 0400GMT and inshore waters forecasts, followed at 0530 by a news bulletin, a review of British and international newspapers, and a business report. On weekdays, ''Farming Today'', which deals with news of relevance to the agricultural sector, is followed by the ''Today'' programme which runs from 0600 to 0900. On or after the hour, a news bulletin is broadcast — this is sometimes a two minute summary, a longer piece as part of a current affairs programme, or a thirty minute broadcast on weekdays at 6pm and midnight.
At 1200, FM has a four minute bulletin whilst longwave has the headlines and then the ''Shipping Forecast''; for the same reason, longwave leaves ''the PM programme'' on weekdays at 1754.
There is a news programme or bulletin (depending on the day) at 2200, then the midnight news at 0000, followed by (on weekdays) a repeat of ''Book of the Week''. The tune ''Sailing By'' is then played until 0048, when the late shipping forecast is broadcast. Radio 4 ends with the national anthem, ''God Save the Queen'' and the World Service takes over from 0100 until 0520.
There is an online schedule page which lists the running-order of programmes.^[8]

Production

Many Radio 4 programmes are pre-recorded, although some programmes are transmitted live including daily programmes such as ''Today'', magazine programme ''Woman's Hour'', consumer affairs programme ''You and Yours'', and music, film, books, arts and culture programme ''Front Row''. Continuity is generally managed from BBC Broadcasting House whilst news bulletins (including the hourly summaries and longer programmes such as the ''Six O'Clock News'' and ''Midnight News'') and news programmes (such as ''Today'', ''The World at One'', ''PM'', etc.) are based at the BBC News Centre at Television Centre in White City. They moved there in 1998 when the News Centre was opened to house both radio and TV news.^[9] News is due to return to Broadcasting House in 2008.^[10]
The Greenwich Time Signal (known as 'the pips') is broadcast most hours, sometimes as part of a programme.

Programmes

Most programmes are available as streaming audio from Radio 4's ''listen again'' page for a week after broadcast, although; RealPlayer is required to listen.^[11] A smaller selection of programmes is also available as podcasts or downloadable audio files.^[12] The BBC has announced its intention to provide an online service provisionally called the BBC iPlayer which would let its license fee payers access a broader range of its audio and video.^[13]
Many comedy and drama programmes from the Radio 4 archives can now be heard on BBC 7.

Continuity announcers and newsreaders

Announcers link programmes, read trails for programmes and read the Shipping Forecast. Newsreaders read hourly summaries and longer bulletins.^[14][15]
'Senior Announcers'

★ Chris Aldridge

★ Harriet Cass
'Newsreaders / Continuity Announcers'

★ Alice Arnold

★ Carolyn Brown

★ Corrie Corfield

★ Charlotte Green

★ Annie McKie

★ Rory Morrison

★ Susan Rae

★ Neil Sleat
'Newsreaders (non-''Today'' programme) / Continuity Announcers'

★ Charles Carroll

★ David Miles

★ Vaughan Savidge

★ Kathy Clugston
'Newsreaders (non-''Today'' programme)'

★ Peter Donaldson

★ Brian Perkins
'Continuity Announcers'

★ Peter Jefferson

★ Jim Lee

★ Caroline Nicholls

★ Neil Nunes

★ Howard Philpot

★ Alan Smith

★ Zebedee 'Zeb' Soanes

★ Diana Speed
'Former staff'

★ David Anderson (left to senior management, but covered during the May '05 strike)

★ Andrew Crawford

★ Astley Jones (left 2006)

★ Pennie Latin (left 11/04)

★ Patrick Muirhead (left 9/04)

★ Laurie Macmillan (died 10/01)

★ Andy Rushton (Test Match Special announcer 1998 - June 2007)

★ Moira Stuart (left 1981 to TV)

★ Anna Hill (left ~2000)

★ Clive Roslin (left ~1990)

Frequencies and other means of reception

'Radio 4' is broadcast on:^[16]

★ 92-95 MHz FM

★
★ 95.8 MHz in central Scotland

★
★ 96 MHz in Greater Belfast^[17]

★
★ 103-104.5 MHz in parts of Wales and on 103.6 MHz in the Inverness area¹⁷

★ 198 kHz longwave

★ Medium wave in some areas:

★
★ 720 kHz in London and Northern Ireland

★ DAB

★
★ standard FM content

★
★ subsidiary LW content, where applicable

★ Freeview channel 704 (FM only)^[18]

★ the Internet^[19]

★ satellite

★
★ Radio 4 FM: Sky channel 0104^[20]

★
★ Radio 4 LW: Sky channel 0143²⁰

★ selected Cable television providers

★ cable television

★
★ NTL Digital Cable channel 910 in Ireland

See also

★ Radio 4 UK Theme

References

1. History of the BBC: 1960s
2. The Sony Radio Academy Awards: Winners 2004
3. BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006, page 106
4. Press release: New early morning schedule for Radio 4
5. UK Theme to be dropped by Radio 4
6. Today: The UK Theme
7. savetheradio4theme.co.uk
8. Radio 4 Daily Schedule page
9. BBC Annual Report and Accounts 1998-1999
10. New era for Broadcasting House
11. Radio 4: Listen Again
12. Radio 4 - Downloading and Podcasting
13. Press release: Speech given at the Edinburgh International Television Festival 2005
14. ''Being a newsreader'' by Harriet Cass
15. List of BBC Radio newsreaders
16. Ways of Listening to Radio 4
17. BBC analogue broadcast frequencies
18. BBC Radio 4 on Freeview
19. Radio 4 FM live
20. Free Channels on the Sky Digital Satellite Platform

External links

★ Last.FM: BBC Radio 4 group

★ BBC Radio 4 message boards

★ BBC Radio 4 at bbc.co.uk

★ BBC Radio 4 weekly newsletter

★ RadioListings episode guides

★ Index of Radio 4 programmes about usability and design